This paper establishes that ethnicity matters for criminal behavior. Exploiting the gender of the first-born child on fathers’ conviction rates, this is the first paper to document behavioral differences in parental criminality between ethnic groups. Based on uniquely detailed administrative...

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...

Do higher skills help mitigate the negative impact of economic crises? We study the effect of two major economic setbacks–the Global Financial Crisis (GFC) in 2007-09 and the COVID-19 lockdown in 2020–on wage progression for New Zealanders with different skill levels. For our analysis, we...