Nancy Kong

I. Sick leave is a central feature of labour market institutions in developed economies, allowing workers to temporarily withdraw from work due to illness without loss of income. While designed to ...

Using mandatory stay-at-home orders in Australia as a natural experiment and data from a long-running panel study, this paper investigates the causal link between physical isolation and loneliness. We exploit variations in the number of lockdown days in 2020 the respondent had experienced up until the interview date to estimate the causal link and find, based on difference-in-differences analyses with three-way fixed-effects estimations, that the number of days in lockdown does not significantly affect loneliness. Further, we use triple differences to examine heterogeneous effects. For income, age, personality, living arrangements, and remoteness, we find insignificant effects; for extroverts and young people, we find weak significance. We investigate exclusion restrictions through channels such as social contacts, internet access, job industry, and household characteristics on loneliness. Whereas many believe that 'being alone' and 'being lonely' are similar concepts, our study provides the first empirical causal evidence of no links between the two. Our findings also refine understanding of social isolation and demonstrate that it likely encompasses factors other than physical isolation.

The income‐adjusted price of fast food in China is five times more than in the United States, yet we show that the introduction of Western fast‐food restaurants to China still leads to significant weight gain in children. Using the community‐year‐level presence of Western fast‐food outlets, difference‐in‐differences estimations find a 4.8‐percentage‐point increase in the prevalence of overweight/obese children after controlling for child and year fixed effects. The effect decreases at a distance of 3–4 km from a fast‐food restaurant, and we find no further weight gain 2 years after the restaurant's introduction. The underweight rate is not affected by fast‐food introduction. The increase in fat share of energy intake serves as the channel for weight gain. Children in high‐income families, younger than 11 years, and girls are more affected than other Chinese children.