The minimum alcohol purchasing age in New Zealand was lowered from 20 to 18 in December 1999. Focusing on two distinct legislative regimes, we utilize a national-level census of criminal convictions to examine the impact of unrestricted alcohol purchasing rights on alcohol-related crime. Our...

This study aims at understanding how persistence in low pay changes over time. In particular, we extend the existing literature on human capital formation by documenting heterogeneity in low pay persistence by age and human capital level. We utilise population-wide tax ecords to track monthly...

We focus on New Zealand's clean slate legislation to analyze whether automatic concealment of criminal records improves ex-offenders' labor market outcomes. Based on the legislation's eligibility requirements, we utilize detailed court charges information to identify comparable groups of...

To meet the rising need for food and nutrition assistance during the pandemic in the United States, all states were approved to provide Emergency Allotments (EA) to households enrolled in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). In this analysis, we use the Census Bureau's Household...

We provide the first evidence on sexual orientation and earnings in New Zealand (NZ), one of the most inclusive countries for LGBTQ+ people in the world. We use confidential linked census-tax data to compare outcomes for individuals in same-sex couples versus different-sex couples. We find...

Does having a child immunised at the prior schedule genuinely impact the likelihood of vaccinating the child at the following schedule? Using longitudinal data from Growing Up in New Zealand study, we apply a random-effects probit model that also controls for the initial immunisation status. We...

We focus on New Zealand's clean slate legislation to analyze whether automatic concealment of criminal records improves ex-offenders' labor market outcomes. Based on the legislation's eligibility requirements, we utilize detailed court charges information to identify comparable groups of...