The effect of chronic pain on life satisfaction : evidence from Australian data

Acknowledgements We thank the participants of the 2014 Health Economics Study Group in Sheffield for their useful comments and suggestions. We are grateful to Dr. Agne Suziedelyte and Professor Denzil Fiebig for useful discussions on the methodology of the paper. Special thanks to two anonymous referees and Editor Joanna Coast for valuable comments and suggestions. This paper uses unit record data from the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) Survey. The HILDA Project was initiated and is funded by the Australian Government Department of Social Services (DSS) and is managed by the Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research (Melbourne Institute). The findings and views reported in this paper, however, are those of the authors and should not be attributed to either DSS or the Melbourne Institute. The Health Economics Research Unit is supported in part by the Chief Scientist Office of the Scottish Government Health and Social Care Directorates.Peer reviewedPostprin

Do NEETs Need Grit?

This paper investigates the relationship between personality traits in adolescence and education and labour market choices. In particular, we investigate the impact of grit (a tendency and ability to sustain interest in long term goals - perseverance) on the risk of youths being NEET – "Not in Education, Employment or Training". Thus, our focus is on early drop-out from the labour market and education at age 18-20. Individuals with high levels of grit are less likely to be out of education or employment, while low self-esteem and external locus of control increase the chances of experiencing these conditions.We use propensity score matching to control for a rich set of adolescent and family characteristics and our results show that personality traits do affect education and employment choices. We test the robustness of our results using the methodology proposed by Altonji et al. (2005) that consists of making hypotheses about the correlation between the unobservables and observables that determine the outcomes and the unobservables that influence personality

The impact of job loss on family mental health

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Changes in health-related quality of life : a compensating income variation approach

We are grateful to an anonymous referee for useful comments and suggestions. We are grateful to the participants of the 2017 Health Economics Study Group (University of Birmingham) for their suggestions. Funding support from the University of Aberdeen is gratefully acknowledged. The Health Economics Research Unit is funded in part by the Chief Scientist Office of the Scottish Government Health and Social Care Directorates. This paper uses unit record data from the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) Survey. The HILDA Project was initiated and is funded by the Australian Government Department of Social Services (DSS) and is managed by the Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research (Melbourne Institute). The findings and views reported in this paper, however, are those of the author and should not be attributed to either DSS or the Melbourne Institute.Peer reviewedPostprintPostprin

Does family background affect earnings through education? A generalised approach to mediation analysis

We seek to quantify the role of education as a mechanism through which family background affects earnings. To this end, we propose a generalisation of statistical ‘mediation analysis’. In our approach, the treatment and mediator can be multidimensional. This allows us to directly and flexibly account for a range of background characteristics which affect child earnings through the pathway of education and through other mechanisms. The results suggest that educational attainment explains 24%-39% of the overall family background effect on earnings in Australia. The mediating role of education seems to be larger for Australia than for the UK

Youth unemployment and the effect of personality traits

This paper investigates the relationship between personality traits in adolescence and education and labour market choices. In particular, we investigate the impact of locus of control, effort and diligence, and self-esteem, on the risk of youths being unemployed (sometimes referred to as NEET ("Not in Education, Employment or Training"). Thus, our focus is on early drop-out from both education and the labour market at age 18-20. We use matching methods to control for a rich set of adolescent and family characteristics by estimating the treatment effects of multiple personality traits at the same time (Woolridge, 2010). Finally, we use the methodology proposed by Altonji et al. (2005) that involves making hypotheses about the correlation between the unobservables and observables that determine the outcomes and the unobservables that influence personality. Our results show that individuals that display low effort and diligence, low self-esteem, and external locus of control are more likely to drop out of education and employment

The effect of personality traits on subject choice and performance in high school: Evidence from an English cohort

This paper investigates the relationship between personality traits in adolescence and performance in high school using a large and recent cohort study. In particular, we investigate the impact of locus of control, self-esteem, and work ethics at age 15, on test scores at age 16, and on subject choices and subsequent performance at age 17-18. In particular, individuals with external locus of control or with low levels of self-esteem seem less likely to have good performance in test scores at age 16 and to pursue further studies at 17-18, especially in mathematics or science. We use matching methods to control for a rich set of adolescent and family characteristics and we find that personality traits do affect study choices and performance in test scores - particularly in mathematics and science. We explore the robustness of our results using the methodology proposed by Altonji et al. (2005) that consists of making hypotheses about the correlation between the unobservables that determine test scores and subjects\u27 choices and the unobservables that influence personality