Child Dental Benefit Policies and the Health of Australian Children. This project aims to examine the early effects of two recent initiatives by the Australian government to improve children’s dental health by providing funds to cover essential dental services for children from disadvantaged families. It explores the factors affecting eligible children’s access to benefits from these initiatives and identifies the causal impacts of these changed health care financing arrangements on children’s c ....Child Dental Benefit Policies and the Health of Australian Children. This project aims to examine the early effects of two recent initiatives by the Australian government to improve children’s dental health by providing funds to cover essential dental services for children from disadvantaged families. It explores the factors affecting eligible children’s access to benefits from these initiatives and identifies the causal impacts of these changed health care financing arrangements on children’s consumption of dental services, indicators of oral health and general health, and other indicators of cognitive and non-cognitive development. Using advanced econometric techniques and panel datasets, this project is expected to contribute to the development of effective policies for promoting health and wellbeing.Read moreRead less
Assessing the national productivity impacts of chronic ill health. The project aims to address one of the biggest gaps in health and productivity research by designing a novel composite national metric that will rank lost productivity due to chronic illness The project brings together tax/transfer modelling, health modelling and epidemiological modelling specialists to develop a highly innovative microsimulation model: Health&WorkMOD to then quantify the costs of health-related productivity loss ....Assessing the national productivity impacts of chronic ill health. The project aims to address one of the biggest gaps in health and productivity research by designing a novel composite national metric that will rank lost productivity due to chronic illness The project brings together tax/transfer modelling, health modelling and epidemiological modelling specialists to develop a highly innovative microsimulation model: Health&WorkMOD to then quantify the costs of health-related productivity loss. The proposed model, an international first, will be a powerful tool to comprehensively model the cost impacts of illness and simulate policy options related to health and productivity. This will provide answers to critical policy questions for government with potential significant economic benefits.Read moreRead less
The impacts of industry restructuring. This project aims to shed light on how Australia's workforce and communities will engage with the world of work in a future shaped by new business models and disruptive technologies. Using the closure of the automotive industry as a lens into this topic, the project will provide new insights into how displaced workers find work, use services, relate to others, and reshape their futures. It sheds light on the community-wide impacts of restructuring, providin ....The impacts of industry restructuring. This project aims to shed light on how Australia's workforce and communities will engage with the world of work in a future shaped by new business models and disruptive technologies. Using the closure of the automotive industry as a lens into this topic, the project will provide new insights into how displaced workers find work, use services, relate to others, and reshape their futures. It sheds light on the community-wide impacts of restructuring, providing new perspectives on how local resources and public policies best advance the process of adjustment.Read moreRead less
Putting death in its place. The project aims to link 890,000 population records to place of residence from 1838 to 1930, to examine the relationships between where people live, mortality, life expectancy and health. Where people live impacts their life-course outcomes. Using novel matching techniques, the project expects to identify intergenerational changes and the spatial dynamics of inequality and social mobility. Expected outcomes include the creation of a public resource of linked data and ....Putting death in its place. The project aims to link 890,000 population records to place of residence from 1838 to 1930, to examine the relationships between where people live, mortality, life expectancy and health. Where people live impacts their life-course outcomes. Using novel matching techniques, the project expects to identify intergenerational changes and the spatial dynamics of inequality and social mobility. Expected outcomes include the creation of a public resource of linked data and a better understanding of long-run health and inequality. These should provide economic and social benefits by informing policy aimed at contemporary social and health challenges, enhancing our understanding of Australian history, and developing public resources.Read moreRead less
The Intended and Unintended Impact of Policy for Adaptive Policy Management. The project aims to advance knowledge about the intended and unintended consequences of policy on health and well-being. It expects to innovate through new methods and novel data to integrate policy evaluation into the policy cycle in a timely fashion to prevent harm from occurring. It also leverages technology to track policy effects in real time. Expected outcomes of this project include new knowledge and enhanced pol ....The Intended and Unintended Impact of Policy for Adaptive Policy Management. The project aims to advance knowledge about the intended and unintended consequences of policy on health and well-being. It expects to innovate through new methods and novel data to integrate policy evaluation into the policy cycle in a timely fashion to prevent harm from occurring. It also leverages technology to track policy effects in real time. Expected outcomes of this project include new knowledge and enhanced policy infrastructure using new methods and interdisciplinary approaches. Significant benefits include improvements to: (1) policy management by government departments; (2) the health and wellbeing of the Australians they serve; (3) our Partners' capacity to consult governments on how technology can assist policy management. Read moreRead less
Productivity, growth and unemployment in economies with frictions. This project aims to examine decisions driving productivity, growth, and unemployment in macroeconomies with frictions. It examines how government (fiscal, monetary, and education) policies determine these decisions, and identifies the best configurations of these policies. It will construct dynamic general equilibrium models of economies to analyse the causal structure behind productivity changes, growth and unemployment. It wil ....Productivity, growth and unemployment in economies with frictions. This project aims to examine decisions driving productivity, growth, and unemployment in macroeconomies with frictions. It examines how government (fiscal, monetary, and education) policies determine these decisions, and identifies the best configurations of these policies. It will construct dynamic general equilibrium models of economies to analyse the causal structure behind productivity changes, growth and unemployment. It will conduct quantitative experiments using simulations, to estimate optimal government policy design settings. This project expects to identify policies that promote productivity, growth and employment.Read moreRead less
Improving teacher assessment using exemplars and online moderation. This project aims to assess the dependability of teacher judgement using psychometric scaling and online moderation. The project will use an innovative approach to connect achievement standards and judgement-practice for middle-year students in Australian education system. Expected outcomes of the project include the development of scaled work samples exemplifying A-E standards of achievement, refined methods for the consistency ....Improving teacher assessment using exemplars and online moderation. This project aims to assess the dependability of teacher judgement using psychometric scaling and online moderation. The project will use an innovative approach to connect achievement standards and judgement-practice for middle-year students in Australian education system. Expected outcomes of the project include the development of scaled work samples exemplifying A-E standards of achievement, refined methods for the consistency and comparability of assessment decisions, and a new approach to moderating teacher judgements. This project should provide significant benefits in building teachers’ assessment capabilities, shaping policy and teacher preparation.Read moreRead less
The economics of (mis)information in the age of social media. New media technologies allow anyone to broadcast their views, leading to a “cacophony of voices” where misinformation flourishes. Tools from information economics are tailor-made for understanding information consumption in settings with many biased news sources. We develop economic models where many sources compete to attract and influence heterogenous listeners. We then study how misinformation spreads and amplifies when consumers ....The economics of (mis)information in the age of social media. New media technologies allow anyone to broadcast their views, leading to a “cacophony of voices” where misinformation flourishes. Tools from information economics are tailor-made for understanding information consumption in settings with many biased news sources. We develop economic models where many sources compete to attract and influence heterogenous listeners. We then study how misinformation spreads and amplifies when consumers of information communicate with many others through a social network. Finally, we study how to design simple and robust rules to foster informative discourse and filter misinformation. The results will shape economic policy recommendations for regulating misinformation in media platforms and social media.Read moreRead less
Reliability of purchasing power parities from the World Bank. This project aims to provide an econometric framework to estimate purchasing power parities (PPPs) and a method to compute standard errors associated with the World Bank’s International Comparison Programme (ICP)’s PPPs. The ICP regularly compiles and publishes estimates of PPPs of currencies and real incomes. These results are used for study of global inequality and poverty; macroeconomic analysis; the Human Development Index; and cr ....Reliability of purchasing power parities from the World Bank. This project aims to provide an econometric framework to estimate purchasing power parities (PPPs) and a method to compute standard errors associated with the World Bank’s International Comparison Programme (ICP)’s PPPs. The ICP regularly compiles and publishes estimates of PPPs of currencies and real incomes. These results are used for study of global inequality and poverty; macroeconomic analysis; the Human Development Index; and cross-country productivity comparisons. However, no estimates of ICP PPPs’ reliability are available. Results from this project are likely to improve the quality of widely used data sets including the Penn World Tables and the University of Queensland International Comparison Database relevant to banking.Read moreRead less
Privacy, Data Protection and Market Structure. The rise of the digital economy has led to an unprecedented scale of data collection, storage and processing, creating new privacy risks for individuals. This project will provide an economic analysis of the incentives and institutions necessary to ensure data is sufficiently protected while also providing adequate levels of privacy to individuals. It will do this by exploring the optimal design of privacy laws, data breach notification laws, and th ....Privacy, Data Protection and Market Structure. The rise of the digital economy has led to an unprecedented scale of data collection, storage and processing, creating new privacy risks for individuals. This project will provide an economic analysis of the incentives and institutions necessary to ensure data is sufficiently protected while also providing adequate levels of privacy to individuals. It will do this by exploring the optimal design of privacy laws, data breach notification laws, and the relationship between promoting competition and encouraging data protection investment. The outcomes of this research will contribute to the efforts of the federal government to build a secure and resilient digital infrastructure that supports the entire Australian knowledge economy.Read moreRead less