Professor Lorraine Dearden

  • Qualifications and position:
    • BEc(Hons), LLB, MSc, PhD, AcSS.
    • Centre Director, ADMIN Node
      Professor of Economics and Social Statistics
    • Research Fellow, Institute of Fiscal Studies
  • Faculty:
    • Faculty of Policy and Society
  • Department:
    • Department of Quantitative Social Science
  • Summary:
    • Lorraine's background is in economics and she is a quantitative educational researcher specialising in evaluation methods and linked administrative and survey data. Her policy focus is on measuring school effectiveness; and the determinants and effects of home environment, education policy and skills formation on child and adult outcomes.
  • Teaching:
    • Module Leader: "Evaluation Methods and Economic Appraisal" for the MSc in Policy Analysis and Evaluation
  • Research Projects:
    • • Centre Director, ADMIN (Administrative Data: Methods, Inference and Network) Node, funded by ESRC National Centre for Research Methods (NCRM), July 2008 - June 2011 (RES-576-25-0014).
      • 'Impact of the HE funding reforms on participation and the socio-economic mix of HE students' (CEE Project).
      • 'JRF project – The impact of socio-economic background and the Home Learning Environment on Child Cognitive and Non-cognitive Outcomes' (with Kathy Sylva, Luke Sibieta and Sofi Barreau).
      • 'Ethnic Inequality in Child Outcomes: Evidence from the MCS' (with Kathy Sylva, Luke Sibieta and Sofi Barreau – MCS Book Chapter).
      • 'Impact of Child Month of Birth on Mother's Work' (with Mike Brewer and Claire Crawford for the Department for Work and Pensions).
      • 'ESRC: Bilateral Australia: What are the determinants and effects of school choice? An international comparison between Australia and the UK', Principal Investigator, September 2009 - February 2011 (with Richard Blundell (UCL and IFS), Stephen Machin (UCL and LSE), Luke Sibieta (IFS); and Chris Ryan (Australian National University), Deborah Cobb-Clark (Australian National University) (RES-000-22-2524).
  • Postgraduate Research:
    • Methodological Research Interests
      • Linked administrative and survey data.
      • Evaluation methods (experimental and non-experimental).
      • Evaluation of education policies; Quantitative social research; Methodological issues associated with using administrative data.
      • Linking survey and administrative data: methodological issues and policy implications.
      Policy Research Interests
      • Measuring school effectiveness.
      • The impact of the home learning environment on child outcomes.
      • Ethnic inequalities in child and adult outcomes.
      • Impact of month of birth on child and adult outcomes.
      • Impact of nursery education and schooling on child and adult outcomes.
      Higher Education Funding Issues
      • Measuring the effectiveness of schools.
      • Further education and higher education.
      • The determinants and effects of cognitive and non-cognitive skill acquisition; • returns to education and training.
  • Professional Activities:
    • • Referee for American Economic Review, The Economic Journal, Economica, Review of Economic Studies, Journal of the European Economic Associate, Fiscal Studies, International Tax and Public Finance, Journal of Labor Economics, Journal of Population Economics, Labour Economics, Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Oxford Economic Papers, World Bank Economic Review, Education Economics, British Journal of Sociology.
      • IZA Fellow, since December 2008.
      • IFS Research Fellow, since September 2007.
      • Member of the ESRC Teaching and Learning Research Programme Steering Committee, since 2005.
      • Elected Member of the Royal Economic Society's Committee for Women in Economics, since 2001.
  • Conferences/presentations:
    • 'Administrative Data and Economic Policy Evaluation', Keynote Address, Australian Economics' Society Conference, Adelaide, September 2009.
      'Education Subsides and School Drop-out Rates', Australian Economics' Society Conference, Hobart, September 2007.
      'When should August born children start school?', Australian Economics' Society Conference, Hobart, September 2007.
      'When should August born children start school?', Royal Economics Society Conference, Warwick University, 11th-13th April 2007.
  • Personal Country Knowledge:
    • Expert on UK and Australian Education and Higher Education systems.
      Have dual UK and Australian nationality.
      Worked for Australian Education Department (Department of Employment, Education and Training) between 1986 and 1995.
  • Languages Spoken:
    • German (basic)
  • Languages Written:
    • German (basic)
  • Research Students:
    • Gill Wyness, "The implications of different HE funding models in the UK", November 2006-July 2009.
Professor Lorraine Dearden

Contact details

Contact details

  • Email:

  • Address:
  • Department of Quantitative Social Science
    Institute of Education University of London
    20 Bedford Way
    London
    WC1H 0AL

  • Office Location:
  • Room 101
    55-59 Gordon Square, WC1H 0NU

Publications

  • Dearden, L. and Sibieta, L. (2010) 'Ethnic Inequalities in Child Outcomes.' In K. Hansen, H. Joshi and S. Dex, Children of the 21st Century: The first five years. The Policy Press, University of Bristol.
  • Dearden, L., Emmerson, C., Frayne, C. and Meghir, C. (2009) 'Conditional Cash Transfers and School Dropout Rates', Journal of Human Resources. Vol. 44, 4, pp. 827-857.
  • Dearden, L., Machin, S. and Vignoles, A. (2009) 'Economics of Education Research: A review and future prospects', Oxford Review of Education. Vol. 35, 5, pp. 617 - 632.
  • Dearden, L., Fitzsimons, E., Goodman, A. and Kaplan, G. (2008) 'Higher Education Funding Policy', Economic Journal. February, Vol. 118, F100—F125.
  • Dearden, L., Crawford, C. and Meghir, C. (2007) When you are born matters: the impact of date of birth on child cognitive outcomes in England. IFS Commentary.
    Further information
  • Dearden, L., Reed, H. and Van Reenen, J. (2006) 'The impact of training on productivity and wages: Evidence from British panel data', Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics. Vol. 68, 4, pp. 397-422.
  • Blundell, R., Dearden, L. and Sianesi, B. (2005) 'Evaluating the impact of education on earnings: Models, methods and results from the NCDS', Journal of the Royal Statistical Society. Series A, Vol. 168, 3, pp. 473-512.
  • Blundell, R., Dearden, L. and Sianesi, B. (2005) 'Measuring the Returns to Education.' In L. Dearden, Whats the Good of Education? The economics of education in the UK. Princeton University Press: Princeton and Oxford.
  • Dearden, L., Ferri, J. and Meghir, C. (2002) 'The effect of school quality on educational attainment and wages', Review of Economics and Statistics. February, Vol. 84, 1, pp. 1-20.
  • Dearden, L (1999) 'The effects of families and ability on men's education and earnings in Britain', Labour Economics. Vol. 6, pp. 551-567.
  • Dearden, L., Machin, S. and Reed, H. (1997) 'Intergenerational Mobility in Britain', Economic Journal vol. 107, 47-66.
  • See a full list of publications by Lorraine Dearden