This article uses variation in unemployment caused by the 2008 UK recession to analyse socio-economic gaps in graduate outcomes. Our data come from a survey that collects information on several cohorts of students from all English universities and reports their destinations at 6 months after graduation. The results show that, when graduating in a recession, students from less advantaged family backgrounds are more likely to become unemployed, to work part-time, and to earn less than students from more advantaged families. There is evidence that professional networks established while at university are important in explaining some of these socio-economic gaps in outcomes.

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Early development of non-cognitive skills has long-lasting benefits for children's subsequent educational attainment and wages. Drawing on a rich, nationally representative longitudinal sample of young children in Ireland, we present new evidence on whether the use of centre-based childcare (CBC) in infancy and early years promotes non-cognitive skills by school entry. We focus on the type of non-parental childcare used by mothers who are working when their child is 9 months old, comparing CBC with other forms of non-parental care. We consider the impact of childcare type on three domains of socio-emotional skills: externalizing, internalizing and prosocial behaviours. We find negative effects of CBC on both externalizing and prosocial behaviours. With a cumulative value-added model, we estimate that CBC at age 3 worsens externalizing behaviour at age 5 by 0.11 standard deviations compared to other forms of non-parental care, equivalent to 44% of the difference in externalizing behaviour between children with a mother with/without tertiary education. The effect of CBC on the externalizing dimension of socio-emotional skills of children entering school is consistent across several specifications and robustness checks. Given planned expansion of CBC for those needing subsidized provision, we conclude that such measures could exacerbate socio-emotional inequalities.This paper is part of the Economica 100 Series. Economica, the LSE "house journal" is now 100 years old. To commemorate this achievement, we are publishing 100 papers by former students, as well as current and former faculty.

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This paper shows that students are less likely to specialize in mathematics when exposed to a high share of male peers. I exploit a curricular reform that incentivized students to obtain a mathematics qualication post-16. I show that, for those students aected by the reform, the higher the share of same-gender classmates, the higher the likelihood of obtaining a mathematics qualication for boys, and the lower the likelihood for girls. I interpret this as suggestive evidence that one's perceived ability in mathematics, a boydominated subject, decreases when the share of male classmates increases. This further aects STEM participation in higher education.