register
Anna Vignoles

Leverhulme Trust, UK, and IZA, Germany

I think it is important to be involved in IZA World of Labor because it is a great way to communicate key research findings to policymakers

IZA World of Labor role

Author

Current position

Director of the Leverhulme Trust, UK

Research interest

Economics of education, equity in education, economic value of education, widening participation in higher education, quantitative methods

Website

https://www.csap.cam.ac.uk/network/anna-vignoles/

Positions/functions as a policy advisor

Economist member of the NHS Pay Review Body; Member of the ESRC Peer Review College and the ESRC Research Committee; Advised a range of UK government departments, including the Department for Education, the Department of Business, Innovation and Skills, and HM Treasury. Advised Browne Review of Higher Education, the House of Commons Education and Skills Committee investigation of higher education funding, the House of Lords Economic Affairs Select Committee, as part of their inquiry into education and training opportunities for young people, and Lord Leitch’s Review of Skills

Past positions

Professor of Education, University of Cambridge, UK (–2021); Professor in Economics of Education, Institute of Education, UK (2003–2012)

Qualifications

PhD Economics, University of Newcastle upon Tyne, 1998

Selected publications

  • “What parents want: School preferences and school choice.” The Economic Journal 125:587 (2015): 1262–1289 (with S. Burgess, E. Greaves, and D. Wilson).

  • “The socio‐economic gradient in children’s reading skills and the role of genetics.” British Educational Research Journal 41:1 (2015): 6–29 (with J. Jerrim, R. Lingam, and A. Friend).

  • “Parental choice of primary school in England: What types of school do different types of family really have available to them?” Policy Studies 32:5 (2011): 531–547 (S. Burgess, E. Greaves, and D. Wilson).

  • “The value of basic skills in the British labour market.” Oxford Economic Papers 10 (2010): 1093 (A. De Coulon, and O. Marcenaro-Gutierrez).

  • “Economics of education.” In: Arthur, J., and A. Peterson (eds). The Routledge Companion to Education. Abingdon: Routledge, 2011.

article(s)

  • What is the economic value of literacy and numeracy? Updated

    Basic skills in literacy and numeracy are essential for success in the labor market

    Gemma CherryAnna Vignoles, October 2020
    Even in OECD countries, where an increasing proportion of the workforce has a university degree, the value of basic skills in literacy and numeracy remains high. Indeed, in some countries the return for such skills, in the form of higher wages, is sufficiently large to suggest that they are in high demand and that there is a relative scarcity. Policymakers need robust evidence in order to devise interventions that genuinely improve basic skills, not just of new school leavers entering the market, but also of the existing workforce. This would lead to significant improvements in the population that achieves a minimum level of literacy and numeracy.
    MoreLess