Latent class, or finite mixture, modelling has proved a very popular, and relatively easy, way of introducing much-needed heterogeneity into empirical models right across the social sciences. The technique involves (probabilistically) splitting the population into a finite number of (relatively...

Random effects estimates using panel data for 42 colleges and universities over 16 years reveal that the economics faculty size of universities offering a Ph.D. in economics is determined primarily by the long-run average number of Ph.D. degrees awarded annually; the number of full-time faculty...

In the last few decades, the study of ordinal data in which the variable of interest is not exactly observed but only known to be in a specific ordinal category has become important. In Psychometrics such variables are analysed under the heading of item response models (IRM). In Econometrics,...

Analysing the US Panel Study of Income Dynamics, we present a new empirical method to investigate the extent to which households reduce their financial risk exposure when confronted with background risk. Our novel modelling approach - termed a deflated fractional ordered probit model -...

Using British panel data, we explore the finding that households often expect theirÂ…financial position to remain unchanged compared to other alternatives, using a generalised middle inflated ordered probit (GMIOP) model. In doing so we account for the tendency of individuals to choose...

Using household-level data, we explore the relationship between donations to the victims of the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami disaster and other charitable donations. The empirical evidence suggests that donations specifically for the victims of the tsunami are positively associated with the amount...

Measures of mental wellbeing are heavily relied upon to identify at-risk individuals. However, self-reported mental health metrics might be unduly affected by mis-reporting (perhaps stemming from stigma effects). In this paper we consider this phenomenon using data from the British Household...