·Research

··      Labour Economics

··      Inequality

··      Economics of Education

··      Economics and Politics

··      Population Economics

··      Popular Economics Writing (see also Op-Eds)

··      Conference Discussions

·         Non Economics Writings

·Labour Economics

Crime and Mental Wellbeing (with Francesca Cornaglia and Naomi Feldman), Journal of Human Resources, 2014

 

Effects of Temporary In-Work Benefits for Welfare Recipients: Examination of the Australian Working Credit Programme (with Roger Wilkins) Fiscal Studies, 2012

 

Which Children Benefit From Non-Parental Care? (with Chikako Yamauchi), Economics of Education Review, 2011

 

Informal Care and Labor Market Participation, Labour Economics, 2010

 

Do Employers Discriminate by Gender? A Field Experiment in Female-Dominated Occupations (with Alison Booth), Economics Letters, 2010

 

Does Racial and Ethnic Discrimination Vary Across Minority Groups? Evidence From a Field Experiment (with Alison Booth and Elena Varganova), Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, 2012

 

Does Maternal Age Affect Children’s Test Scores? (with Xiaodong Gong), Australian Economic Review, 2010

 

Does Size Matter in Australia? (with Michael Kortt), Economic Record, 2010

 

Who Benefits from the Earned Income Tax Credit? Incidence Among Recipients, Coworkers and Firms, B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy (Advances), 2010

 

Does Raising the Minimum Wage Help the Poor?, Economic Record, 2007

 

Earned Income Tax Credits and Labor Supply: New Evidence from a British Natural Experiment, National Tax Journal, 2007

 

Employment Effects of Minimum Wages: Evidence from a Quasi-Experiment, Australian Economic Review, 2003

Erratum, Australian Economic Review, March 2004

Reply, Australian Economic Review, June 2004

· 

·Inequality

Frontiers of mobility: Was Australia 1870–2017 a more socially mobile society than England? (with Gregory Clark and Mike Pottenger), Explorations in Economic History, 2020

 

Inequality and Market Concentration, When Shareholding Is More Skewed Than Consumption (with Joshua Gans, Martin Schmalz and Adam Triggs), Oxford Review of Economic Policy, 2019

 

·The Distribution of Top Incomes in Five Anglo-Saxon Countries Over the Long-Run (with Tony Atkinson), Economic Record, 2013

·Discussion Paper Version

·Stata dataset and dofile (zipped)

· 

·Intergenerational Income Mobility in Urban China (with Cathy Gong and Xin Meng), Review of Income and Wealth, 2012

· 

·Do Rising Top Incomes Lift All Boats? (with Dan Andrews and Christopher Jencks), B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy, 2011

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·Death, Dollars and Degrees: Socio-economic Status and Longevity in Australia (with Philip Clarke) Economic Papers, 2011

· 

Inequality in Indonesia: What Can We Learn from Top Incomes? (with Pierre van der Eng) Journal of Public Economics, 2009

 

Top Incomes in Indonesia 1920-2004 (with Pierre van der Eng) in A.B. Atkinson and T. Piketty (eds) Top Incomes Over the Twentieth Century: Volume II – A Global Perspective, Oxford University Press, 2009

 

Health and Economic Inequality (with Christopher Jencks and Timothy Smeeding), in W. Salverda, B. Nolan, and T. Smeeding (eds), The Oxford Handbook of Economic Inequality, 2009

 

Top Incomes, in W. Salverda, B. Nolan, and T. Smeeding (eds), The Oxford Handbook of Economic Inequality, 2009

 

Top Incomes and National Savings (with Alberto Posso), Review of Income and Wealth, 2009

 

How Closely Do Top Income Shares Track Other Measures of Inequality?, Economic Journal, 2007

 

Intergenerational Mobility in Australia, Berkeley Electronic Press: Contributions in Economic Analysis and Policy, 2007

 

More Inequality, Less Social Mobility (with Dan Andrews), Applied Economics Letters, 2008

· 

Do Redistributive State Taxes Reduce Inequality?, National Tax Journal, 2008

 

Top Incomes in New Zealand 1921-2005: Understanding the Effects of Marginal Tax Rates, Migration Threat, and the Macroeconomy (with Tony Atkinson), Review of Income and Wealth, 2008

 

·Inequality and Mortality: Long-Run Evidence from a Panel of Countries (with Christopher Jencks), Journal of Health Economics, 2007

· 

·The Distribution of Top Incomes in Australia (with Tony Atkinson), Economic Record, 2007

 

Deriving Long-Run Inequality Series from Tax Data, Economic Record, 2005

 

Trust, Inequality, and Ethnic Heterogeneity,  Economic Record, 2006

 

Does Equality Lead to Fraternity?, Economics Letters, 2006

 

·Economics of Education

Do School Principals Respond to Increased Public Scrutiny? New Survey Evidence from Australia (with Michael Coelli and Gigi Foster), Economic Record, 2018

 

·The Economics and Politics of Teacher Merit Pay, CESifo Economic Studies, 2012

· 

·Teacher Pay and Teacher Aptitude, Economics of Education Review, 2012

 

·Long-Run Trends in School Productivity: Evidence From Australia (with Chris Ryan), Education Finance and Policy, 2010

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·Estimating Teacher Effectiveness From Two-Year Changes in Students’ Test Scores, Economics of Education Review, 2010

· 

·The Impact of the Tax-Transfer System on Education and Skills in Australia, Report prepared for the Australian Treasury’s Australia’s Future Tax System Review, 2009

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·How Much of the Variation in Literacy and Numeracy can be Explained by School Performance? (with Hector Thompson), Economic Roundup, 2008

· 

·Estimating Cognitive Gaps Between Indigenous and Non-Indigenous Australians (with Xiaodong Gong), Education Economics, 2008

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·How and Why has Teacher Quality Changed in Australia? (with Chris Ryan), Australian Economic Review, 2008

· 

·How Much Do Public Schools Really Cost? Estimating the Relationship Between House Prices and School Quality (with Ian Davidoff), Economic Record, 2008

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·Do Very High Tax Rates Induce Bunching? Implications for the Design of Income-Contingent Loan Schemes (with Bruce Chapman), Economic Record, 2009

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Returns to Education in Australia, Economic Papers, 2008

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·Estimating Returns to Education Using Different Natural Experiment Techniques (with Chris Ryan), Economics of Education Review, 2008

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·Pulled Away or Pushed Out? Explaining the Decline of Teacher Aptitude in the United States (with Caroline Hoxby), American Economic Review, 2004 ( Education Next version, Spring 2005)

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·Economics and Politics

How Partisan is the Press? Multiple Measures of Media Slant (with Joshua Gans), Economic Record, 2012

 

How Do Stamp Duties Affect the Housing Market?, 2009

 

How Much Did the 2009 Australian Fiscal Stimulus Boost Demand? Evidence from Household-Reported Spending Effects, B.E. Journal of Macroeconomics, 2012

 

Can national infrastructure spending reduce local unemployment? Evidence from an Australian roads program (with Christine Neill), Economic Letters, 2011

 

Do Output Contractions Trigger Democratic Change? (with Paul Burke), American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics, 2010

 

Are State Elections Affected by the National Economy? Evidence from Australia (with Mark McLeish), Economic Record, 2009

 

Is Voting Skin-Deep? Estimating the Effect of Candidate Ballot Photographs on Election Outcomes (with Tirta Susilo), Journal of Economic Psychology, 2009

 

Bias at the Ballot Box? Testing Whether Candidates' Gender Affects Their Vote (with Amy King), Social Science Quarterly, 2010

 

Beautiful Politicians (with Amy King), Kyklos, 2009

 

Are Ballot Order Effects Heterogeneous? (with Amy King), Social Science Quarterly, 2008

 

Bringing Home the Bacon, Public Choice, 2008

 

How Do Unionists Vote? Estimating the Causal Impact of Union Membership on Voting Behaviour from 1966 to 2004, Australian Journal of Political Science, 2006

 

Competing Approaches to Forecasting Elections: Economic Models, Opinion Polling and Prediction Markets (with Justin Wolfers), Economic Record, 2006

 

Estimating the Impact of Gubernatorial Partisanship on Policy Settings and Economic Outcomes: A Regression Discontinuity Approach, European Journal of Political Economy, 2008

 

Does the World Economy Swing National Elections?,Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, 2009

 

Happiness and the Human Development Index: Australia is Not a Paradox (with Justin Wolfers), Australian Economic Review, 2006

 

Economic Voting and Electoral Behavior: How do Individual, Local and National Factors Affect the Partisan Choice?, Economics and Politics, 2005

· 

·What do Financial Markets Think of War in Iraq? (with Justin Wolfers and Eric Zitzewitz), 2003

 

·Three Tools for Forecasting Federal Elections: Lessons from 2001 (with Justin Wolfers) Australian Journal of Political Science, 2002

 

Population Economics

The Second Convict Age: Explaining the Return of Mass Imprisonment in Australia, Economic Record, 2020



Estimating Long-Run Incarceration Rates for Australia, Canada, England & Wales, New Zealand and the United States, Australian Economic History Review, 2020

 

The Misaddressed Letter Experiment (with Gweneth Leigh), Applied Economics Letters, 2018

 

Immigrants Assimilate as Communities, Not Just as Individuals (with Tim Hatton), Journal of Population Economics, 2011

 

Born on the First of July: An (Un)natural Experiment in Birth Timing (with Joshua Gans), Journal of Public Economics, 2009

 

Do Gun Buybacks Save Lives? Evidence from Panel Data (with Christine Neill), American Law and Economics Review, 2010

 

Do Gun Buybacks Save Lives? Evidence from Time Series Variation (with Christine Neill), Current Issues in Criminal Justice, 2008

 

Minding the Shop: The Case of Obstetrics Conferences (with Joshua Gans and Elena Varganova), Social Science and Medicine, 2007

 

Did the Death of Australian Inheritance Taxes Affect Deaths? (with Joshua Gans), Berkeley Electronic Press: Topics in Economic Analysis & Policy, 2006

 

Toying with Death and Taxes: Some Lessons from Down Under (with Joshua Gans), The Economists' Voice, 2006

 

Bargaining Over Labor: Do Patients have any Power? (with Joshua Gans), Economic Record, 2012

 

The Millennium Bub (with Joshua Gans), Applied Economics Letters, 2008

 

Does the Lunar Cycle Affect Birth and Deaths? (with Joshua Gans), 2006

Does Child Gender Affect Marital Status?, Journal of Population Economics, 2008

 

Materialism on the March: From Conspicuous Leisure to Conspicuous Consumption? (with Paul Frijters), Journal of Socio-Economics, 2008

 

Popular economics writing (see also op-eds and book reviews)

What Can Economics and Sociology Learn From One Another?, Slides from a plenary presentation to the 2009 Australian Sociological Association conference

Letter in response to Noel Pearson’s Quarterly Essay (“Radical Hope: Education and Equality in Australia”), Quarterly Essay 36, 2009

Evidence-Based Policy: Summon the Randomistas? Paper delivered to a Productivity Commission Roundtable on ‘Strengthening Evidence-Based Policy in the Australian Federation’, 2009

Socio-Economic Correlates of Body Size Among Australian Adults (with Michael Kortt) HILDA Statistical Report, 2009

What Evidence Should Social Policymakers Use? Economic Roundup, 2009

How Can We Improve Teacher Quality?, Melbourne Review, 2007

Prediction Markets for Business and Public Policy (with Justin Wolfers), Melbourne Review, 2007

Unusual Days in Births and Deaths (with Joshua Gans), Melbourne Review, 2007

Taxpaying Made Easy, Agenda: A Journal of Policy Analysis and Reform, 2007
Diversity, Trust and Redistribution, Dialogue (Journal of the Academy of Social Sciences in Australia), 2006
Political Economy of Tax Reform in Australia, Public Policy, 2006
Growth Matters, Aurora Magazine, July 2006
Making the Grade, Griffith Review, 2006
Three Ideas on Tax Reform, Progressive Essays, February 2006 (Op-Ed version,The Age, 3 March 2006)

Why the Australian Capital Territory Should Offer Wage Subsidies to Low-Skilled Workers, 2005

A Household Analysis of the Tax Cuts Proposed in the 2005 Budget

The Progressive Case for Reforming Australia’s Schools, Progressive Essays, July 2005

Lifting Teacher Performance (with Sara Mead)

The Decline of an Institution, Australian Financial Review, 7 March 2005 (Economics Briefing series)

Continental Drift, a review essay discussing Alberto Alesina and Edward Glaeser, Fighting Poverty in the US and Europe: A World of Difference. Published in the Australian Financial Review, 3 December 2004

Randomised Policy Trials (published in Agenda: A Journal of Policy Analysis and Reform, December 2003)

Economics, Experiments and Psychology (with Justin Wolfers), Quadrant, January/February 2003

·Fair Play from Foul, AQ: Journal of Contemporary Analysis, May/June 2002

·Moving to Opportunity (with Justin Wolfers), AQ: Journal of Contemporary Analysis, September/October 2001

·Globalisation and Deglobalisation, AQ: Journal of Contemporary Analysis, January/February 2001

·Abortion and Crime (with Justin Wolfers), AQ: Journal of Contemporary Analysis, August 2000 

 

Conference Discussions

Discussion of Hellerstein, Neumark and McInerney, Spatial Mismatch or Racial Mismatch?, Labour Econometrics Workshop, Wellington, 10 August 2007

Discussion of Poot & Sanderson, Changes in Social Security Eligibility and the International Mobility of New Zealand Citizens to Australia, An International Perspective on Immigration and Immigration Policy Conference, ANU, 1 December 2006

Discussion of Skladzien, Strategic Interaction Between Corrupt Governments in a Growth Model, PhD Conference, ANU, 10 November 2006 (received best discussant award)

Discussion of Doiron & Gørgens, State dependence in youth labor market experiences and the evaluation of policy interventions, Labour Econometrics Workshop, University of South Australia, 11 August 2006

Discussion of Sin & Stillman, The Geographical Mobility of Maori in New Zealand, Labour Econometrics Workshop, UNSW, 12 August 2005

Discussion of Fertig & Kluve, “The Effect of Age at School Entry on Educational Attainment in Germany”, presented at the Social Policy Evaluation Annual Conference, Canberra, 23 February 2005.

Comment on Hans Hvide and Todd Kaplan, "Delegated Job Design", presented at the Society of Labor Economists annual conference, San Antonio, Texas, 30 April 2004.

 

Non Economics Writings

Power Readers (with Macgregor Duncan), Australian Literary Review, 3 March 2010 (supplementary tables)

Entry on Trends in Social Capital, prepared for Karen Christensen and David Levinson (eds) Encyclopedia of Community: From the Village to the Virtual World, 2003

Reviving Community: What policy-makers can do to build social capital in Britain and America (with Robert Putnam). Renewal. 10(2). 2002

Bowling Along. Australian Policy Online. May 2002

Leadership and Aboriginal Reconciliation (text only), Australian Journal of Social Issues, May 2002

Breaking Down Bureaucratic Barriers: The Next Phase of Digital Government (with Robert D. Atkinson), Progressive Policy Institute, November 2001.

Clear Thinking on the Digital Divide (with Robert D. Atkinson), Progressive Policy Institute, June 2001

Mandatory High Court Retirement System works in Australia, National Law Journal, 6 January 2006

Entry on Associates, prepared for Tony Blackshield, Michael Coper and George Williams (eds), The Oxford Companion to the High Court of Australia, 2001

Entry on Tenure, prepared for Tony Blackshield, Michael Coper and George Williams (eds), The Oxford Companion to the High Court of Australia, 2001

Behind the Bench: Associates in the High Court of Australia, Alternative Law Journal, December 2000

The successful Attorney-General – an oxymoron? Australian Law Journal, February 1999

Youth and Street Racing, Current Issues in Criminal Justice, March 1995 (interview transcript and images from an unfinished documentary on street racing)

Drag Kings, Sydney Morning Herald, 24 September 1993

Reinvigorating the Australian Project, Garran Oration, Australian Journal of Public Administration, March 2005

Imagining Australia: Ideas for Our Future . Co-authored with Macgregor Duncan, David Madden and Peter Tynan. Published by Allen and Unwin, Sydney, 2004.

The Best and Worst of the United States (with Justin Wolfers), AQ: Journal of Contemporary Analysis, Sept-Oct 2003

The Rise and Fall of the Third Way, AQ: Journal of Contemporary Analysis, March-April 2003

Thinking Ahead: Strategic Foresight and Government, Australian Journal of Public Administration, June 2003

Trade Liberalisation and the Australian Labor Party, Australian Journal of Politics and History, December 2002

The Prince's New Clothes: Why do Australians Dislike their Politicians?(table of contents only). Co-edited with David Burchell. Published by UNSW Press, Sydney, February 2002.

Factions and Fractions: A Case Study of Power Politics in the Australian Labor Party, Australian Journal of Political Science, November 2000

Globalisation and Deglobalisation, AQ: Journal of Contemporary Analysis, January/February 2001

Australian Politics 1983-2003, Let's Go Australia 2004, St Martin's Press, New York

 

Speeches

Evidence-Based Criminal Justice Policy: Summon the Randomistas?, Speech to the NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research 40th Anniversary Symposium, 19 February 2009

Constitutional Reform, Then and Now, Speech to ACT Australian Republican Movement dinner, 2 June 2007