Robert Breunig
Professor and Director, Tax and Transfer Policy Institute
Qualifications
Ph. D. (Economics), University of California Riverside, 1998
Bachelor of International Studies, School for International Training, 1987
Contact details
View current working papers
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Books
- Fabian, M. and R. Breunig (2018), Hybrid Policy Innovations in Comparative Perspective: Contemporary Advances in Theory and Practice. New York, NY: Routledge.
Refereed journal publications
- Carter, A. and R. Breunig (2024), “Tax bunching of very high earners: Evidence from Australia’s Division 293 tax”. Economic Record, forthcoming.
- Bayly, N., R. Breunig and C. Wokker (2024), “Female Board Representation and Corporate Performance: A Review and New Estimates for Australia”. Economic Record, forthcoming.
- Johnson, S., R. Breunig, M. Olivo-Villabrille and A. Zaresani (2024), “Individuals’ Responsiveness to Marginal Tax Rates: Evidence from Bunching in the Australian Personal Income Tax System”. Labour Economics, Volume 87, 102461.
- Zhang, J. and R. Breunig (2023), “Gender Norms and Domestic Abuse: Evidence from Australia”. Journal of Population Economics, Volume 36, pages 2925-2965..
- Lancsar, E., E. Huynk, J. Swait, R. Breunig, C. Mitton, M. Kirk and C. Donaldson (2023), “Preparing for future pandemics: a multinational comparison of health and economic trade-offs”. Health Economics, Volume 32, Issue 7, pages 1434-1452.
- Breunig, R. and T. Sainsbury (2023), “Too much of a good thing? Australian cash transfer replacement rates during the pandemic”. Australian Economic Review, Volume 56, Issue 1, pages 70–90.
- Fabian, M., R. Breunig and J. De Neve (2023), “Explaining the Return of Racial Voting: Economic Anxiety, Psychological Wellbeing and Identity”. European Journal of Social Psychology, Volume 53, Issue 1, pages 147–166.
- Majeed, O. and R. Breunig (2022), “Determinants of Innovation Novelty: Evidence from Australian Administrative Data”. Innovation and New Technology, Volume 32, Number 8, pages 1249-1273. Link to journal version..
- Hathorne, C. and R. Breunig (2022), “Occupational Mobility in the ALife data: how reliable are occupational patterns from administrative Australian tax records?”. Economic Papers, Volume 41, Issue 4, pages 297–324.
- Boucher, A., R. Breunig and C. Karmel (2022), “A preliminary literature review on the effect of immigration upon Australian domestic employment and wages”. Australian Economic Review, Volume 55, Number 2, pp. 263-272.
- Hasan, S., S. Shakur and R. Breunig (2021), “Exchange rates and expenditure of households with foreign-born members: evidence from Australia”. Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, Volume 288, pp. 977–997.
- Hasan, S. and R. Breunig (2021), “Article length and citation outcomes”. Scientometrics, Volume 126, Number 9, pp. 7583–7608.
- Agarwal, A., S. Arfin, R. Breunig, S. Weldeegzie and T. Zhang (2021), “Nationalism and Economic Openness: The cross-country evidence”. Working paper version. Asia Pacific Policy Studies, Volume 8, Number 3, pp. 420-434.
- Van Kints, M. and R. Breunig (2021), “Inflation Variability across Australian Households: Implications for Inequality and Indexation policy”. Tax and Transfer Policy Institute Working Paper 3/2020. Economic Record, Volume 97, Number 316, pp 1–23.
- Bakhtiari, S., R. Breunig, E. Magnani and J. Zhang (2020), “Financial Constraints and Small and Medium Enterprises: A Review”. IZA Discussion Paper No. 12936. Economic Record, Volume 96, Number 315, pp. 506–523.
- Sainsbury, T. and R. Breunig (2020), “Tax Planning in Australia’s Income Tax System”. Tax and Transfer Policy Institute Working Paper 1 / 2020: “The Australian Tax Planning Playbook: Volume 1”. Agenda: A Journal of Policy Analysis and Reform, Volume 27, Number 1, pp. 59–83.
- Sainsbury, T. and R. Breunig (2020), “The urgent need for Tax Reform in Australia in the COVID-19 World”. Tax and Transfer Policy Institute Working Paper 10/2020: “Covid-19 has exposed the weaknesses in the Australian Tax System: Tax reform will be required for recovery”. Australian Journal of Labour Economics, Volume 23, Number 2, pp. 79–97.
- Breunig, R., D. Hourani, S. Bakhtiari and E. Magnani (2020), “Do Financial Constraints Affect the Composition of Workers in a Firm?” . IZA Discussion Paper No. 12970. Australian Journal of Labour Economics, Volume 23, Number 1, pp. 79–97.
- Freestone, O. and R. Breunig (2020), Risk Aversion among Australian Households. Economic Record, Volume 96, Number 313, pp. 121–139. “Published version”
- Breunig, R. and O. Majeed (2020), “Inequality, Poverty and Economic Growth (PDF, 288KB)”. International Economics, Volume 161, May, pp. 83-99. “Published version”
- Breunig, R. and O. McCarthy (2020), “Household Telecommunications Expenditure in Australia (DOCX, 256KB)”. Telecommunications Policy, Volume 44, Issue 1, Article 101837.
- Biddle, N., R. Breunig, F. Markham and C. Wokker (2019), “Introducing the longitudinal MADIP and its role in understanding income dynamics in Australia (PDF, 2.05MB)”. Australian Economic Review, Volume 52, Issue 4, pp. 476-495.
- Breunig, R., S. Hasan and K. Whiteoak (2019), “Value of playgrounds relative to green spaces: Matching evidence from property prices in Australia (PDF, 578KB)”. Landscape and Urban Planning, Volume 190, Article 103608.
- Carter, A. and R. Breunig (2019), “Do earned income tax credits for older workers prolong labor market participation and boost earned income? Evidence from Australia’s Mature Age Worker Tax Offset (PDF, 369KB)”. Economic Record, Volume 95, Number 309, pp. 220–226.
- van Dyke, A., A. Herrington, N. Crofts, R. Breunig, S. Burris, H. Sullivan, S. Sherman, J. Middleton, M. Punch, A. McLeod and N. Thomson (2019), “Redrawing the Thin Blue Line: Recognising and Enhancing Joined up Solutions at the Intersection of Law Enforcement and Public Health (DOXC, 55KB)”. Lancet, Volume 393, Issue 10168, pp. 287–294.
- Fabian, M. and R. Breunig (2019), “Long work hours and job satisfaction: do over-workers get trapped in bad jobs? (PDF, 400KB)”. Social Science Quarterly, Volume 100, Number 5, pp. 1932–1956. Available online here.
- Breunig, R., S. Hasan and B. Hunter (2019), “Financial stress and Indigenous Australians”. Economic Record, Volume 95, Number 308, pp. 34-57.
- Deutscher, N. and R. Breunig (2018), “Baby Bonuses: natural experiments in cash transfers, birth timing and child outcomes (PDF, 956KB)”. Economic Record, Volume 94, Number 304, pp. 1-24.
- Bakhtiari, S. and R. Breunig (2018), “The role of Spillovers in Research and Development Expenditure in Australian Industries (PDF, 1,236KB)” Economics of Innovation and New Technology, Volume 27, Number 1, pp.14-38.
- Breunig, R., N. Deutscher and H. Thi To (2017), “The Relationship between Immigration to Australia and the Labour Market Outcomes of Australian-Born Workers (DOCX, 327KB)” Economic Record, Volume 39, Number 301, pp. 255-276.
- Gong, X. and R. Breunig, R. (2017), “Child Care Assistance: Are subsidies or tax credits better? (PDF, 335KB)” Fiscal Studies, Volume 38, Number 1, pp. 7-48.
- Bakhtiari, S. and R. Breunig (2017), “Demand Uncertainty and Outsourcing (PDF, 274KB)” Review of Industrial Organization, Volume 50, Issue 1, pp. 69-90.
- Alexander, B. and R. Breunig (2016), “A Monte Carlo Study of Bias in Panel Probit Models. (PDF,192KB)” Journal of Statistical Computation and Simulation, Volume 86, Number 1, pp. 74-90.
- Barbalet, F., J. Greenville, W. Crook, P. Gratton and R. Breunig, R. (2015), “Exploring the links between bilateral and regional trade agreements and merchandise trade (PDF,1.22MB)” Asia and the Pacific Policy Studies, Volume 2, Number 3, pp. 467-484.
- Breunig, R., X. Gong and G. Leslie (2015), “The dynamics of satisfaction with working hours in Australia: the usefulness of panel data in evaluating the case for policy intervention (PDF,167KB)” Asia and the Pacific Policy Studies, Volume 2, Number 1, pp. 130-154.
- Breunig, R. and T. C. Chia (2015), “Sovereign Ratings and Oil-Producing Countries: Have Sovereign Ratings Run Ahead of Fundamentals? (PDF,224KB)” International Review of Finance, Volume 50, Number 1, pp. 113-138.
- Gong, X. and R. Breunig, R. (2014), “Channels of labour supply responses of lone parents to changed work incentives. (PDF,205KB)” Oxford Economic Papers, Volume 66, pp. 916-939.
- Breunig, R, X. Gong and D. Trott (2014), “The new National Quality Framework: quantifying some of the effects on labour supply, child care demand and household finances for two-parent households (PDF,157KB)”, Economic Record, Volume 90, Number 288, pp. 1-16.
- Breunig, R., B. Garrett-Rumba, Y. Rocaboy and M. Jardin (2014), “Wage dispersion and team performance: a theoretical model and evidence from baseball. (PDF,266KB)” Applied Economics, Volume 46, Issue 3, pp. 271-281.
- Breunig, R., S. Hasan and M. Salehin (2013), “The immigrant wage gap and assimilation in Australia: does unobserved heterogeneity matter? (PDF,240KB)” Economic Record, Volume 89, Number 287, pp. 490-507.
- Breunig, R. and S. Bakhtiari, S. (2013), “Innovation and outsourcing”, BE Journal of Economic Analysis and Policy, Volume 13, Number 1, pp. 395-418.
- Breunig, R. and S. Rospabe (2013), “The male-female wage gap in France: differences across the wage distribution”, Australian Journal of Labour Economics, Volume 16, Number 1, pp. 155-199.
- Breunig, R., F. Menezes and K. Tan (2012), “An Empirical Investigation of the Mergers Decision Process in Australia”, Economic Record, Volume 88, Number 283, pp. 459–475.
- Breunig, R., X. Gong, and A. King (2012), “Partnered women’s labour supply and child care costs in Australia: measurement error and the child care price (PDF,158KB)”, Economic Record, Volume 88, Special Issue, pp. 51-69.
- Breunig, R. and R. McKibbin (2012), “Income pooling between Australian young adults and their parents”, Labour: Review of Labour Economics and Industrial Relations, Volume 26, Number 2, pp. 235-265.
- Breunig, R. and F. Menezes (2012), “Testing Regulatory Consistency”, Contemporary Economic Policy, Volume 30, Issue 1, pp. 60-74.
- Breunig, R. (2011), “Should single-equation dynamic gasoline demand models include moving average terms?” Journal of Transportation Research, Part D, Volume 16, Issue 6, pp. 474-477.
- Breunig, R. and R. McKibbin (2011), “The Effect of Survey Design on Household Reporting of Financial Difficulty”, Journal of the Royal Statistical Society, Series A, Volume 174, part 4, pp. 991-1005.
- Breunig, R., X. Gong, J. Mercante, A. Weiss, and C. Yamauchi (2010), “Child Care Availability, Quality and Affordability: Are Local Problems Related to Labour Supply? (PDF,177KB)” Economic Record, Volume 87, Number 276, March, pp. 483-507.
- Breunig, R. and J. Merchant (2010), “The accuracy of predicted wages of the non-employed and implications for policy simulations from structural labour supply models. (PDF,386KB)” Economic Record, Volume 86, Number 272, March, pp. 49-70.
- Baron, J., R. Breunig, D. Cobb-Clark, T. Gorgens and A. Sartbayeva (2009), “Does the Effect of Incentive Payments on Survey Response Rates Differ by Income Support History? (PDF,298KB)” Journal of Official Statistics, Volume 25, Number 4, pp. 483-507.
- Breunig, R. and C. Gisz (2009), “An exploration of Australian petrol demand: unobservable habits, irreversibility, and some updated estimates” Economic Record, Volume 85, Number 268, pp. 73-91.
- Breunig, R. and Y. Rocaboy (2008), “Public goods, congestion and population size: A non-parametric analysis using French data,” Public Choice, Volume 136, Number 3, pp. 429-445.
- Breunig, R. (2008), “Nonparametric Density Estimation for Stratified Samples (PDF,131KB),” Statistics and Probability Letters, Volume 78, pp. 2194-2200.
- Breunig, R., D. Cobb-Clark and X. Gong (2008), “Improving the Modeling of Couples’ Labour Supply,” Economic Record, Volume 84, Number 267, pp. 466-485.
- Breunig, R. and F. Menezes (2008), “Empirical Approaches for Identifying Maverick Firms: An Application to Mortgage Providers in Australia,” Journal of Competition Law and Economics, Volume 4, Number 3, pp. 811-836.
- Breunig, R. and M. Wong (2008), “A Richer Understanding of Australia’s Productivity Performance in the 1990s: Improved Estimates Based Upon Firm-level Panel Data (PDF,240KB),” Economic Record, Volume 84, Number 265, pp. 157-176.
- Breunig, R. and M. Wong (2007), “The Role of Firm Dynamics in Australia’s Productivity Growth (PDF,128.65KB),” Australian Economic Review, Volume 40, Number 1, pp. 90-96.
- Breunig, R. D. Cobb-Clark, X. Gong, and D. Venn (2007), “Disagreement in Partners’ Reports of Financial Difficulty,” Review of Economics of the Household, Volume 5, Number 1, pp. 59-82.
- Breunig, R. D. Cobb-Clark and C. Ryan (2006), “A couples-based approach to the problem of workless families (PDF,223KB),” Economic Record, Volume 82, Number 259, pp. 428-444.
- Breunig, R., S. Stacey, J. Hornby and F. Menezes (2006), “Price Regulation in Australia: How consistent has it been? (PDF,175KB),” Economic Record, Volume 82, Number 256, pp. 67-76.
- Stata .do file (DO,11KB) Read the instructions in the comment lines to reproduce the results in the paper.
- Data (TXT,18KB) This is a text version of the data to use in conjunction with the Stata program.
- Breunig, R. and D. Cobb-Clark, (2006), “Understanding the Factors Associated with Financial Stress in Australian Households (PDF,615KB),” Australian Social Policy 2005, pp 13-64.
- Breunig, R. and I. Dasgupta (2005), “Do Intra-household Effects Generate the Food Stamp Cash-Out Puzzle?,” American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Volume 87, Number 3, pp. 552-568.
- Breunig, R. and A. Stegman, (2005), “Testing for Regime Switching in Singaporean Business Cycles (PDF,162KB),” Singapore Economic Review, Volume 50, Number 1, pp. 25-34.
- Breunig, R. and A. Pagan, (2004), “Do Markov-Switching Models Capture Non-linearities in the Data? Tests Using Non-parametric Methods,” Mathematics and Computers in Simulation, Volume 64, pp. 401-407.
- Breunig, R., S. Najarian, and A. Pagan (2003), “Specification Testing of Markov-Switching Models,” Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Volume 65, pp. 703-725.
- Breunig, R. and I. Dasgupta (2003), “Are People Ashamed of Paying with Food Stamps? (PDF,210KB)” Journal of Agricultural Economics, Volume 54, Number 2, pp. 203-225.
- Breunig, R., D. Cobb-Clark, Y. Dunlop and M. Terrill (2003), “Assisting the Very Long-term Unemployed: Results from a Randomized Trial (PDF,572KB),” Economic Record, Volume 79, Number 244, pp. 84-102.
- Breunig, R. and I. Dasgupta (2002), “A Theoretical and Empirical Evaluation of the Functional Forms Used to Estimate the Food Expenditure Equation of Food Stamp Recipients: Comment (PDF,177KB),” American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Volume 84, Number 4, pp. 1156-1160.
- Breunig, R. (2002), “Bias correction for inequality measures: an application to China and Kenya (PDF,151KB)”, Applied Economics Letters, Number 9, pp. 783-786.
- Breunig, R. (2001), “Kernel density estimation for clustered data (PDF,171KB)”, Econometric Reviews, Volume 20, Number 3, pp. 353-367.
- Breunig, R. (2001), “An Almost Unbiased Estimator of the Coefficient of Variation”, Economics Letters, Volume 70, Number 1, pp. 15-19.
- Breunig, R., O. Lieberman and A. Ullah (1997), “On the Bias of the Standard Errors of the LS Residual and the Regression Coefficients Under Normal and Non-Normal Errors (PDF,186KB)”, Econometric Theory Problems and Solutions, Volume 13, December, pp. 896-7.
- Breunig, R. and A. Ullah (1996), “On the Bias of the Standard Errors of the LS Residual and the Regression Coefficients Under Normal and Non-Normal Errors (PDF,74KB)” Econometric Theory Problems and Solutions, Volume 12, December, pp. 868.
Refereed book chapters and monographs
- Breunig, R. and T. Hutchinson, (2008), “Small sample corrections for inequality indices (PDF,298KB)” in W. Toggins, ed., New Econometric Modeling Research, Hauppauge, NY: Nova Science Publishers, Inc, chapter 2, pp 61-83.
- Breunig, R. and M-H. Wong (2005), “Estimation of total factor productivity (PDF,82KB)” in Quantitative Tools for Microeconomic Policy Analysis, Canberra: Productivity Commission, pp. 195-214.
- Breunig, R., I. Dasgupta, C. Gundersen and P. Pattanaik (2001), “Explaining the Food Stamp Cash-out Puzzle (PDF,130KB).” Washington DC: United States Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service, Food Assistance and Nutrition Report Number 12. 30 pages.
- Breunig, R. and A. Ullah (1998), “Econometric Analysis in Complex Surveys (PDF,32MB)” in Giles, D. and A. Ullah, eds, Handbook of Applied Economic Statistics, New York: Marcel Dekker, pp. 325-364.
- Breunig, R., C. Chiu, and R. Russell (1998), “Aggregation and Econometric Analysis of Demand and Supply (PDF,48MB)” in Giles, D. and A. Ullah, eds, Handbook of Applied Economic Statistics, New York: Marcel Dekker, pp. 177-236.
Other publications
- Gong, X., R. Breunig and A. King (2010), “New estimates of the relationship between female labour supply and the cost, availability, and quality of child care” Economic Roundup, Issue 1. Canberra, Australia: Australian Government Printing Service (AGPS).
- Breunig, R., D. Cobb-Clark, T. Gorgens, C. Ryan and A. Sartbayeva (2009), “User’s Guide to the Youth in Focus Data, Version 2.0” Youth in Focus Project Discussion Paper Series, No. 8, December. ISBN 1835-4025.
- Breunig, R., D. Cobb-Clark, T. Gorgens and A. Sartbayeva (2007), “User’s Guide to the Youth in Focus Data, Version 1.0” Youth in Focus Project Discussion Paper Series, No. 1, September. ISBN 1835-4025.
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