news 2018

Researchers have built the single largest dataset of employment laws - spanning more than 100 countries across much of post-war history - to look at how worker rights affect economies over decades.

Volte-face: Research advises selling electric vehicles to untapped market of women More focused marketing of electric cars to women could be more effective in creating the required revolution away from more polluting vehicles than universal government intervention, a new study has said. Highly educated women are an untapped but potentially lucrative market for electric vehicle sales because they have greater environmental and fuel efficiency awareness than men, says a new study by researchers at the University of Sussex and Aarhus University in Denmark.

Analysis carried out at Cardiff University reveals the full impact of digital technologies on the productivity of businesses. The Economic Impact Report for Wales was carried out at Cardiff Business School's Welsh Economy Research Unit and draws on survey data collected from more than 450 SMEs across Wales.

The handwritten inventories had lain largely untouched for centuries. Sand used to dry the ink still lay between the pages.

'Clean Cold' chains are essential to the progression of India's farming industry, according to a new report. Scientists from the University of Birmingham argue that the introduction of clean cold to India's food supply chain will develop infrastructure that will not only allow farmers' income to double, but do so sustainably.

When it comes to the output, education and wellbeing of the Great British workforce, our towns, cities and regions exist on a dramatically unequal footing. A new, wide-ranging research network hopes to find answers to a decades-old problem - the UK's productivity gap. There's a narrative that the UK is a very rich country, but many regions of the UK outside the capital are poor.

Jochen Menges, an expert in organisational behaviour, thinks that emotions matter profoundly for employee performance and behaviour. His studies bring nuance to our understanding of how employees wish to feel at work. A bit of emotion, a bit of up and down - that's what makes work meaningful Jochen Menges It is important for people to feel happy rather than miserable in their work - research shows that contented employees deliver better results after all.

Researchers at the University of Cambridge are helping to understand the world of work - the good, the bad, the fair and the future. Here, Simon Deakin, Catherine Barnard and Brendan Burchell launch our month-long focus on some of these projects. Researchers do not initiate projects simply to overturn conventional wisdom, but this is often what they end up doing, simply because few of the ideas or practices which are 'taken for granted' in everyday discourse can safely withstand this type of scrutiny.

New research from the University of Oxford and UFZ Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research in Germany shows the gap between Europe's haves and have-nots has been narrowing over the past 35 years. The paper, a major comparative study of European urban and regional growth patterns, reveals that since 1980 cities and regions across the EU have been converging economically, becoming increasingly similar in per capita incomes and real growth rates.

Attending universal childcare from age three significantly improves the school readiness of children from immigrant and disadvantaged family backgrounds, a new UCL study has found. However, the research by the Centre for Research and Analysis of Migration (CReAM), shows the same universal childcare, only has a modest impact on the school readiness of children from advantaged backgrounds.

Researchers at the University of Nottingham and insurance law firm Browne Jacobson LLP are using eye-tracking software to help insurers write policies that are much easier to read and understand. If you've ever found an insurance document difficult to read, then you are not alone. A new study has found that one of the reasons for this is the number of 'uncommon words' which are used in most policies.

Macroeconomic simulations show rates of technological change in energy efficiency and renewable power are likely to cause a sudden drop in demand for fossil fuels, potentially sparking a global financial crisis. Experts call for a "carefully managed" shift to low-carbon investments and policies to deflate this "carbon bubble".

Improved regulation has deterred a greater amount of financial misconduct in the UK since the global financial crisis, according to new research published today. Researchers at UEA, Bangor University, and the Universities of Warwick and Otago conducted an analysis differentiating between detection and deterrence of financial misconduct during the period 2002-2016.

A study published in PNAS offer new insights into how European civilisations and their economies developed over time - finding links between levels of lead pollution trapped in Greenland ice and significant historical events, such as plagues, wars and imperial expansion. Image credit: Shutterstock Oxford University scientists have played a key role in a collaboration studying ice sheets in Greenland, which has shed light on pollution produced by the ancient Greeks and Romans.

Older adults in England with fewer financial resources are more likely to develop dementia, according to new UCL research. Researchers analysed data from over 6000 adults born between 1902 and 1943 and found that the 20% most deprived adults were 50% more likely to develop dementia than the 20% least deprived adults.

A new interactive online atlas, which illustrates when, where and possibly how fertility rates began to fall in England and Wales during the Victorian era has been made freely available from today. In 1851, more than one in five children born in parts of Greater Manchester did not survive to their first birthday.

Analysing the 2011 riots: Why the emotional impact extended far beyond the affected communities New research investigating the emotional effects of the 2011 riots across England has found that the negative impacts were felt by communities far removed from where the activity took place, with black neighbourhoods being particularly severely impacted.

Premature births, low birth weight and birth anomalies explain why England has a higher death rate than Sweden among children under 5 years old, according to a new study led by UCL. The study, published today in The Lancet , compared more than 3.9 million English births and 1 million Swedish births to understand factors driving higher rates of child mortality in England.

Intelligent vehicles and smart devices could gain more accurate location awareness by 'fusing' Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) and WiFi signals - and a test for this is the focus of an Innovate UK project led by Spirent Communications and involving WMG at the University of Warwick. The £694k 'Enhanced Assured Location Simulator Leveraging WiFi and GNSS Sensor Fusion' (ELWAG) project will seek to develop to test this pioneering hybrid WiFi and GNSS location system in a cost-effective, repeatable and safe environment - so that manufacturers can verify its performance.

A new study from experts at the University of Nottingham Ningbo China (UNNC), looks at whether international collaboration will help to tackle pollution in some of China's biggest cities. In the research, led by Professor May Tan-Mullins from UNNC, a group of experts looked into one of the most promising low carbon planning initiatives in China - Shenzhen's International Low Carbon City (ILCC).