This paper examines the determinants of mathematical achievement among primary school children. Previous studies have found that boys perform better in maths than girls, particularly at the upper end of the distribution. It has been suggested in the literature that differences in the size of the...

There is considerable debate about the role of wage rigidity in explaining unemployment. Despite a large body of empirical work, no consensus has emerged on the extent of wage rigidity. Previous attempts to empirically examine wage rigidity have been hampered by small samples and measurement...

In this paper we study the performance of the GMM estimator in the context of the covariance structure of earnings. Using analytical and Monte Carlo techniques we examine the sensitivity of parameter identification to key features such as panel length, sample size, the degree of persistence of...

This paper uses data on both self-reported and true measures of individual Body Mass Index (BMI) to examine the nature of measurement error in self-reported BMI and to look at the consequences of using self-reported measures when estimating the effect of BMI on economic outcomes. In keeping with...

We use detailed cohort data from three surveys of graduates to examine two explanations for the large decline in the male-female wage gap that occurred in the United Kingdom during the early 1970s. The first attributes the fall to gender-specific factors, most notably the introduction of...

Reliable measures of obesity are essential in order to develop effective policies to tackle the costs of obesity. In this paper we examine what, if anything, we can learn about obesity rates using self-reported BMI once we allow for possible measurement error. We combine self-reported data on...

in this paper I examine the effects of the abolition of collge tutuion on education levels by social class.the empirical analysis shows that this policy has had little effect on the distribution of edcation across classes. I present a number of possible exp0lanations for this finding.

Much has been written about the relationship between economic growth and aggregate inequality in recent years. In this paper we extend this literature by examining whether economic growth affects, not the level, but rather the nature of inequality. To do this we focus on the Irish economy which...

Reliable measures of body composition are essential in order to develop effective policies to tackle the costs of obesity. To date the lack of an acceptable gold-standard for measuring fatness has made it difficult to evaluate alternative measures of obesity. In this paper we draw on work in...

This paper examines the patterns of black-white wage convergence for full-time males over the last two decades. In contrast to earlier studies of black-white wage convergence that focused on mean wages, we analyze convergence patterns throughout the wage distribution. In particular, we focus on...