Syed Abul Hasan

The Immigrant Wage Gap and Assimilation in Australia: Does Unobserved Heterogeneity Matter?†

Immigrants to Australia are selected on observable characteristics. They may also differ from natives on unobservable characteristics such as ambition or motivation. If we account for unobservable differences, we find a wage gap for immigrant men from English-speaking backgrounds, in contrast with previous research which has found no wage gap. Controlling for unobserved heterogeneity also seems important for finding cohort effects. Immigrants that arrived before 1985 faced a larger wage gap compared to native-born Australians than subsequent cohorts. Confirming other research, we find wage gaps for immigrant men and women from non-English-speaking backgrounds (NESBs). Wage assimilation occurs slowly for all groups, but is slowest for those from NESBs.

Engel curves and equivalence scales for Bangladesh

This paper examines the Engel curves for major expenditure categories in Bangladesh with a particular attention to their specifications. Our semi-parametric model indicates a quadratic Engel curve for most of the expenditure categories, including food, and thus provides additional evidence to the argument for a quadratic food Engel curve for developing countries. As household expenditure increases, expenditures on some food categories like protein and non-home-made food increase at a faster rate, resulting in a quadratic food Engel curve. Our analysis demonstrates that knowledge about the correct specification of the Engel curves has important implications for modeling household responses to the negative income shocks. Such knowledge can be particularly useful for the developing countries where governments aim to protect the low-income households from such shocks.

The distributional effect of a large rice price increase on welfare and poverty in Bangladesh

This paper studies the distributional effect of a sharp rice price increase on welfare and poverty in Bangladesh. We employ household consumption data and include the indirect effect of price responses to estimate the welfare loss. Our findings suggest that the estimated welfare effect can be misleading if household responses to rice consumption and production are ignored. This study further supports the hypothesis that the poor are the main victims of such a shock. Our examination also indicates that a higher rice price may increase or decrease the poverty head‐count ratio, depending on the choice of the poverty line, but worsens the countrys poverty situation when it is measured by the per capita consumption gap. Our analysis reveals that the government can play a central role to prevent and mitigate such shocks, particularly in the medium to long run. On the methodological side, we observe that consumption provides a more consistent outcome across different methods of analysis than household income.

GST Reform in Australia: Implications of Estimating Price Elasticities of Demand for Food

This paper uses detailed information about household supermarket purchases from the Australian Nielsen Homescan Survey to estimate price elasticities of demand for a range of food categories. An instrumental variable strategy is employed to address endogeneity issues. The estimates obtained from our analysis are used to study five scenarios in which the rate of the GST on food categories is increased or in which the tax base is broadened to include currently GST-free categories. Our findings reveal that there is considerable scope for raising revenue by increasing the rate and broadening the tax base. Low-income households (the bottom 40% of the income distribution) can be compensated for the loss in consumption induced by a tax increase. We demonstrate that increasing the rate of the GST from 10% to 15% and broadening the tax base would increase tax revenues by up to

Price Hike of Staple Food, Nutritional Impact and Consumption Adjustment: Evidence from the 2005-2010 Rice Price Increase in Rural Bangladesh

7.1 billion, whereas compensating low-income households would require up to

Unawareness and Selective Disclosure: The Effect of School Quality Information on Property Prices

2.2 billion. We also provide a detailed list of tax revenues and compensation payments associated with each food category to allow readers to “build their own tax reform�? by choosing the categories that should be taxed.

The impact of the 2005–2010 rice price increase on consumption in rural Bangladesh

This paper studies the nutritional impact and the adjustment in consumption as a result of the 2005-2010 rice price increase in rural Bangladesh. We compare the net rice buyers, who suffer from a negative income effect, with the self sufficient households. Our findings indicate that rural households in Bangladesh cope well with the surge in the domestic rice price as indicated by the absence of any effect on their calorie intake and food diversity. Income plays a crucial role in dietary diversity indicating the importance of effective income support programmes at the time of food price shocks.

The impact of a large rice price increase on welfare and poverty in Bangladesh

The Australian Government launched the My School website in 2010 to provide standardised information about the quality of schools to the Australian public. This paper combines data from this website with home sales data for the state of Victoria to estimate the effect of the publication of school quality information on property prices. We use a difference-in-difference approach to estimate the causal effect of the release of information about high-quality and low-quality schools relative to medium-quality schools in the neighborhood and find that the release of information about high-quality schools increases property prices by 3.6 percent, whereas the release of information about low-quality schools has no significant effect. The findings indicate that many buyers are unaware of the relevance of school quality information and that real estate agents pursue a strategy of disclosing information about high-quality schools to increase the sales price. Results from a survey of Victorian real estate agents provide evidence in favor of this strategy.