Income insecurity in Australia: who is feeling the pinch and why? This project aims to measure and investigate the drivers of income insecurity in Australia. It will provide an evaluation of whether income growth is sufficient to compensate for any welfare loss due to higher income risk and the effectiveness of government taxes and transfers in alleviating income risks for different population sub-groups.
Understanding online attention and user-generated content creation: An information consumption and production perspective. There is a strong practical need for methods for understanding and measuring online behaviour. In this project, economic index number theory will be used to study information consumption, leading to new ways of measuring online attention and influence. Techniques for studying scaling relationships in the physical world will be used to study information production, leading to ....Understanding online attention and user-generated content creation: An information consumption and production perspective. There is a strong practical need for methods for understanding and measuring online behaviour. In this project, economic index number theory will be used to study information consumption, leading to new ways of measuring online attention and influence. Techniques for studying scaling relationships in the physical world will be used to study information production, leading to new insights into the efficiency of production of user-generated content. The project will contribute to understanding how social media such as Twitter contribute to social unrest and affect consumer decisions, and how distributed online collaboration can produce economically-valuable information resources such as Wikipedia.Read moreRead less
Scientist career path: An explorative analysis. This project aims to uncover important insights into scientists, their interactions, and their career dynamics, seeking to understand scientific success and scientific innovations by understanding scientists themselves. The project will generate the largest data set on scientists ever collected and analysed, resulting in new knowledge into the mechanisms underlying scientific progress and innovation; scientists’ resilience and adaptation to positiv ....Scientist career path: An explorative analysis. This project aims to uncover important insights into scientists, their interactions, and their career dynamics, seeking to understand scientific success and scientific innovations by understanding scientists themselves. The project will generate the largest data set on scientists ever collected and analysed, resulting in new knowledge into the mechanisms underlying scientific progress and innovation; scientists’ resilience and adaptation to positive and negative life shocks or environmental changes; their pattern of collaboration and cooperation; and their creative development. The project will provide significant benefits to universities and policy makers in fulfilling their role of creating and disseminating new knowledge.Read moreRead less
Alcohol, tobacco and gambling expenditure and socioeconomic inequalities. Drinking, smoking and gambling are common lifestyle risk behaviors, which constitute critical social and health challenges for Australia. This project is the first study to examine trends in household expenditure on alcohol, tobacco, gambling, and other goods and services over the past 30 years. More importantly, this project pioneers analysis of the associations between alcohol, tobacco and gambling expenditure and housin ....Alcohol, tobacco and gambling expenditure and socioeconomic inequalities. Drinking, smoking and gambling are common lifestyle risk behaviors, which constitute critical social and health challenges for Australia. This project is the first study to examine trends in household expenditure on alcohol, tobacco, gambling, and other goods and services over the past 30 years. More importantly, this project pioneers analysis of the associations between alcohol, tobacco and gambling expenditure and housing and socioeconomic inequalities over time. The research findings will provide key insights into the changing place of these three risk behaviors in Australian society and inform future public policies to reduce problem drinking, smoking and gambling and related harms. Read moreRead less
Information design, cognitive abilities and macro-economic stability. This project aims to improve our understanding of individual decision making in financial markets and its implications for macro-economic stability. Using laboratory and internet experiments, models of adaptive choice behaviour will be developed and validated. The project will help to gain insight into how past information, and the way it is presented, affects investment decisions, which individual characteristics matter for d ....Information design, cognitive abilities and macro-economic stability. This project aims to improve our understanding of individual decision making in financial markets and its implications for macro-economic stability. Using laboratory and internet experiments, models of adaptive choice behaviour will be developed and validated. The project will help to gain insight into how past information, and the way it is presented, affects investment decisions, which individual characteristics matter for decisions, and how this behaviour translates into the evolution of aggregate macro-economic variables. The expected outcomes of the project will have the potential to improve the design of tools for better individual financial decision making, to stabilize volatile markets and to enhance economic welfare.Read moreRead less
Incorporating the gains from healthy ageing in health system planning. This project aims to develop evidence-based fit-for-purpose economic models for planning future capacity for public health programmes by developing new methodological approaches incorporating dynamic changes in health and health risks over time. The project expects to generate new knowledge on the impact of improvements in physical and mental well-being on funding and capacity requirements for public programmes to meet tomorr ....Incorporating the gains from healthy ageing in health system planning. This project aims to develop evidence-based fit-for-purpose economic models for planning future capacity for public health programmes by developing new methodological approaches incorporating dynamic changes in health and health risks over time. The project expects to generate new knowledge on the impact of improvements in physical and mental well-being on funding and capacity requirements for public programmes to meet tomorrow’s needs for care instead of projecting yesterday’s use of care. Expected outcomes include new economic models responsive to changes in population characteristics, conditions and contexts. The proposed research should provide significant benefits through improving efficiency of public investments in health.Read moreRead less
Improving Choice Models: Multiple Goal Pursuit and Multi-Stage Decision Processes. This project aims to develop new econometric models of choice behaviour that recognise individuals adopt “how to decide” strategies when choosing between alternatives. Existing models simplistically assume that people evaluate all goods and choose the best of them, when in fact they ignore some goods, select what information is relevant, pursue multiple goals, and otherwise deviate from the assumptions commonly ma ....Improving Choice Models: Multiple Goal Pursuit and Multi-Stage Decision Processes. This project aims to develop new econometric models of choice behaviour that recognise individuals adopt “how to decide” strategies when choosing between alternatives. Existing models simplistically assume that people evaluate all goods and choose the best of them, when in fact they ignore some goods, select what information is relevant, pursue multiple goals, and otherwise deviate from the assumptions commonly made in econometric models. Filling in this significant gap in the choice modelling literature constitutes a significant contribution to improving our understanding of human decision making and policy analysis in every area of human endeavour.Read moreRead less
Choice foundations: Diagnostic tools for individual-level model development. This project aims to improve policy making in areas such as transport, environment and health, by better representation of how people make decisions. An interdisciplinary team of economists and psychologists will build on new mathematical and statistical tools to test for adherence to choice axioms that underlie observed choice behaviour. The project will produce a set of computerized statistical tools to implement the ....Choice foundations: Diagnostic tools for individual-level model development. This project aims to improve policy making in areas such as transport, environment and health, by better representation of how people make decisions. An interdisciplinary team of economists and psychologists will build on new mathematical and statistical tools to test for adherence to choice axioms that underlie observed choice behaviour. The project will produce a set of computerized statistical tools to implement the testing of choice axioms using Bayesian methods with the capacity to improve a wide array of applied economics work at the national and international levels.Read moreRead less
Heuristic-based behavioural models with an application to macroeconomics. This project will develop behavioural micro-foundations for economic models with heterogeneous agents. In these models the interaction of decision rules used by agents leads to complex phenomena at the aggregate level, for example, the cycles of bubbles and crashes. The agents switch between decision rules on the basis of past performance. However, a broad range of specifications of the rules and switching mechanisms has l ....Heuristic-based behavioural models with an application to macroeconomics. This project will develop behavioural micro-foundations for economic models with heterogeneous agents. In these models the interaction of decision rules used by agents leads to complex phenomena at the aggregate level, for example, the cycles of bubbles and crashes. The agents switch between decision rules on the basis of past performance. However, a broad range of specifications of the rules and switching mechanisms has led to many degrees of freedom in modelling. In this project, laboratory experiments with paid human subjects will be used to discipline this modelling. The resulting models will improve macroeconomic and financial policy responses to volatile market conditions.Read moreRead less
The economics of filial informal care: future trends and directions for policy supports. This project examines the family decision on informal care and living arrangements, it aims to make constructive policy suggestions in order to promote the healthy life of elderly people, support more productive and fulfilling lives of adult children with elderly parents and fortify supportive family structures.