Who records the largest drops in life satisfaction when they move into unemployment? Using an Australian panel data-set (HILDA, the Household Income and Labour Dynamics Survey of Australia), Nick Carroll finds that the unemployed in Australia report lower life satisfaction than observationally equivalent employed people (holding current income constant). Being currently unemployed is estimated to...

Since the late 1980s income contingent loans have been adopted in, or recommended for, a significant and growing number of countries. Looking at countries with both successful and unsuccessful schemes, Bruce Chapman shows that the operational and design features of such schemes are of fundamental importance with respect to their potential efficacy. It also seems...

Andrew Leigh and Chris Ryan compare three quasi-experimental approaches to estimating the returns to schooling in Australia: instrumenting schooling using month of birth, instrumenting schooling using changes in compulsory schooling laws, and comparing outcomes for twins. Abstract

Do income taxes levied at a state or regional level affect the after-tax distribution of income? Or do workers merely move between regions, causing pre-tax wages to adjust? Andrew Leigh draws on evidence from the United States and the European Union to explore this question.

Using post-election surveys of 14,000 voters in ten Australian elections between 1966 and 2001, Andrew Leigh explores the impact that individual, local and national factors have on voters' decisions. In these ten elections, the poor, foreign-born, younger voters, voters born since 1950, men, and those who are unmarried are more likely to be left-wing. Over...