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EUROMOD, a tax-benefit microsimulation model developed at Essex, has been used by the European Commission and various national administrations to improve the evidence base for policymaking. EUROMOD enables the measurement of potential effects of policy changes on government budgets, income distribution, and work incentives in the EU. It is used by the European Commission to inform policymaking and model the outcome of austerity measures. At a national level it has been used by the Greek Government to assess the potential impact of various austerity policies, and the Austrian Government to assist in monitoring the effect of policies on meeting poverty reduction targets and to allow the public to understand the impact of policy changes. EUROMOD has also been adapted for use outside the EU and spin-offs have been developed in Serbia and South Africa that are used to model the outcomes of potential policy developments.
The Scottish Longitudinal Study (SLS) is a pioneering study, combining census, civil registration, health and education data (administrative data). It has established an approach that allows the legal and ethical use of personal, sensitive information by maintaining anonymity within the data system. This approach has become a model for the national data linkage systems that are now being established across the UK. The SLS has also enabled policy analysts to monitor key characteristics of the Scottish population in particular health inequalities (alerting policy makers to Scotland's poor position within Europe), migration (aiding economic planning) and changing tenure patterns (informing house building decisions). Finally, the study has become fully embedded in Scotland's National Statistical agency, allowing it to produce new informative statistical series.
The first of the two studies described here helped to persuade the coalition government that sufficient loans and grants needed to be available from autumn 2012 to ensure that higher tuition fees did not deter students from disadvantaged backgrounds from pursuing a university degree. The second study influenced the national debate on widening participation in higher education and encouraged policy-makers to recognise the importance of providing school students with improved information, advice and guidance on how to reach university. It triggered the launch of a successful website that has enabled teenagers to make more informed choices about HE.
Professor Andrew Oswald is a pioneer in the study of the economics of happiness and well-being, demonstrating that employment, gender, age, and bereavement have a significant impact on happiness and giving form and substance to measures that many consider to have been lacking in modern governance. Oswald's research has shaped public attitudes and understanding about how both personal and aggregate economic outcomes influence individual happiness and has driven policy makers to consider happiness and well-being as legitimate policy goals in the UK and abroad.
This case study describes significant health and wellbeing, and economic and social impacts deriving from a decade of MMU research into Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC). Impacts include the creation of www.aacknowledge.org.uk, the world's first AAC evidence base, an online source of evidence and information on AAC made accessible for lay people, families, people who use AAC service commissioners and providers, as well as other information and resources. A case study database has also been created which enables practitioners to improve the efficacy of AAC treatments. The database maintains detailed information on approaches to treatment that practitioners can interrogate. MMU research has also informed and influenced a wider political engagement with AAC issues leading to improved awareness and understanding of AAC as well as an increase of £6.5M funding for UK provision and services.
Since 2008, continuous research at Loughborough University, currently led by Donald Hirsch, has identified a minimum socially acceptable level of income in the UK, based on detailed consultation with the general public to define minimum needs. Its impacts are underpinned by close engagement with the public and with organisations promoting social welfare, establishing it as an accepted national benchmark. The standard has become a reference point in analysis of public policy, and been used directly by charities to distribute money equitably and by wage negotiators and campaigners to identify a "living wage" level, implemented by a wide range of employers.
The North East Economic Model (NEEM) was designed and developed at Durham University Business School (DUBS) from 2003. Customized to the regional economy, the aim of the research was for NEEM to model intra- and extra-regional economic relationships to provide quantitative estimates/projections of the impact of both long-term economic trends and shorter-term economic `shocks'. Its application has had significant impacts on policy practitioners in the region by: (1) facilitating more robust evidence-based policy analysis; (2) giving rise to knowledge transfer to policy-makers regarding the structure and workings of the regional economy; and (3) acting as a catalyst for an extended regional policy-modeling capacity. By influencing professional practice, it has had demonstrable impacts on regional economic policy, regional economic restructuring and local planning.
Since 1997, the Edinburgh Study of Youth Transitions and Crime (ESYTC) has generated new knowledge about youth offending and the impact of interventions. This has led directly to reform in youth justice policy and practice in Scotland, and has had influence internationally. Two examples of impact in the period are: (i) providing the `sole basis' for amendment of the Children's Hearings (Scotland) Act 2011, concerning the status of childhood offences at Children's Hearings; (ii) providing the evidence base for Scottish Government reforms to youth justice and national implementation of the `Whole System Approach' (WSA), resulting in a reduction in offending.
Essex research, conducted between 1994 and 2010, has provided a new way for the UK Government to measure income poverty, leading to a measure of persistent poverty being included in the Child Poverty Act 2010. The research has enriched policymakers' understanding of changes in inequality and provided a framework for the analysis of poverty dynamics. It has also changed the way in which the Joseph Rowntree Foundation approaches its research and policy work on poverty. A sub-strand of work, on how incomes change after couples separate, has informed policy development work by the charity Gingerbread.
Social pensions targeting poor households have emerged as a major anti-poverty policy for developing countries. Since 2008, programmes have been established or extended in Bangladesh, Mexico, Peru, Uganda and the Philippines. Collectively, these programmes provide regular cash payments to at least six million households not previously covered by formal social protection. DEV research significantly contributed to this by (i) raising awareness of social pensions among NGOs, UN agencies and key policy makers; (ii) providing robust evidence of the effects of existing social pension programmes; and (iii) more recently, identifying limitations of existing schemes and the need for complementary interventions.