Lorraine Dearden is a Professor of Economics and Social Statistics in the Social Research Institute, University College London. Lorraine’s work involves using data and advanced quantitative techniques to understand, evaluate and inform public policy. She has a wide range of policy interests including the impact of education and training on labour market outcomes and company performance; the returns to higher education by subject and university; evaluation of education and labour market policies; impact of month of birth on childhood and adult outcomes; the impact of income support for students on school and college participation; the evaluation of childcare, home learning environment and early years policies on children’s and parents’ outcomes; looked after children; ethnic inequality and discrimination; the determinants of the demand for different types of schooling; higher education funding issues; inter-generational income and education mobility; and programme evaluation issues and methods.
Lorraine is currently involved in the design of student loans in a number of countries which arose out of her work for the ESRC, Office for Students and Research England funded Centre for Global Higher Education (CGHE). This includes key methodological innovations in simulating lifetime earnings for graduates for different countries using country specific micro-economic data. Here recent research also exploits linked health, pollution, economic and education administrative data and has led to publications in leading epidemiological journals with collaborators.
She is a trustee of the Nuffield Foundation (since May 2021), Associate Editor, Journal of the Royal Statistical Society, Series A (since January 2019) an IZA Fellow (since December 2008) and a Fellow of the Academy of Social Science (since 2009).