Adaptive economic management of Australia's urban water. This project responds to the so-called 'wicked problem' of ensuring an adequate supply of water to urban consumers at the lowest price even during long-term droughts. The project will generate, for the first time in the world, an integrated, dynamic, and adaptive supply and demand model to manage urban water optimally over time.
Policy-Related Lessons from the Econometric Analysis of Life Satisfaction Data in Australia. Our analyses will provide important information to policy-makers aiming to design policies that improve Australia's economic and social fabric. In particular, we will inform on the response of Australians to major life-events such as unemployment, ill-health or marital dissolution, but also exogenous shocks including drought and terrorism. Major focus will be on differentiating the determinants of life s ....Policy-Related Lessons from the Econometric Analysis of Life Satisfaction Data in Australia. Our analyses will provide important information to policy-makers aiming to design policies that improve Australia's economic and social fabric. In particular, we will inform on the response of Australians to major life-events such as unemployment, ill-health or marital dissolution, but also exogenous shocks including drought and terrorism. Major focus will be on differentiating the determinants of life satisfaction between rural and urban communities in Australia, and investigating the response of these communities to drought conditions. Moreover, we believe that a detailed international comparison using German and UK data will provide unique evidence on the relative quality of life in Australia and the role of culture and institutions. Read moreRead less
Improving external validity of stated choice experiments. This project aims to deliver more accurate estimates of choice behaviour by reducing biases due to choice task complexity in surveys as well as design artefacts. Extracting 'true' preferences is challenging, not only due to possible hypothetical bias, but also due to increasingly complex choice tasks and the existence of design artefacts. This project will investigate the latter two in the context of marketing, transport, health, and envi ....Improving external validity of stated choice experiments. This project aims to deliver more accurate estimates of choice behaviour by reducing biases due to choice task complexity in surveys as well as design artefacts. Extracting 'true' preferences is challenging, not only due to possible hypothetical bias, but also due to increasingly complex choice tasks and the existence of design artefacts. This project will investigate the latter two in the context of marketing, transport, health, and environmental economics, and proposes new methodologies to extract preferences that more closely reflect true behaviour in real markets.Read moreRead less
The Role of the Family in Facilitating the Human Capital and Labour Market Investments of Young Australians. A nation's future lies in its young people, and society as a whole must take part in ensuring that today's youth acquire the skills, experience, and training necessary not only to cope, but to thrive. The proposed research will make a substantial step forward in understanding how families make decisions about supporting their young adult children and how those decisions are shaped by Aust ....The Role of the Family in Facilitating the Human Capital and Labour Market Investments of Young Australians. A nation's future lies in its young people, and society as a whole must take part in ensuring that today's youth acquire the skills, experience, and training necessary not only to cope, but to thrive. The proposed research will make a substantial step forward in understanding how families make decisions about supporting their young adult children and how those decisions are shaped by Australian social policy. The findings will inform social policy development by providing evidence on pressing issues such as the effects of rising house prices or weakening labour markets on young Australians' ability to invest in education.Read moreRead less
Historical frontier violence: drivers, legacy and the role of truth-telling. This project aims to build data to identify the historical factors that incited frontier violence; quantify the legacy on communities today and conduct fieldwork to understand how historical trauma is transmitted across generations. This project expects to develop new knowledge on the circumstances and legacy of settlement and the origins of gaps in life prospects between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians. Our e ....Historical frontier violence: drivers, legacy and the role of truth-telling. This project aims to build data to identify the historical factors that incited frontier violence; quantify the legacy on communities today and conduct fieldwork to understand how historical trauma is transmitted across generations. This project expects to develop new knowledge on the circumstances and legacy of settlement and the origins of gaps in life prospects between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians. Our expectation is that this will increase public acceptance of the circumstances of settlement and the need to make amends. This project should help increase public support for truth-telling and better relations between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians, a vital step towards reconciliation and healing the nation. Read moreRead less
A History of Foreign Multinational Enterprises in Australia from Federation. We aim to deliver the first history of foreign multinational firms in twentieth-century Australia, connecting to, and enhancing, a rich overseas literature on global business. Foreign corporations have played a critical but poorly understood role here with public and policy opinions polarised between approval for new investment, job creation and innovation against concern for their impact on tax revenue, competition, an ....A History of Foreign Multinational Enterprises in Australia from Federation. We aim to deliver the first history of foreign multinational firms in twentieth-century Australia, connecting to, and enhancing, a rich overseas literature on global business. Foreign corporations have played a critical but poorly understood role here with public and policy opinions polarised between approval for new investment, job creation and innovation against concern for their impact on tax revenue, competition, and economic policy. Through a closer, long term understanding of multinationals – their magnitude, motives to settle here, corporate structures, and adaptation to local conditions – our findings will inform public debate and policy about the roles of foreign investment and foreign enterprises in the Australian economy today.Read moreRead less
Theory and Applications of Computer-Intensive Statistical Methods. The availability of powerful computing equipment has had a dramatic impact on statistical methods and thinking. It has motivated development of novel approaches to data analysis, whose conception
and appreciation, even their application, often demand sophisticated and complex theoretical methods. In this context, the project will develop new approaches to solving non-standard statistical problems. These techniques will eithe ....Theory and Applications of Computer-Intensive Statistical Methods. The availability of powerful computing equipment has had a dramatic impact on statistical methods and thinking. It has motivated development of novel approaches to data analysis, whose conception
and appreciation, even their application, often demand sophisticated and complex theoretical methods. In this context, the project will develop new approaches to solving non-standard statistical problems. These techniques will either have direct application to solving practical problems of national or community concern, or provide a better understanding of the nature of such problems.Read moreRead less
A systemic environmental impact metric for companies and investors. Environmental-Social-Governance (ESG) metrics are marketed as measures of environmental performance, but they often track exposure to environmental risk rather than generation of environmental impacts. This project aims to develop and test a science-based, systemic environmental impact score for corporate activities. Expected outcomes include new knowledge of cross-scale interactions in the Earth system and tools to assess a bus ....A systemic environmental impact metric for companies and investors. Environmental-Social-Governance (ESG) metrics are marketed as measures of environmental performance, but they often track exposure to environmental risk rather than generation of environmental impacts. This project aims to develop and test a science-based, systemic environmental impact score for corporate activities. Expected outcomes include new knowledge of cross-scale interactions in the Earth system and tools to assess a business or investment’s systemic environmental impacts from activities including water extraction, deforestation and carbon emissions. These outcomes should provide benefits including improved business decision-making on impact mitigation, environmental quality, productivity and corporate environmental reputation.Read moreRead less
The relationship between firm innovation and performance and the role of the government. Productivity growth in Australia has plateaued. Although Federal and State Governments employ a range of different innovation policies designed to stimulate productivity growth, little is known about the effects these programs, and of innovation more generally, on firm performance. One reason why this relationship is unknown relates to the availability of firm-level data. This project, will take advantage of ....The relationship between firm innovation and performance and the role of the government. Productivity growth in Australia has plateaued. Although Federal and State Governments employ a range of different innovation policies designed to stimulate productivity growth, little is known about the effects these programs, and of innovation more generally, on firm performance. One reason why this relationship is unknown relates to the availability of firm-level data. This project, will take advantage of unique access to a dataset provided by the Australian Bureau of Statistics which enables us to observe the activities of every firm in Australia. Using these data and appropriate econometric techniques, the study will examine the effect of a range of government policies designed to stimulate innovation and productivity growth. Read moreRead less
A Principled Approach to Computer Simulation of Dynamic General Equilibrium Macroeconomic Models. In the last two decades a new generation of computer-intensive
modeling techniques has risen to prominence in macroeconomics. These
methods have broad policy applications, from public finance and
reserve bank operation to analysis of long-run productivity growth,
taxation reform, unemployment, international trade policy and natural
resource conservation. The size and complexity of these model ....A Principled Approach to Computer Simulation of Dynamic General Equilibrium Macroeconomic Models. In the last two decades a new generation of computer-intensive
modeling techniques has risen to prominence in macroeconomics. These
methods have broad policy applications, from public finance and
reserve bank operation to analysis of long-run productivity growth,
taxation reform, unemployment, international trade policy and natural
resource conservation. The size and complexity of these models means
that even computer-based techniques will rely for the foreseeable
future on efficient program design to solve them. The project will
construct a comprehensive set of solution techniques and software for
this class of macroeconomic models, including detailed mathematical
analysis on accuracy of model output.Read moreRead less