Latent class, or finite mixture, modelling has proved a very popular, and relatively easy, way of introducing much-needed heterogeneity into empirical models right across the social sciences. The technique involves (probabilistically) splitting the population into a finite number of (relatively...

This paper develops and estimates a model that integrates two fundamental theories of individual health behaviour: the Becker-Murphy model of rational addiction and the Grossman model of health investment. We define an individual's lifetime smoking consumption pattern and investments in health...

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...

The paper presents estimates of price elasticities of demand for twelve disaggregated alcohol beverages in Australia: premium beer, full strength beer, low alcohol beer, and mid strength beer; red bottled wine, white bottled wine, sparkling wine, cask wine, and dark and light ready-to-drink...

Measures of mental wellbeing are heavily relied upon to identify at-risk individuals. However, self-reported mental health metrics might be unduly affected by mis-reporting (perhaps stemming from stigma effects). In this paper we consider this phenomenon using data from the British Household...

The adverse effects of excessive alcohol consumption are well-known. Of great concern to policy makers is to understand the potentially different drivers for consumers of different levels of alcohol consumption. Using unit record data from the Australian Drug Strategy Household Surveys, this...

Data for discrete ordered random variables are often characterised by "excessive" zero observations. Traditional ordered probit models have limited capacity in explaining the preponderance of zero observations, especially when the zeros may relate to two distinct situations of non-participation...

In the economic literature it is generally found that trade openness affects environment through various channels. While the mechanisms through which trade is associated with pollution are largely investigated theoretically and empirically, the role played by each trade component has not yet...

This paper investigates long-term home care utilisation in Europe. Data from SHARE on formal (nursing care or paid domestic help) and informal care (support provided by relatives) are used to study the probability and the quantity of both types of care being received. The overall process is...

In this paper we provide new evidence on the causal effect of education on adult depression and cognition. Using SHARE data, we use schooling reforms in several European countries as instruments for educational attainment. We find that an extra year of education has a large and significant...