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This paper investigates the relationship between school size and the exam performance of school pupils in their final year of compulsory education. Previous studies of this relationship have been seriously constrained by lack of appropriate data, but the publication of the School Performance Tables for all publicly‐funded schools in England since 1992 permits the construction and testing of a multivariate model which includes school size as one of the explanatory variables. After controlling for factors such as type of school, teaching inputs and eligibility for free school meals, the partial effects of school size on exam performance are estimated. The primary result is that there is a non‐linear relationship (in the form of an inverted‐U) between school size that maximizes the exam performance of schools is estimated to be about 1,200 for 11–16 schools and 1,500 for 11–18 schools. These estimates are considerably higher than the current mean size of schools.

Britain's education system was radically transformed during the 1990s following the Education Reform Act (1988). The primary objective of these reforms was to raise educational standards through the creation of a quasi-market based upon greater parental choice and the transfer of control over resources from local education authorities to schools. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effects of the quasi-market on efficiency and equity in the secondary education sector in England during the 1990s. Two primary questions are addressed. Has the quasi-market led to an improvement in efficiency in the secondary education sector? Has the quasi-market had any adverse consequences on the social segregation of pupils between schools? Using data obtained from the Schools' Census and the School Performance Tables, we find strong evidence that the quasi-market has led to a substantial improvement in efficiency (as measured by a school's exam performance and by the productivity of staff) during the 1990s. The same market forces have led to a greater social segregation of pupils between schools.

Despite the significant role played by serial entrepreneurs in the entrepreneurial process, we know little about group differences in reentry decisions after business failure. Using an ecosystems framework and stigma theory, we investigate the variance in gender gaps related to the reentry decisions of 8,171 entrepreneurs from 35 countries who experienced business failures. We find evidence of persisting gender gaps that vary across ecosystem framework conditions of public stigma of business failure and public fear of business failure. Our findings shed new light on ecosystem inefficiencies that arise from multiple interactions between entrepreneurs and institutions.

This paper analyses the choices made by school leavers and the demand for training in the youth labour market. Using a large cross-section database on all school leavers in Lancashire in 1991, we model, using a multinomial logit, their first destination six months after the end of compulsory schooling. We model six choices͞outcomes: non-vocational continuing education, vocational continuing education, youth training, employment with on-the-job training, employment with general-skills training, and unemployment.Our results show that the first destination from school is affected by a range of individual, school and local labour market variables. In addition to academic ability, we report three effects that are not well known: a young person is more likely to leave school the bigger the school, the lower its academic performance, and the lower his or her expected lifetime earnings. Our results might be interpreted as evidence of a segmented youth labour market. It is also inappropriate to model the decision to stay on in continuing education as a simple binary choice.

We utilise a unique matched teacher-school data set of absenteeism records to quantify the impact of group interaction on the absence behavior of primary and secondary teachers. To address problems of identification our study focuses on teachers who move between schools. The estimates for movers suggest that absenteeism is influenced by prevailing group absence behaviour at the school. Our finding suggests that a worker takes one more day of absenteeism if their average coworker takes 12 more days or 8 more days absenteeism per quarter for primary school and secondary school teachers, respectively. We interpret this as evidence that worker shirking is influenced by workplace absence norms.

SUMMARY This paper investigates spatial disparities in unemployment in three Member States of the EU. It attempts to identify the factors responsible for the persistence of regional unemployment disparities in Germany, Italy and the UK during 1984‐94. The empirical results indicate that a substantial proportion of the variation in unemployment rates between NUTS2 level regions can be explained by regional disparities in three key variables: unit labour costs, the industry mix and employment density. The findings are consistent with the view that regional unemployment disparities are explained primarily by regional disparities in economic competitiveness. ZUSAMMENFASSUNO Dieser Artikel untersucht die räumlichen Unterschiede in der Höhe der Arbeitslosigkeit in drei Mitgliedsstaaten der EU. Er basiert auf dem Versuch, die Faktoren zu bestimmen, die im Zeitraum zwischen 1984 und 1994 für die Persistenz von regionalen Unterschieden der Höhe der Arbeitslosigkeit in Deutschland, Italien und Grossbritannien verantwortlich waren. Die empirischen Ergeb‐nisse zeigen, dass ein wesentlicher Teil der Unterschiede in der Höhe der Arbeitslosigkeit zwischen NUTS2 Regionen durch eine regional unterschiedliche Ausprägung von drei wichtigen Variablen erklärt werden kann: Lohnstückkosten, Wirtschaftsstruktur und Zahl der Arbeitsplätze pro Quadratkilometer. Die Ergebnisse bestätigen die Ansicht, dass die regional unterschiedlich hohe Arbeitslosigkeit hauptsächlich durch Unterschiede der regionalen Wettbewerbsfähigkeit zu cr‐klüren ist. RÉSUMÉ Ce document examine les disparités géographiques du chǒmage dans trois États membres de l'Union Européenne. Nous essayerons d'identifier les facteurs responsables de la persistance des disparités en chǒmage régional en Ailemagne, en Italie el au Royaume‐Uni pendant la période 1984‐94. Les résultats empiriques indiquent qu'une proportion importante de la variation du taux de chǒmage entre les régions de la catégorie NUTS2 peut s'expliquer par des disparités régionales en trois variables prépondérantes: le coǔt unitaire d'emploi, la structure industrielle et la densité d'emploi. Les résultats coïncident avec l'avis que les disparités du chǒmage régional s'expliquent surtout par les disparités régionales en compétitivitééconomique.