Michael Shields is a Professor at the Centre for Health Economics.

His research is in the areas of applied health and labour economics. He has worked on a wide range of topics including life satisfaction, socioeconomic inequalities, mental illness, measuring health status, intra-household allocation and decision-making, labour market discrimination, nursing labour markets and immigration.

He has a particular interest in the socioeconomic determinants and dynamics of health and wellbeing. Some of his most recent studies have focused on the links between local area economic conditions and health, the characteristics of individuals who are resilient, socioeconomics gradients in social health, the effect of spousal bereavement on loneliness and social isolation, the impact of job insecurity on health, and how economic preferences are related to health status.

His research has been published in leading international journals such as the American Economic Review, the Journal of Economic Literature, the Journal of Business and Economics Statistics, the American Economic Journal: Applied, the Economic Journal, Journal of Applied Econometrics, and Demography.

Michael is a Fellow of the Academy of Social Science in Australia (FASSA); a Professorial Fellow at the Melbourne Institute; and a Research Fellow of the IZA.