Studies of the relative income hypothesis find positive and negative effects of relative income. To facilitate comparisons we use a large household panel and highlight the sensitivity of the relative income effect to the definition of the reference group and to the estimation strategy employed.

Our findings suggest the existence of a gender reservation wage gap. The presence of children, particularly pre-school age children, plays an important role in determining the proportion of this gap that can be explained by individual characteristics.

The channels contributing to the intergenerational correlation in body mass are not well understood. A novel decomposition approach from quantitative genetics is used to estimate the contribution of maternal characteristics, household income, and adolescent behaviours on the intergenerational...