Andrew Leigh and Christopher Jencks investigate whether changes in economic inequality affect mortality in rich countries. To answer this question the authors use a new source of data on income inequality: tax data on the share of pretax income going to the richest 10 percent of the population in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Ireland, the...

In 1979, Australia abolished federal inheritance taxes. Using daily deaths data, Joshua S. Gans and Andrew Leigh show that approximately 50 deaths were shifted from the week before the abolition to the week after (amounting to over half of those who would have been eligible to pay the tax). Their results imply that over the...

It is well understood that government policies can distort behaviour. But what is less often recognized is the anticipated introduction of a policy can introduce its own distortions. We study one such “introduction effect”, using evidence from a unique policy change in Australia. In 2004, the Australian government announced that children born on or after...

Using data on births from Australia, Joshua S. Gans and Andrew Leigh estimate the level of patient bargaining power in negotiations over birth timing. In doing so, they exploit the fact that parents do not like to have children born on the 'inauspicious' dates of February 29 and April 1. The authors show that, in...

Abstract: International research suggests that differences in teacher performance can explain a large portion of student achievement. Yet little is known about how the quality of the Australian teaching profession has changed over time. Using consistent data on the academic aptitude of new teachers, we compare those who have entered the teaching profession in Australia...