300 papers presented at major London economics conference

Everything from the effect of immigration on UK prices, to how Child Support incentivises our willingness to work is being discussed at UCL (University College London) this week.

The university is currently hosting the 22nd Annual Conference of the European Society for Population Economics (ESPE 2008) - an event which will see around 300 papers and posters presented over three days.

Professor Christian Dustmann of UCL's Department of Economics and President of the ESPE said: "We'll be discussing topics such as increasing inequality, migration, social justice, Europe's ageing population and pensions - the kinds of major demographic issues that are very much at the top of public debate."

Highlights from programme include:

• "Parental choice and gender balance" - a paper examining the implications of parental choice in communities where boys are more highly valued than girls
• "How do industries and firms respond to changes in local labour supply?" - an investigation into how industries deal with changes in the skill mix of their local labour supply due to immigration
• "Child support, child poverty and work incentives: Evidence from the UK" - a study of the work incentives for custodial lone parents and the standard of living for children whose parents who are separated.

A full programme of speakers and events is available at : www.econ.ucl.ac.uk/espe2008/index.html

To obtain further details about any of the academic papers being presented, please contact Dave Weston in the UCL Press Office on +44 (0) 20 7679 7678 or email d.weston@ucl.ac.uk

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Notes to editors:

The EPSE was founded in 1986. It was created in order to facilitate communication and exchange between researchers in different European countries, as well as with scientists from other parts of the world. During the two decades of its existence, ESPE has developed into a highly renowned and internationally influential scienctific association.

About UCL:

Founded in 1826, UCL was the first English university established after Oxford and Cambridge, the first to admit students regardless of race, class, religion or gender, and the first to provide systematic teaching of law, architecture and medicine. In the government's most recent Research Assessment Exercise, 59 UCL departments achieved top ratings of 5* and 5, indicating research quality of international excellence.

UCL is in the top ten world universities in the 2007 THES-QS World University Rankings, and the fourth-ranked UK university in the 2007 league table of the top 500 world universities produced by the Shanghai Jiao Tong University. UCL alumni include Marie Stopes, Jonathan Dimbleby, Lord Woolf, Alexander Graham Bell, and members of the band Coldplay.