Research

Current Working Papers

• Fisher-Post, M., Hérault, N. and Wilkins, R.  Distributional National Accounts for Australia, 1991-2018. Forthcoming in The Journal of Economic Inequality.

We produce estimates of the full distribution of all national income in Australia for the period 1991 to 2018, by combining household survey with administrative tax microdata and adjusting to match National Accounts aggregates. From these estimates, we are able to rigorously document the shifts in income shares over the period, contrasting changes in the distribution of pre-tax and post-tax national income. Comparing Australia to the US and to France, we also compare our new results to traditional household survey-based estimates of inequality. Moreover, we exploit the richness of our unique microdata to shed light on the distribution of national income across and within various population groups not usually identifiable in the tax datasets that underpin reliable top-income estimates. Among our most surprising findings, inequality of post-tax national income is less than inequality of survey-based (post-transfer, disposable) income for Australia. The gender gap in income has stubbornly remained over the past three decades. Finally, we find that Australian inequality of national income is much lower than that of the United States, while it is similar to that of France, although those at the bottom of the income distribution fare better in France than in Australia.

• Hérault, N., Vu, H. and Wilkins, R.  The effect of job search requirements on welfare receipt: Evidence from an Australian welfare reform. Forthcoming in the Journal of Labor Economics. 

Many countries impose job search requirements on unemployment benefit recipients. Existing studies have evaluated only incremental changes to requirements. Australian reforms in 1995 saw groups of welfare recipients newly subjected to job search requirements, allowing us to produce the first causal estimates of the total effects of such requirements on welfare receipt. Using a quasi-experimental design and administrative data, we find large negative effects on welfare receipt for mature-age partnered women targeted by the reforms. We also find large negative effects on welfare receipt of their partners, suggesting family labour supply decisions were considerably affected.

Peer-reviewed journal articles  

1. Hérault, N., Hyslop, D., Jenkins, S. P. and Wilkins, R. Rising Top-Income Persistence in Australia: Evidence from Income Tax Data, Review of Income and Wealth,  70(1), 154-186.

2. Hérault, N. and Jenkins, S. P. (2023) Redistribution, horizontal inequity, and reranking: Direct taxation in the UK, 1977–2020, Journal of Income Distribution, Special issue in honour of Professor Peter Lambert, 32(3-4), 238–262. 

3. Burkhauser, R. V., Hérault, N., Jenkins, S. P. and Wilkins, R. (2023)  What accounts for the rising share of women in the top 1%?, Review of Income and Wealth, 2023, 69(1), 1-33. 

4. Van de Ven J. and Hérault, N. (2022) The evolution of tax implicit value judgements in the UK: 1968 to 2018, Oxford Economic Papers, 74(2), 594-609. 

5. Hérault, N. and Kalb, G. (2022)  Understanding the rising trend in female labour force participation, Fiscal Studies, 43, 341–363 . 

6. Hérault, N. and Jenkins, S.P. (2022) Redistributive effect and the progressivity of taxes and benefits: UK, 1977–2018, Journal of Income Distribution, Special issue in honour of Nanak Kakwani, 31(3-4), 10-45.

7. Cameron L. et al. (2021). Future Directions: Study Protocol for an Effectiveness-Implementation Hybrid Evaluation of a State-based Social Housing Strategy and Three Social Housing Programs, Social Science Protocols, July 2021, 1-12.

8. Creedy, J., Gemmell, N., Hérault, N. and Mok, P. (2020). Microsimulation Analysis of Optimal Income Tax Reforms: An Application to New Zealand, International Tax and Public Finance, 27(2), 409-434. 

9. Hérault, N. and Jenkins, S. P. (2019). How Valid Are Synthetic Panel Estimates of Poverty Dynamics?, Journal of Economic Inequality, 17(1), 51-76.

10. Burkhauser, R. V., Hérault, N., Jenkins, S. P. and Wilkins, R. (2018). Survey under-coverage of top incomes and estimation of inequality: what is the role of the UK’s SPI adjustment?, Fiscal Studies, 39(2), 213-240.

11. Burkhauser, R. V., Hérault, N., Jenkins, S. P. and Wilkins, R. (2018). Top Incomes and Inequality in the UK: Reconciling Estimates from Household Survey and Tax Return Data, Oxford Economic Papers, 70(2), 301-326.

12. van de Ven, J., Hérault, N. and Azpitarte, F. (2017). Identifying tax implicit equivalence scales, Journal of Economic Inequality, 15, 257-275. 

13. Hérault, N. and Ribar, D. (2017). Food Insecurity and Homelessness in the Journeys Home Survey, Journal of Housing Economics, 37, 52-66.

14. Cobb-Clark, D.A., Hérault, N., Scutella, R. and Tseng, Y.P. (2016). What Drives How Long People Are Homeless?, Journal of Urban Economics, 91, 57-72.

15. Hérault, N. (2016). Explaining the equalising effect of panel-income changes, B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis and Policy, 16(3), 1599-1609.

16. Hérault, N. and Azpitarte, F. (2016). Understanding Changes in the Distribution and Redistribution of Income: A Unifying Decomposition Framework, Review of Income and Wealth, 62(2), 266-282.

17. Hérault, N. and Kalb, G. (2016). Intergenerational Correlation of Labor Market Outcomes, Review of Economics of the Household, 14(1), 231-249.

18. Hérault, N. and Johnson, G. (2016). Homelessness in Australia: Service Reform and Research in the 21st Century, European Journal of Homelessness, 10(3), 127-144.

19. Hérault, N., Kalb, G. and Zakirova, R. (2015). A Study into the Persistence of Living in a Jobless Household, The Economic Record, 91(293), 209-232.

20. Creedy, J. and Hérault, N. (2015). Decomposing Inequality Changes: Allowing for Leisure in the Evaluation of Tax and Transfer Policy Effects, Fiscal Studies, 36(2), 157-180. 

21. Hérault, N. and Azpitarte, F. (2015). Recent Trends in Income Redistribution in Australia: Can Changes in the Tax-Benefit System Account for the Decline in Redistribution?, The Economic Record, 91(292), 38-53.  Winner of the 2015 Economic Record Best Paper Prize.

22. Hérault, N. and Zakirova, R. (2015). Returns to Education: Accounting for Enrolment and Completion Effects, Education Economics, 23(1), 84-100.

23. Buddelmeyer, H., Hérault, N., Kalb, G. and van Zijll de Jong, M. (2012). Linking a Dynamic CGE Model and a Microsimulation Model: Climate Change Mitigation Policies and Income Distribution in Australia, International Journal of Microsimulation, 5(2), 40-58.

24. Hérault, N., Kostenko, W., Marks, G. and Zakirova, R. (2012). The Effects of Macroeconomic Conditions on the Education and Employment Outcomes of Youth, Australian Journal of Labour Economics, 1(15), 17-36.

25. Creedy, J. and Hérault, N. (2012). Welfare-Improving Income Tax Reforms: A Microsimulation Analysis, Oxford Economic Papers, 64(1), 128-150.

26. Creedy, J., Hérault, N. and Kalb, G., (2011). Tax Policy Design and The Role of a Tax-Free Threshold, Public Finance and Management, 11 (4), 338-364.

27. Creedy, J., Hérault, N. and Kalb, G., (2011). Measuring Welfare Changes in Behavioural Microsimulation Modelling: Accounting for the Random Utility Component, Journal of Applied Economics, 14(1), 5-34.

28. Hérault, N. (2010). Sequential Linking of Computable General Equilibrium and Microsimulation Models: A Comparison of Behavioural and Reweighting Techniques, International Journal of Microsimulation, 3(1), 35-42.

29. Creedy, J., Hérault, N. and Kalb, G., (2009). Abolishing the Tax-Free Threshold in Australia: Simulating Alternative Reforms, Fiscal Studies, 30(2), 219-246.

30. Hérault, N. (2007). Trade Liberalisation, Poverty and Inequality in South Africa: A CGE-Microsimulation analysis, The Economic Record, 83(262), 317-328.

31. Hérault, N. (2006). Building and Linking a Microsimulation Model to a CGE Model for South Africa, South African Journal of Economics, 74(1), 34-58.

French peer-reviewed articles

1. Hérault, N. (2009). Les apports de la micro-simulation aux modèles d’équilibre général : application au cas de l’Afrique du Sud [The Contribution of Microsimulation to General-Equilibrium Models: an Application to South Africa] Economie et Prévision, 187(1), 123-135.

2. Hérault, N. (2008). L’impact de la libéralisation commerciale sur la pauvreté et les inégalités dans les provinces sud-africaines [The Poverty and Inequality Impacts of Trade Liberalisation across South African Provinces] Economie Appliquée, 3, 132-156.

Book

Libéralisation commerciale, pauvreté et inégalités en Afrique du Sud [Trade Liberalisation, Poverty and Inequality in South Africa], Editions Universitaires Européennes, Saarbrücken, 316 p. (2016).

Book Chapters

Peer reviewed

South Africa, pp. 331-356 in Anderson, K., Cockburn, J. and Martin, W. (eds), Agricultural Price Distortions, Inequality and Poverty, World Bank, Washington D.C. (with J. Thurlow) (2010).

Other

Labour Supply Modelling in Sequential Computable General Equilibrium-Microsimulation Models, pp. 3-11 in R.O. Bailly (eds), Emerging Topics in Macroeconomics, Nova Science Publishers, New York (2009).

Magazine Article

Pathways to growth: the reform imperative, Insights, 16 (November 2014), 5-13 (with Cobb-Clark, D., Broadway, B., Bubonya, M., Buddelmeyer, H., Chigavazira, A., Hahn, M., Jensen, P., Li, J., Marks, G., Peyton, K., Robinson, T., Ryan, C., and Tsiaplias, S.).