Jo Blanden

More Information

• Research Interests
• Journal Articles
• Book Chapters
• Discussion Papers
• My Curriculum Vitae

Jo Blanden graduated from the University of East Anglia in 1998, she then studied for a Masters degree in Economics at University College London. From 2000 to 2005 she was a full-time researcher in the Centre for Economic Performance (CEP) at the London School of Economics and completed her PhD at UCL over this time. She joined the Department of Economics at Surrey in October 2005 but remains a research associate at the CEP. She also has strong links with Centre for Market and Public Organisation at the University of Bristol and the Norwegian School of Economics and Business Administration.

Research interests

Jo’s research interests lie broadly in the fields of labour and family economics. Jo’s PhD was on the topic of intergenerational income mobility. Her work with Paul Gregg and Steve Machin on ‘Changes in Intergenerational Mobility in Britain’ found that the relationship between family income and children’s adult earnings has strengthened for those born in 1970 compared to those born in 1958; this finding has attracted a large amount of policy and media interest. Since completing her PhD Jo has investigated the impact of child poverty on future life chances in projects funded by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation and the Department for Work and Pensions.

Jo has also published work on UK industrial relations. She is engaged in several projects that use Norwegian data to take an economic approach to marriage and seek to understand the factors that influence who marries who.

Jo has commented on her work on radio and television, recently appearing on BBC Radio 4’s "Analysis" programme (9th November 2006). Her recent study of intergenerational mobility (with Steve Machin) for the Sutton Trust was featured on BBC Radio 4's "Today", on the BBC's "Breakfast" programme and in a number of national newspapers.

Journal articles

• "Recent Changes in Intergenerational Mobility in Britain", Report for the Sutton Trust, December 2007 (with S. Machin).
• "Accounting for Intergenerational Persistence", Economic Journal, 117(519), C43-C60, 2007 (with P. Gregg & L. Macmillan).
• ‘Have Unions Turned a Corner? New Evidence on Recent Trends in Union Recognition in UK Firms’ with Stephen Machin and John Van Reenen. British Journal of Industrial Relations, June 2006, Vol. 44, pp. 169-190.
• ‘Family Income and Educational Attainment: A Review of Approaches and Evidence for Britain’ with Paul Gregg. Oxford Review of Economic Policy Special Issue on Education, Volume 20, Summer 2004, pp. 245-263.
• ‘Inequality in the Expansion of Higher Education’ with Stephen Machin. Scottish Journal of Political Economy Special Issue on Education, May 2004, Volume 51, pp. 230-249.
• ‘Cross-Generation Correlations of Union Membership’ with Stephen Machin. British Journal of Industrial Relations, September 2003, Volume 41 pp. 391-417.

Book chapters

• "Intergenerational Income Mobility in a Comparative Perspective" in P. Dolton , R. Apslund & E. Barth (eds.), Education and Inequality Across Europe, Edward Edgar, Forthcoming.
• "Expansion, Efficiency and Social Inclusion: Are New Labour’s Aims Compatible?’ with Emla Fitzsimons in Moti Gokulsing (ed.), A different future: the new shape of University education in England, Edwin Mellen, 2007.
• "Poverty as an intergenerational phenomenon: bucking the trend" in Simon Griffiths (ed), The Politics of Aspiriation, Social Market Foundation, 2007.
• ‘Educational Inequality and Intergenerational Mobility’ with Paul Gregg and Stephen Machin in Stephen Machin and Anna Vignoles (eds.) What’s the Good of Education? The Economics of Education in the UK, Princeton University Press, 2005.
• ‘Changes in Intergenerational Mobility in Britain’ with Alissa Goodman, Paul Gregg and Stephen Machin. in Miles Corak (ed.) Generational Income Inequality, Cambridge University Press, 2004.

Discussion papers

• ‘Accounting for Intergenerational Income Persistence: Noncognitive Skills, Ability and Education’ with Paul Gregg and Lindsey Macmillan, Centre for the Economics of Education Discussion Paper No. 73, September 2006.
• ‘Love and Money: Intergenerational Mobility and Marital Matching in Canada’ Statistics Canada Analytical Branch Research Paper No. 272, December 2005.