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AbstractThis article analyses the wage effects of drinking using the Australian Twin Registry data. A multinomial logit framework is employed to explain the allocation of workers across various drinking states, and to correct for selection bias in the wage equations. It is found that there is a significant positive wage premium for moderate drinking. A favourable family background (during childhood) is positively related to the measure of moderate drinking. Greater genetic endowments are also associated with moderate drinking.

This paper is an analysis of the determinants of self‐reported health status of immigrants, with a particular focus on the type of visa used to gain admission. The empirical analysis uses the three waves of the Longitudinal Survey of Immigrants to Australia (panel I). Immigrant health is greater for immigrants who are younger, more educated, male, more proficient in English, and living outside an immigrant ethnic enclave. Immigrant health is poorest for refugees and best for independent (economic) migrants, and declines with duration in the destination. Alternative hypotheses for the decline in immigrant health with duration are explored (JEL I12, J15, J61, F22).

This article is concerned with the determinants of English language proficiency among immigrants in a longitudinal survey for Australia. It focuses on both visa category and variables derived from an economic model of the determinants of destination-language proficiency among immigrants. Skills-tested and economic immigrants have the greatest proficiency shortly after immigration, followed by family-based visa recipients, with refugees having the lowest proficiency. Other variables the same, these differences disappear by 3.5 years after immigration for speaking skills; and although they diminish, they persist longer for reading and writing skills. The variables generated from the model of destination-language proficiency (such as schooling and age at migration) are, in part, predictions of visa category, but they are more important statistically for explaining proficiency.

This article develops a model of the occupational mobility of immigrants and tests the hypotheses using data on males from the Longitudinal Survey of Immigrants to Australia, Panel I. The theoretical model generates hypotheses regarding a U-shaped pattern of occupational mobility from the "last job" in the origin, to the "first job" in the destination, to subsequent jobs in the destination, and regarding the depth of the "U." The survey includes data on pre-immigration occupation, the "first" occupation in Australia (at six months) and the occupation after about three-and-a-half years in Australia. The hypotheses are supported by the empirical analysis.

This article is concerned with the determinants of English language proficiency (speaking, reading and writing) among immigrants. It presents a model of immigrant destination language proficiency based on economic incentives, exposure to the destination language, and efficiency in second language acquisition. A unique data set, the Longitudinal Survey of Immigrants to Australia, is used to test the model. This survey had three waves, at about six months, eighteen months and three-and-a-half years after immigration. The analyses are performed by wave, type of language skill and gender using probit analysis. Bivariate probit analysis is used across waves. The hypotheses are supported by the data. The bivariate probit analysis indicates a positive correlation in the unexplained component that declines with time between waves, suggesting a "regression to the mean" in the unobserved components of English language proficiency.

AbstractThis paper uses data from the Longitudinal Survey of Immigrants to Australia to examine the empirical relevance of a model of immigrant occupational mobility. Consistent with the model, there is a U‐shaped pattern of occupational change from the pre‐immigration occupation through to the occupation held after three‐and‐a‐half years in Australia. The U is shallower for immigrants from countries similar to Australia than it is for immigrants from countries that differ more in language, occupational requirements, and labour market structure. The U‐shaped pattern is deeper for immigrants who are refugees than for family migrants and is the least deep for economic migrants.