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
The Determinants of Australia's Productivity Performance. Productivity growth is the key to increasing prosperity for all Australians. The scholar will survey the theoretical and empirical literature pertinent to explaining trends and cycles in the productivity of the Australian economy over the past thirty years. The scholar will then select specific areas for focused research which will lead to academic papers and the submission of a PhD thesis.
IMPROVING THE THEORETICAL COHERENCE OF DATA-DRIVEN VAR MODELS. The project seeks to improve the tradeoff between theoretical and empirical coherence that is often present in empirical macroeconomic models. Using existing Australian models the project examines appropriate means of imposing theoretical restrictions on empirically coherent Vector Autoregression (VAR) models. Building on work by the authors, an improved VAR model of the Australian economy will be developed. This model will be used t ....IMPROVING THE THEORETICAL COHERENCE OF DATA-DRIVEN VAR MODELS. The project seeks to improve the tradeoff between theoretical and empirical coherence that is often present in empirical macroeconomic models. Using existing Australian models the project examines appropriate means of imposing theoretical restrictions on empirically coherent Vector Autoregression (VAR) models. Building on work by the authors, an improved VAR model of the Australian economy will be developed. This model will be used to assess particularly the impact of asset prices on inflation and economic performance over the past two decades. Further attention will be paid to assessing the role of monetary policy in the Australian economy.Read moreRead less
Economic Analysis of an Environmental Challenge: Salinity, Uncertainty and Property. The applicability of standard property-rights solutions to complex environmental issues such as salinity is examined. Water and carbon trading, as well as issues relating to agricultural land management are addressed. In particular, the use of price instruments as a potentially more attractive mechanism than standard quantity instruments for achieving desirable outcomes is examined. The project will exploit and ....Economic Analysis of an Environmental Challenge: Salinity, Uncertainty and Property. The applicability of standard property-rights solutions to complex environmental issues such as salinity is examined. Water and carbon trading, as well as issues relating to agricultural land management are addressed. In particular, the use of price instruments as a potentially more attractive mechanism than standard quantity instruments for achieving desirable outcomes is examined. The project will exploit and extend recent theoretical developments in modelling under conditions of uncertainty, and the use of price and quantity instruments in regulatory contexts.Read moreRead less
Economy-wide consequences of regulation and privatisation policy regimes. The spread of regulation across the majority of the economy necessitates that regulatory policy and approaches account for affects on GDP, employment, innovation and the growth rate. This project will offer policy institutions, including the ACCC, the Productivity Commission and the Treasury, an analysis of these effects and develop new computer models suited to future use to explore economy-wide implications. This need ....Economy-wide consequences of regulation and privatisation policy regimes. The spread of regulation across the majority of the economy necessitates that regulatory policy and approaches account for affects on GDP, employment, innovation and the growth rate. This project will offer policy institutions, including the ACCC, the Productivity Commission and the Treasury, an analysis of these effects and develop new computer models suited to future use to explore economy-wide implications. This need arises even in sectoral regulatory agencies, however, most particularly where service industries, such as telecommunications, are dominated by one or a few firms whose performance has major effects on the costs and innovativeness of firms in other sectors.Read moreRead less
Inequality of health, wealth and education in China. This project aims to examine whether China’s recent increase in income inequality is associated with increased inequalities in other well-being related outcomes: health, education and wealth. It also aims to identify the factors associated with increases in inequalities. Significant increases in income and wealth inequality could have detrimental effects on economic and political stability. The expected outcomes from this project will help to ....Inequality of health, wealth and education in China. This project aims to examine whether China’s recent increase in income inequality is associated with increased inequalities in other well-being related outcomes: health, education and wealth. It also aims to identify the factors associated with increases in inequalities. Significant increases in income and wealth inequality could have detrimental effects on economic and political stability. The expected outcomes from this project will help to identify policies useful in addressing inequalities and enhancing stability within Australia's important trading partner.Read moreRead less
Sustaining India's economic transformation: challenges, prospects and implications for Australia and the Pacific region. India's emergence from economic stagnation is beginning to have a profound impact on the world economy, including Australia. This project aims to investigate the sources of India's growth and the reforms needed to ensure that growth generates reductions in poverty and ensures equity and political stability.
A New Phase and New Issues of Rural-Urban Migration in China. China’s urbanisation has come to a turning point. The large pool of rural young workers (16-25 years of age), which fed the industrialisation needs of the 1990s and 2000s, has exhausted. Future growth needs to rely on the increase in the length of stay of the existing migrants and the increase in older new migrants. Due to this shift, the institutional restrictions, which deter family migration, become the key challenge. This project ....A New Phase and New Issues of Rural-Urban Migration in China. China’s urbanisation has come to a turning point. The large pool of rural young workers (16-25 years of age), which fed the industrialisation needs of the 1990s and 2000s, has exhausted. Future growth needs to rely on the increase in the length of stay of the existing migrants and the increase in older new migrants. Due to this shift, the institutional restrictions, which deter family migration, become the key challenge. This project examines the cost of the migration restrictions (shortened labour supply and reduced human capital accumulation for the current and next generation migrants: their education, health and pro-social behaviour); and the best way to reform the restrictions on family migration and the priority for the reform.Read moreRead less
Economic Growth and Real Exchange Rates. Exchange rate movements are important elements of Australia's economic environment. Protectionist interests in the US and Europe, constrained by WTO trade rules, accuse East Asian economies of deliberate undervaluation. While exchange rate movements are not readily predictable in the short run, long run changes in underlying real exchange rates are amenable to economic analysis using structural models. The clearer understanding of these forces, toward ....Economic Growth and Real Exchange Rates. Exchange rate movements are important elements of Australia's economic environment. Protectionist interests in the US and Europe, constrained by WTO trade rules, accuse East Asian economies of deliberate undervaluation. While exchange rate movements are not readily predictable in the short run, long run changes in underlying real exchange rates are amenable to economic analysis using structural models. The clearer understanding of these forces, toward which this project is directed, will better guide investment in the region, including in Australia, and more importantly, it will better inform future policy debates surrounding currency movements.Read moreRead less
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE120101426
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$375,000.00
Summary
Understanding industrialisation, entrepreneurship, and technology adoption in emerging economies: new evidence from historical Japanese firms. Japan's pre-war industrialisation is widely used as a model by emerging economies, despite a lack of detailed data. This project provides a new firm-level dataset from hitherto unused archives, which allows empirical testing of theories about entrepreneurial activity, technology adoption, financial access, and other determinants of economic growth.