Survey respondents often use simple strategies to answer retrospective questions about their level of consumption expenditure, resulting in the heaping of data at certain round numbers. In the panel context, wave-to-wave ‘leaping’ from one ‘heap’ to another can distort...

We investigate the processes underlying payment of Attendance Allowance (AA) in the older UK population, using a partial identication approach. Receipt of AA requires that (i) a claim is made and (ii) programme administrators assess the claim as warranting an award. These processes cannot be...

We consider the neglected issue of the dynamics of perceptions, as expressed in responses to survey questions on subjective well-being. We develop a simulated ML method for estimation for dynamic linear models, where the dependent variable is partially observed through ordinal scales. This...

We estimate parametric and semi-parametric binary choice models of benefit take-up by British pensioners and use a revealed preference argument to infer the cash-equivalent value of disutility arising from stigma or complexity of the claims process. These implicit costs turn out to be relatively...

Just as poverty analysis has a central part in Development Economics, studies of fertility behaviour have an equally important standing in the Demography literature. Poverty and fertility are two important aspects of welfare that are closely related. In this paper we use unique longitudinal data...

This study examines the scope for redistributive government policies based on progressive income taxation and direct income transfers. We concentrate on the case of Hungary. We first survey recent developments in the economic circumstances of the household sector and changes in the Hungarian...

Research on the socioeconomic determinants of health is often based on parental assessments of their children’s health. We assess this approach by comparing directly evaluations from parents, teachers, children and psychiatrists of three aspects of child mental health from two major UK...