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Sandra McNally

University of Surrey, and LSE, UK, and IZA, Germany

I’m very happy to contribute to the IZA World of Labor series on a subject of much interest to me and hope it will be useful to anyone interested on evidence about the effects of providing careers information to young people

IZA World of Labor role

Author

Current position

Professor of Economics, School of Economics, Faculty of Business, Economics and Law, University of Surrey (April 2012–); Director of the Education and Skills Programme, Centre for Economic Performance, London School of Economics (October 2007–)

Research interest

Economics of education

Website

http://www.surrey.ac.uk/economics/people/sandra_mcnally/

Positions/functions as a policy advisor

Academic Advisory Board for the Vocational Directorate, Department for Education, UK

Past positions

Senior Research Fellow, Centre for Economic Performance, London School of Economics (October 2009–March 2012); Deputy Director, Centre for the Economics of Education (January 2005–December 2009); Research Fellow, Centre for Economic Performance, London School of Economics (December 2004–)

Qualifications

PhD Economics, University College London, 2003

Selected publications

  • “Student awareness of costs and benefits of educational decisions: Effects of an information campaign.” Journal of Human Capital 10:4 (2016) (with M. McGuigan and G. Wyness).

  • “Universal pre-school education: The case of public funding with private provision.” Economic Journal 126:592 (2016): 682–723 (with J. Blanden, E. Del Bono, and B. Rabe).

  • “Non-native speakers of English in the classroom: What are the effects on pupil performance?” Economic Journal 123:570 (2013): F281–F307 (with C. Geay and S. Telhaj).

  • “The effect of tracking students by ability into different schools: A natural experiment.” Journal of Human Resource 47:3 (2012): 684–672 (with N. Guyon and E. Maurin).

  • “The literacy hour.” Journal of Public Economics 92 (2008): 1141–1462 (with S. Machin).

article(s)

  • How important is career information and advice?

    Students’ decisions about their education can be, but are not always, improved by providing them with more information

    Sandra McNally, December 2016
    The quantity and quality of educational investment matter for labor market outcomes such as earnings and employment. Yet, not everyone knows this, and navigating the education system can be extremely complex both for students and their parents. A growing economic literature has begun to test whether interventions designed to improve information about the costs and benefits of education and application processes have an effect on students’ behavior. So far, findings have been mixed, although the positive findings arising from some very carefully targeted interventions give cause for hope.
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