Towards an enhanced understanding of child and youth social exclusion risk at a small area level in Australia. This project will produce major national benefits, improving our understanding of child and youth social exclusion risk at a small area level, and putting Australia at the forefront of research into child well-being. Communities will benefit from the availability of high quality, rigorously developed measures of child and youth disadvantage at a local area level. Results from this proje ....Towards an enhanced understanding of child and youth social exclusion risk at a small area level in Australia. This project will produce major national benefits, improving our understanding of child and youth social exclusion risk at a small area level, and putting Australia at the forefront of research into child well-being. Communities will benefit from the availability of high quality, rigorously developed measures of child and youth disadvantage at a local area level. Results from this project will provided policy makers with tools to develop measures for overcoming disadvantage and narrowing gaps in outcomes for Australia's young people. The international team will ensure that methodological developments will be widely available in other countries interested in developing small area measures of child and youth disadvantage.Read moreRead less
Priority Setting in Child Protection: developing an evidence-based strategy to reduce child abuse and neglect and associated harms. Persons who are potential, current or previous victims of child abuse and neglect are the primary beneficiaries of this research. The study will facilitate evidence-based funding decisions by government (and nongovernment organizations) integrating data on quality of life impacts (physical/mental health, educational, social etc), and the costs to society of dealing ....Priority Setting in Child Protection: developing an evidence-based strategy to reduce child abuse and neglect and associated harms. Persons who are potential, current or previous victims of child abuse and neglect are the primary beneficiaries of this research. The study will facilitate evidence-based funding decisions by government (and nongovernment organizations) integrating data on quality of life impacts (physical/mental health, educational, social etc), and the costs to society of dealing with the consequences of child abuse. The research has the potential to profoundly enhance the well-being of Australia's most vulnerable children, simultaneously addressing the large costs on agencies of dealing with child abuse. The methodology will be highly applicable to other complex social problems requiring whole of government strategies.Read moreRead less
Intergenerational Transmission of Dependence on Income Support: Patterns, Causation and Implications for Australian Social Policy. This project examines the consequences of growing up in an income-support family. The first stage describes the relationship between parents' and children's income-support receipt to determine whether these children are more likely to access income-support programs themselves. Stage 2 identifies the causal mechanisms through which parental income-support receipt in ....Intergenerational Transmission of Dependence on Income Support: Patterns, Causation and Implications for Australian Social Policy. This project examines the consequences of growing up in an income-support family. The first stage describes the relationship between parents' and children's income-support receipt to determine whether these children are more likely to access income-support programs themselves. Stage 2 identifies the causal mechanisms through which parental income-support receipt influences children's outcomes. Identification of these transmission mechanisms is a necessary first step in formulating policies targeted towards breaking any cycle of welfare dependence. This project is innovative in its use of survey data merged to unique administrative data that link the income-support records of some 53,000 young Australians and their parents.
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How the allocation of children's time affects the stimulation of cognitive and non-cognitive development. In a 2008 Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) report, more than seven percent of Australian children have fewer than 11 books in their family home, Australia ranks in the bottom third of OECD nations for infant mortality and 21st out of 27 for children eating meals with their parents. The Rudd Government is committed to a child-centred approach to family policy. In ....How the allocation of children's time affects the stimulation of cognitive and non-cognitive development. In a 2008 Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) report, more than seven percent of Australian children have fewer than 11 books in their family home, Australia ranks in the bottom third of OECD nations for infant mortality and 21st out of 27 for children eating meals with their parents. The Rudd Government is committed to a child-centred approach to family policy. In this study we investigate the allocation of Australian children's time and its effect on their cognitive and non-cognitive development. Cognitive and non-cognitive development is crucial to the future wellbeing of a child and therefore to the wellbeing of the nation.Read moreRead less
How do macroeconomic fluctuations affect the educational choices of young Australians? The 1990-1991 recession, recent evidence, and econometric issues. The educational choices of young people are crucial for any nation's future. The project's empirical findings will inform public policy, particularly in the areas of education and training and youth unemployment. The research will help policy makers target people who need extra support in tough times and help determine the demand for different k ....How do macroeconomic fluctuations affect the educational choices of young Australians? The 1990-1991 recession, recent evidence, and econometric issues. The educational choices of young people are crucial for any nation's future. The project's empirical findings will inform public policy, particularly in the areas of education and training and youth unemployment. The research will help policy makers target people who need extra support in tough times and help determine the demand for different kinds of education. The findings have implications for future policies aimed at reducing inequality. The project's methodological contributions will lead to better and more reliable research in economics and other fields such as biology and engineering. The findings will be suitable for the top economics journals and contribute to Australia's standing in the academic community.Read moreRead less
Assessing willingness to pay for urban water, wastewater, gas and electricity delivery service standards. The utility industry is a substantial component of the Australian economy (2.2 % of GDP), underpinning national production. Recent infrastructure failures, costing up to $200 million per week, have been blamed largely on regulatory approaches that emphasise minimum price and cost solutions to utility service provision without any assessment or consideration of the willingness to pay for serv ....Assessing willingness to pay for urban water, wastewater, gas and electricity delivery service standards. The utility industry is a substantial component of the Australian economy (2.2 % of GDP), underpinning national production. Recent infrastructure failures, costing up to $200 million per week, have been blamed largely on regulatory approaches that emphasise minimum price and cost solutions to utility service provision without any assessment or consideration of the willingness to pay for service quality and the value people place on surety of supply. Research on the role of WTP for service standards in regulating price and service quality is required to prevent future infrastructure failures. This research will provide substantial economic benefits to Australia through improved regulation and better targeting of infrastructure investment.Read moreRead less
Innovations in Enterprise Risk Management: Risk Aggregation, Dependence, and Efficiency. Enterprise risk management is of critical importance to the successful management of business corporations. The savings from the integrated measurement and management of risk at the enterprise level allowing for diversification in business activities is massive. The Australian insurance and actuarial science profession is highly regarded internationally. Innovative contributions to the rapidly developing are ....Innovations in Enterprise Risk Management: Risk Aggregation, Dependence, and Efficiency. Enterprise risk management is of critical importance to the successful management of business corporations. The savings from the integrated measurement and management of risk at the enterprise level allowing for diversification in business activities is massive. The Australian insurance and actuarial science profession is highly regarded internationally. Innovative contributions to the rapidly developing area of enterprise risk management will benefit Australia by maintaining its high profile at an international level in this newly emerging area. This will lead to increased demand at an international level for Australian graduate students and international research students wishing to study at Australian universities in these disciplines.Read moreRead less
Better communication to solve the under-saving, under-spending puzzle. This project expects to develop evidence-based communication tools that promote life-time financial security, specifically investigating the puzzling and harmful tendency of people to under-save while working and under-spend while retired. To achieve this goal, it will design and experimentally validate innovative boosts to superannuation communication including income projections and goal-setting targeted at common misconcep ....Better communication to solve the under-saving, under-spending puzzle. This project expects to develop evidence-based communication tools that promote life-time financial security, specifically investigating the puzzling and harmful tendency of people to under-save while working and under-spend while retired. To achieve this goal, it will design and experimentally validate innovative boosts to superannuation communication including income projections and goal-setting targeted at common misconceptions and biases. It will use new structural modelling techniques to measure welfare changes. The expected outcomes are rigorous explanations for the saving-spending puzzle, and robust communication strategies for superannuation funds that will benefit workers and retirees by raising financial capability and confidence.Read moreRead less
What women want: unravelling the factors underlying women's financial decision-making behaviour. By the time women retire, they are generally worse off financially than men. This national study will be the first to measure the impact of underlying factors that explain rather than describe the financial decision-making behaviour of women, and how financial decision-making and economic outcomes for women might be improved.
The burden of epilepsy study: Impact on well-being, service use and economic outcomes. This research into the humanitarian needs of people with epilepsy is a necessary extension to the current bulk of knowledge about epilepsy which is diagnostic, clinical and pharmacological. Its focus is on well-being, service use and economic burden this study is expected to give a good return on investment. To ensure an uptake of its findings, the study was developed with the national Epilepsy Action, Epilep ....The burden of epilepsy study: Impact on well-being, service use and economic outcomes. This research into the humanitarian needs of people with epilepsy is a necessary extension to the current bulk of knowledge about epilepsy which is diagnostic, clinical and pharmacological. Its focus is on well-being, service use and economic burden this study is expected to give a good return on investment. To ensure an uptake of its findings, the study was developed with the national Epilepsy Action, Epilepsy Society of Australia as well as addressing questions deemed important by the World Health Organization, the International League against Epilepsy, and the International Bureau of Epilepsy. Findings will inform epilepsy guidelines, policy recommendations and programs to reduce the burden of illness.Read moreRead less