Healthcare utilisation is widely used as a proxy for health in studies of inequality and intergenerational mobility. This paper shows that such an interpretation is misleading. I show that persistence in utilisation does not reflect the inheritance of poor health, but rather how families use care in response to health needs when choices matter. Intergenerational dependence is weakest when healthcare is necessary, larger in preventative circumstances, and strongest when utilisation lies on a greater discretionary margin.

This study examines when and how aspirations support or undermine adolescent wellbeing by focusing on the alignment between adolescents’ ambitions and their realised capacity. By constructing latent realised capacity using structural equation modelling, I find evidence that adolescents whose ambitions remain aligned with their capacity translate future-oriented goals into stronger academic outcomes, whereas sustained misalignment is associated with emotional distress, behavioural disengagement, and weaker subsequent achievement.

 This research examines whether the relationship between smoking and health differs systematically across geographic areas in Australia. A regression discontinuity framework exploiting the staggered introduction of smoking bans across Australian states and territories is employed to assess variation in smoking-related health outcomes between metropolitan and regional populations. Results suggest that the magnitude of the health effects of smoking varies across geographic contexts and in response to smoking-related public policy interventions.