This project will investigate young people's transitions from full education into the labour market and the sensitivity of these decisions to changes in wages, including changes to the national minimum wage (NMW) regime. It comprises four stages:

• In 2008-09, the UK experienced its longest and deepest recession since WW2. We will use Labour Force Survey (LFS) data to describe how education participation rates, employment and unemployment rates, earnings and hours worked changed amongst young people over the course of the recession, and in the 18 months afterwards.
• We will use data from the Longitudinal Study of Young People in England (LSYPE) to investigate the role of wages and local unemployment rates in driving education and labour market choices amongst a recent cohort of young people.
• We will adopt a difference-in-differences strategy to investigate the impact of the youth rate of the NMW on the labour market outcomes of 16/17 year olds using LFS data. Following De Coulon et al (2010), our treatment group will comprise individuals living in low wage regions in which the NMW is more likely to bite; our control group will comprise individuals living in high wage regions in which the NMW is less likely to bite.
• We will adopt a difference-in-differences strategy to investigate the early impact of the reduction in the age of entitlement to the adult rate of the NMW from age 22 to 21 in October 2010 using LFS data. Following Dickens et al (2010), our control group will comprise 20 or 22 year olds born just either side of the cut-off.