Economics - Theses
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ItemChallenges in early adulthood and the timing of nest-leaving( 2018)Recent young adult cohorts have delayed moving out from the parental home, reflecting social trends and macroeconomic conditions that undermine the affordability of independent living. This dissertation focuses on the timing of these nest-leaving transitions in relation to other significant decisions and events in early adulthood. Each of the three chapters investigates whether potentially adverse outcomes lead to earlier nest-leaving, which has been shown to be financially harrowing and disadvantaging. To address these research questions, I utilize longitudinal data from the Household Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) survey. Methodologically, I extensively apply event history models and focus on effects on the timing of nest-leaving events. I address potential endogeneity between the nest-leaving decision and other choices in early adulthood by estimating these simultaneously, accounting for selection effects through random effects models. The first essay considers how heavy drinking and cigarette smoking affect the timing of leaving home. As risky health behaviors, I find evidence that young adults who drink heavily leave home sooner than moderate or non-drinking counterparts. Among women, early initiation of alcohol or tobacco use by age 15 further compounds nest-leaving risks, showing that substance usage is far more consequential for their co-residence with parents. The second essay investigates human capital investment in tertiary education, to determine if graduation or dropout rates disfavor students who move out and maintain their own independent household. This chapter also considers whether parents condition their offer of co-residence on the young adult's enrollment. The results indicate that men clearly benefit while co-residing, as they graduate sooner than counterparts who live independently. However, women do not significantly benefit from co-residence in this way, and instead tend to move out around the time of graduation. The third essay examines the pathways out from the parental home -- either with or without a partner -- and how these may be affected by negative life events. Sudden illness or injury of the young adult or a family member, the death of a close friend or a relative, and victimization to violent or property crimes are unforeseeable events that can compromise the young adult's ability to navigate key transitions in adulthood. Results suggest that men are more likely to remain at home longer after a family member is in ill health, whereas women are more likely to leave home soon after the death of a close friend or experiences of property crime. The findings across these essays consistently emphasize women's short-lived co-residence with parents, surfacing from disaggregated analyses by gender. Several factors which contribute to earlier nest-leaving are themselves disadvantaging in nature, and thus raise a concern that negative experiences early in adulthood could beget further hardships later on. This dissertation contributes to the nest-leaving literature by highlighting potential precursors of disadvantage, even while the young adult co-resides and receives in-kind parental transfers.
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ItemThree essays on skilled migration to Australia( 2018)This thesis contains three essays on diverse aspects of skilled migration in Australia. The first chapter uses novel administrative data to analyse the extent of out-migration for Australian permanent migrants across different skill measures and cohorts using survival data methods. The use of this dataset reduces estimation biases inherent in cross-sectional or panel datasets used in previous studies. This study finds that migrants from high-income countries are more likely to out-migrate than those from low-income countries. The analyses also indicate that out-migration is sensitive to the business cycle, as measured by the unemployment rate. However, out-migration is the highest for high-skilled migrants, with every year of education increases the hazard rate by around 4 percent. Moreover, migrants targeted by skill-based policies are more likely to leave. These results, therefore, highlight challenges in retaining skilled migrants recruited through points-based policies. The second chapter uses linked administrative and panel datasets to study associations between skilled temporary worker flows and the labour market outcomes of Australian workers. It finds no statistically significant negative effect of such migration on the either their wages or unemployment. However, the analysis reports a positive association between the wages of workers with a bachelor’s degree or above and skilled temporary worker flows. Further analysis studies how temporary migration induces occupational switching. Highlighting a possible channel through which immigration affects labour market outcomes, our results indicate that such migration induces Australian workers to specialise in communication skills. Focussing on a specific high-skilled occupation, medical practitioners, the third chapter enhances empirical evidence on policies aimed at resolving rural workforce shortages by evaluating the impact of the Districts of Workforce Shortage program, which restricts International Medical Graduates (IMGs) to under-served rural and remote areas of Australia. The analysis uses a difference-in-differences design to find that the program is effective at reducing the growth of inequality in affected regions. It also studies changes in medical workforce outcomes to finds a corresponding fall in workload measures, such as working hours or waiting times. However, no robust evidence of a fall in price measures, such as consultation fees or bulk billing rates, is observed. Last, there is suggestive evidence that the fall in workload, particularly in hours, is higher for IMGs. This finding highlights possible imperfect substitutability of natives and migrants even in narrow occupational groups.
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ItemGay print media’s golden era: Australian magazines and newspapers 1970-2000( 2015)The late 20th century was a golden era for Australian gay print media: more than five million copies annually of gay and lesbian publications were printed at its peak, with revenues of nearly eight million dollars a year. Yet there was not even a leaflet before 1969 because homosexuals then did not dare to publish in the climate of active oppression. Growing liberal attitudes within sections of broader society, and, at a practical level, reform of censorship laws made gay publishing possible. The remarkable growth of this industry stands as testimony to the dramatic change in mainstream society’s attitudes towards homosexuality, and changes within the gay community itself, during the final decades of last century. From 1970 to 2000 nearly 100 significant magazines and newspapers were produced around the country. Publishers used print media to advance gay movement aims, despite pursuing a variety of visions and goals for how they saw a better world for gay and lesbian people. Their publications allowed discussion of what it meant to be gay or lesbian in Australia; provided an arena to present positive viewpoints regarding homosexuality that countered dominant mainstream attitudes; and brought people together through personal classifieds and information about bars and other community activities. In order to sustain their businesses, publishers took commercial opportunities presented to them. And they needed to expand their operation to attract readers and advertisers. This offered economic viability to the publications, and allowed publishers to sustain a reliable workforce and improve their product. All publishers were forced to deal with the business side of their operation, which often caused tension between their initial goals for a better world and the need to run the business. A key resolution of this tension came through adopting the promotion and defence of community as a primary political project. This allowed publishers to freely develop synergies with advertisers that helped build and develop community infrastructure, such as venues, festivals, and small businesses. Expansion of the sector magnified the impact of this synergy on the community’s growth. It allowed movement ideas and information on community activities to reach and influence a much wider audience, and the day-to-day pursuit of business activity, in particular advertising revenue and distribution outlets led to a myriad of direct relationships with mainstream society that challenged prejudice and helped normalise homosexuality.