Publications
Modelling Illegal Drug Participation in Australia
Abstract We contribute to the small, but important, literature exploring the incidence and implications of mis-reporting in survey data. Specifically, when modelling “social bads”, such as illegal drug consumption, researchers are often faced with exceptionally low reported participation rates. We propose a... Read article

Trends in the Gender Wealth Gap Among Single Households in Australia 2002-2010
Abstract This study uses three wealth modules from the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia Survey to explore the gender wealth gap for single Australian households between 2002 and 2010. The findings indicate significant gender wealth gaps, which have increased over the... Read article

The Influence of Psychological Well-Being, Ill-Health and Health Shocks on Single Parents’ Labour Supply
This paper proposes a discrete-choice behavioural model of labour supply to examine the role of ill-health on single parents’ employment. The model provides estimates of individual preferences over a given set of labour market states and allows these preferences to be influenced by... Read article

Wellbeing outcomes of lower income renters: a multi-level analysis of area effects
Whether it is better to be ‘poor’ in a ‘poor area’ or one that is more socially diverse has been a central concern for research attempting to establish the neighbourhood effects associated with concentrations of disadvantage and for policies aiming... Read article

Dynamics of health insurance ownership in Vietnam
Vietnam is undertaking health financing reform in an attempt to achieve universal health insurance coverage by 2014. Changes in health insurance policies doubled coverage between 2004 and 2006, yet about one-fifth of the insured in 2004 dropped out of the... Read article

Assets, debt and the drawdown of housing equity by an ageing population
This Positioning Paper is the first output of a project that aims to uncover the uses, financial costs and risks of housing equity withdrawal (HEW) via alternative mechanisms by older Australians. By HEW, we are specifically referring to any mechanism... Read article

The Impact of Children on Australian Couples’ Wealth Accumulation
Abstract Existing estimates of the cost of raising children mainly focus on what parents spend on their children. This paper challenges the conceptual basis for this approach, and instead investigates how the presence of children impacts upon couples’ wealth accumulation using the life-cycle... Read article

Underemployment among mature age workers in Australia
Underemployment is a serious and pervasive problem both in terms of its impact on those individuals affected, and for the economy as a whole. International research has found that those who experience periods of underemployment are more likely to have... Read article

Two Billion Dollars a Week: The Global Resources Boom and Western Australia
Western Australia (WA) has a long association with resource-driven growth, beginning with the Kalgoorlie gold rush of the 1890s which drew people from all over Australia and the world. That boom underpinned the rapid development of what was still a... Read article

Development Priorities in an Emerging Decentralized Economy
Based on a data set of 217 communities in Armenia, this paper studies the choice of priority directions in local development programs in the years 2003–2005. The scope of programs is presented and discussed relative to good practices in local... Read article

Educational Attainment Across Generations
This paper analyses educational attainment among immigrant and native-born youth in Australia. We find that young Australians from non-English-speaking-background (NESB) immigrant families have an educational advantage over their English-speaking-background (ESB) immigrant and Australian-born peers. The educational advantages associated with immigrant... Read article

Quality, quantity, spending and prices
One measure of the change in the “quality” of consumption is the degree to which the consumption basket as a whole moves towards more luxurious goods, away from necessities. We introduce two related measures based on the luxury/necessity distinction. One... Read article
