Research

Publications:

Journal article: "Income polarisation, expenditure and the Australian urban middle class" (with Ilan Wiesel, Julia de Bruyn, and Sangeetha Chandrashekeran). Open access

Published in Urban Studies Vol. 60, 2023

Abstract: Recent years have seen growing concern about the 'hollowing out' of the middle class, due to processes of polarisation. In this paper, we examine different conceptualisations of polarisation, and introduce the concept of expenditure-adjusted polarisation that considers not only income, but also various key categories of expenditure at a household level: housing, groceries and meals, transport and energy. Analysing longitudinal data from the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia Survey, we show that the Australian society is significantly more polarised, with fewer middle-income households, when the relative size of income groups in a given year is based on expenditure-adjusted income rather than pre-expenditure income. Such polarisation is particularly prominent when housing expenditure is considered and has distinctive spatial patterns. In contrast, our analysis finds no evidence of a temporal pattern of polarisation in Australia between 2005 and 2019, with no substantial change in the size of income groups over time, regardless of which income measures are used. We argue that a more nuanced conceptualisation of polarisation, and its relation to processes of 'hollowing out' and rising inequality, is needed to inform urban scholarship and policy

Journal article: "Essential work and emergency childcare: identifying gender differences in COVID-19 effects on labour demand and supply" (with Wolter Hassink and Guyonne Kalb). Open access

Published in Oxford Economic Papers Vol. 75, 2023

Abstract: We examine whether the COVID-19 crisis affects women and men differently in terms of employment, working hours, and hourly wages, and whether the effects are demand or supply driven. COVID-19 impacts are studied using administrative data on all Dutch employees up to December 2020, focussing on the national lockdowns and emergency childcare for essential workers in the Netherlands. First, the impact of COVID-19 is much larger for non-essential workers than for essential workers. Although female non-essential workers are more affected than male non-essential workers, on average, women and men are equally affected, because more women than men are essential workers. Second, the impact for partnered essential workers with young children, both men and women, is not larger than for others. Third, single-parent essential workers respond with relatively large reductions in labour supply, suggesting emergency childcare was insufficient for them. Overall, labour demand effects appear larger than labour supply effects.

Journal article: "Gender differences in job flexibility: Commutes and working hours after job loss" (with Wolter Hassink). Open access

Published in Journal of Urban Economics Vol. 129, 2022

Abstract: This paper studies whether women and men cope with job loss differently. Using 2006-2017 Dutch administrative monthly microdata and a quasi-experimental empirical design involving job displacement because of firm bankruptcy, we find that displaced women are more likely than displaced men to find a flexible job with limited working hours and short commutes. Relative to displaced men, displaced women tend to acquire a job with an 8 percentage points larger loss in working hours and an 8 percentage points smaller increase in commuting. However, displaced women experience longer unemployment durations and comparable hourly wage losses. Job loss thus widens gender gaps in employment, working hours and commuting distance. Further, results point out that displaced expectant mothers experience relatively high losses in employment and working hours, amplifying child penalty effects. The findings show that firm bankruptcy for expectant mothers widens gender gaps in employment and working hours.

Journal article: "Endogenous local labour markets, regional aggregation and agglomeration economies" (with Wolter Hassink). Open access

Published in Regional Studies Vol. 57, 2023

Abstract: We examine the role of spatial unit size in measuring the urban wage premium. Using Dutch administrative data, we define local labour markets (LLMs) based on employees’ commuting outcomes, gender and educational attainment. We show that high-educated employees and male employees have a relatively large LLM. Using a continuum of regional aggregations, we find that urban wage premium estimates increase over the level of aggregation, also for different subgroups of employees. We show that the modifiable areal unit problem (MAUP) does not explain this pattern, consistent with stronger agglomeration externalities at higher regional aggregation levels.

Journal article: "Agglomeration economies and the urban wage premium in Australia". Open access

Published in Australian Journal of Labour Economics Vol. 25, 2022

Abstract: This paper is the first to quantify the economic impact of urban density in Australia on individual wages, referred to as the urban wage premium. By combining Household Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia Survey microdata on 13,112 employed individuals and regional-level population data, population density effects on individual hourly wages are studied over the period 2001 to 2019. A unique feature of this paper is to apply a flow-based clustering algorithm that uses commuting flows to define spatial aggregations. The urban wage premium is estimated conditional on the specific aggregation. The Ordinary Least Squares estimate of the urban wage premium peaks at 2.7 per cent. Controlling for individual fixed effects, the estimate peaks at 1.6 per cent. This evidence suggests that wages increase by 1.6 per cent to 2.7 per cent if local density doubles.

Journal article: "Future Directions: Study Protocol for an Effectiveness-Implementation Hybrid Evaluation of a State-based Social Housing Strategy and Three Social Housing Programs" (with Cameron et al.). Open access

Published in Social Science Protocols Vol. 4, 2021

Background: In the Australian state of New South Wales nearly 60,000 approved applicants are waiting for social housing. Future Directions for Social Housing is a response to this challenge. This collection of housing programs aims to provide more social housing, support and incentives for leaving social housing and a better social housing experience. This document presents the protocol of the evaluation of these programs and the overarching Future Directions Strategy.

Journal article: "Regional coronavirus hotspots during the COVID-19 outbreak in the Netherlands" (with Wolter Hassink and Guyonne Kalb). Open access

Published in De Economist Vol. 169, 2021

Abstract: We examine the role of the housing market in workers' adjustment to job displacement. Dutch administrative monthly data were used and analysed with a quasi-experimental design involving job displacement. The estimates show that displaced workers, relative to comparable non-displaced workers, experience besides substantial losses in employment and wages also large increases in the commuting distance. Remarkably, we find that the displacement effect on the probability of changing home is negative. Thus for displaced workers commuting seems to be a more relevant margin of labour adjustment than changing home. The patterns in displacement effects change over the worker's post-displacement period - the negative effect on wages becomes more pronounced, whereas the increase in the commuting distance diminishes. The results suggest that displaced workers who are longer unemployed prefer working closer to home over higher wages. Also, we examine the role of workers' housing state in the displacement effects. We find that leveraged displaced owners, compared with displaced tenants and outright owners, are more rapidly re-employed and experience a smaller increase in the commuting distance but also a higher loss in wage.

Journal article: "Wage growth distribution and changes over time: 2001-2018" (with Guyonne Kalb). Click here for the accepted version of the paper.

Published in Australian Economic Review Vol. 54, 2021

Journal article: "The role of the housing market in workers’ resilience to job displacement after firm bankruptcy" (with Wolter Hassink). Click here for the accepted version of the paper.

Published in Journal of Urban Economics Vol. 109, 2019

Click here for a poster, which I presented at the 21st IZA Summer School in Labor Economics (May 2018)

Journal article: "flowbca: A flow-based cluster algorithm in Stata" (with Wolter Hassink). Click here for the accepted version of the paper.

Published in Stata Journal Vol. 18 No. 3, 2018

Abstract: In this article, we introduce the Stata implementation of a flow-based cluster algorithm, flowbca, written in Mata. The main purpose of flowbca is to identify clusters based on relational data of flows. We illustrate the command by providing multiple examples of applications from the research fields of economic geography, industrial input–output analysis, and social network analysis.

Comment Article: "Early career researchers want Open Science" (with participants of the 2016 League of European Research Universities Doctoral Summer School)

Published in Genome Biology Vol. 18 No. 221, 2017

Abstract: Open Science is encouraged by the European Union and many other political and scientific institutions. However, scientific practice is proving slow to change. We propose, as early career researchers, that it is our task to change scientific research into open scientific research, and commit to Open Science principles.