ABSTRACT To combat growing levels of obesity, health‐related taxes have been suggested with taxes on foods high in fat or sugar. Such taxes have been criticised on the basis of their regressivity and potentially adverse impact upon poverty. This paper analyses the effect of such taxes on a...

This paper examines Irish demand patterns using conditional demand functions. This overcomes the problems faced by traditional demand analysis which neglects the influence of labor supply and thus assumes weak separability. The conditional approach allows for more exact tests of weak...

An analysis of wage discrimination is carried out on the basis of health on UK data with a number of important modifications. First selection is controlled for into both health and labour market status. Second the direct effect of health upon productivity is accounted for and third,...

There is a well-established debate between Heckman sample selection and two-part models in health econometrics, particularly when no obvious exclusion restrictions are available. Most of this debate has focussed on the application of these models to health care expenditure. This paper revisits...

This paper examines the implications of extending the Ahmad-Stern (1984) model of indirect tax reform to include labor supply. The inclusion of labor supply alters the basic measure of marginal revenue cost of indirect taxation and introduces the possibility of calculating a marginal revenue...

The 2003–2011 period in Ireland can be viewed as a roller-coaster with years of high growth followed by years of deep recession. This paper reviews developments in income and health poverty in Ireland over that period using data from the survey of income and living conditions. Income and...

Recent developments in the inequality literature has stressed the importance of inequality of opportunity as opposed to inequality of outcome. In this paper we investigate the presence of ex post inequality of opportunity in two measures of educational achievement for a representative sample of...

In Ireland, approximately 30% of the population receive free GP services ('medical card patients') while the remainder ('private patients') must pay for each visit. In 1989, the manner in which GPs were reimbursed by the State for their medical card patients was changed from fee-for-service to...

This paper reviews Irish evidence on the link between socioeconomic factors and various measures of mental stress and well-being. The paper reviews both cross-section and time-series studies and finds that of all socioeconomic determinants, the most consistent role is found for unemployment. In...