Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE150100035
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$376,000.00
Summary
Affirmative action & its unintended effects: an experimental investigation. Affirmative action policies traditionally favour members of disadvantaged groups in labour markets such as women, elderly, and non-white. They are widely implemented internationally in employment, contracting, and education often despite a lack of knowledge about societal impacts. This project aims to use both field and laboratory experiments to study how individuals react to affirmative action and investigate sabotage, ....Affirmative action & its unintended effects: an experimental investigation. Affirmative action policies traditionally favour members of disadvantaged groups in labour markets such as women, elderly, and non-white. They are widely implemented internationally in employment, contracting, and education often despite a lack of knowledge about societal impacts. This project aims to use both field and laboratory experiments to study how individuals react to affirmative action and investigate sabotage, cooperation, and competition between disadvantaged and advantaged groups. The main hypothesis is that affirmative action can increase sabotage, harm cooperation and push competition in ways that endanger the well functioning of labour markets. This project aims to provide new insights for policy makers and managers on the relevance of unintended effects of affirmative action.Read moreRead less
Rethinking diversity and inclusion practices in leadership roles. This project aims to study the lack of racial and gender diversity in management and leadership roles. The noticeable imbalances question the functioning of the meritocracy principle and may lead to organisational and social vulnerabilities. This project will apply large-scale field experiments with major organisations to investigate how workplace diversity and inclusion can be improved using as foundation economic theories of sig ....Rethinking diversity and inclusion practices in leadership roles. This project aims to study the lack of racial and gender diversity in management and leadership roles. The noticeable imbalances question the functioning of the meritocracy principle and may lead to organisational and social vulnerabilities. This project will apply large-scale field experiments with major organisations to investigate how workplace diversity and inclusion can be improved using as foundation economic theories of signaling, discrimination, fairness, and identity. The expected outcome is the identification of best diversity and inclusion practice in attraction, hiring, development and retention. This will provide significant benefit through an increase in workplace diversity.
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Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE190100585
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$370,000.00
Summary
Women, task allocations, and advancement in the labour market. This project aims to investigate the origins and labour market consequences of gender differences in willingness to perform low-promotability tasks. The design of practices and institutions that can close gender gaps in the labour market and promote the advancement of the highest quality workforce in organisations requires information about the factors that affect career advancement. This project will study the allocation of tasks th ....Women, task allocations, and advancement in the labour market. This project aims to investigate the origins and labour market consequences of gender differences in willingness to perform low-promotability tasks. The design of practices and institutions that can close gender gaps in the labour market and promote the advancement of the highest quality workforce in organisations requires information about the factors that affect career advancement. This project will study the allocation of tasks that do not enhance prospects for promotion. The project will provide new insights regarding how organisations and the government can design programs to reduce the under-representation of women in leadership positions and in traditionally male-dominated fields.Read moreRead less
Economics of Biased Beliefs: Implications for Diversity Gaps in Workplaces. By developing state-of-the-art experimental and behavioural methodologies to study biased belief formation, this project aims to improve our understanding of the factors contributing to diversity gaps in labour market outcomes in Australia. The project investigates biases in the beliefs formed about the performance of women and minorities, and how these biases can be reduced through policy interventions and improved orga ....Economics of Biased Beliefs: Implications for Diversity Gaps in Workplaces. By developing state-of-the-art experimental and behavioural methodologies to study biased belief formation, this project aims to improve our understanding of the factors contributing to diversity gaps in labour market outcomes in Australia. The project investigates biases in the beliefs formed about the performance of women and minorities, and how these biases can be reduced through policy interventions and improved organisational structures. Expected outcomes include informing policy makers of appropriate interventions and expanding scholarly knowledge of the economic impact of discrimination. The insights gained will enhance Australia’s economic performance by improving workplace diversity and dynamics.Read moreRead less
The Economics of Envy. Envy is persistent and universal. It may help explain why humans are relatively less hierarchical than other primate species and prone to egalitarianism. Envy may help explain the formation of political and social structures and taxation and redistribution policies. This project will examine how in-group and out-group bias, social/economic mobility, and luck versus ability exacerbate and mitigate social preference and when these factors result in destructive and/or constru ....The Economics of Envy. Envy is persistent and universal. It may help explain why humans are relatively less hierarchical than other primate species and prone to egalitarianism. Envy may help explain the formation of political and social structures and taxation and redistribution policies. This project will examine how in-group and out-group bias, social/economic mobility, and luck versus ability exacerbate and mitigate social preference and when these factors result in destructive and/or constructive envy. This investigation contributes to the understanding of envy and its behavioural manifestations. Understanding the correlates of social preferences and the resulting behaviour is important for developing policy to reduce destructive envy and encourage constructive envy. Read moreRead less
An economic study of charitable giving. This project aims to study the motivations for charitable giving and helping behaviour and how these motivations interact with external factors under different institutions.Recent data from 2015 show that charitable donations in Australia have fallen to a 30-year low. Although real GDP has increased, inequality has risen. Social norms and perceptions relating to disadvantaged people can influence donor motivations. The anticipated goal is to design initiat ....An economic study of charitable giving. This project aims to study the motivations for charitable giving and helping behaviour and how these motivations interact with external factors under different institutions.Recent data from 2015 show that charitable donations in Australia have fallen to a 30-year low. Although real GDP has increased, inequality has risen. Social norms and perceptions relating to disadvantaged people can influence donor motivations. The anticipated goal is to design initiatives that influence prosocial activities such as charitable giving, redistribution, refugee intake and migrant integration, and improve understanding of the underlying mechanisms of prosocial behaviour.Read moreRead less
Market Design for the Reallocation of Land. This fellowship uses laboratory and lab-in-the-field experiments to explores how market design can be used to develop combinatorial exchanges that allow participants to exchange packages of land. Allowing for package bids can facilitate trade in situations where owning one piece of land increases the value of adjacent land and where assembling contiguous pieces of land is important. Combinatorial exchanges have the potential to increase the productivit ....Market Design for the Reallocation of Land. This fellowship uses laboratory and lab-in-the-field experiments to explores how market design can be used to develop combinatorial exchanges that allow participants to exchange packages of land. Allowing for package bids can facilitate trade in situations where owning one piece of land increases the value of adjacent land and where assembling contiguous pieces of land is important. Combinatorial exchanges have the potential to increase the productivity of agriculture land in both Australia and developing countries, encourage urban redevelopment, and help the government secure land for infrastructure and environmental protection in a cost-effective way.Read moreRead less
A New framework to improve human-robot interaction in financial markets. This project aims to investigate the interaction of humans with robots (automated, algorithmic traders) in financial markets. It will build a novel environment based on controlled experiments within the context of financial markets. It is expected to discover how market participants choose to engage robots, and when and why robots are disengaged. The project will also investigate how the use of robots affects price behavio ....A New framework to improve human-robot interaction in financial markets. This project aims to investigate the interaction of humans with robots (automated, algorithmic traders) in financial markets. It will build a novel environment based on controlled experiments within the context of financial markets. It is expected to discover how market participants choose to engage robots, and when and why robots are disengaged. The project will also investigate how the use of robots affects price behaviour, and efficiency of allocation. This will provide significant benefits, such as enhancing Australia’s capacity for the scientific study of financial markets and for developing financial technology using an experimental method.Read moreRead less
Posted prices, bargaining and auctions: an experimental examination. This project uses economic methods to investigate how trading institutions affect prices and efficiency. It examines markets with directed search: buyers visit sellers based on any information they have. Simultaneous buyer choices and sellers’ capacity constraints lead to “frictions” where not all profitable exchanges occur - more realistic than the usual “frictionless” assumption. The project will vary: whether sellers can pos ....Posted prices, bargaining and auctions: an experimental examination. This project uses economic methods to investigate how trading institutions affect prices and efficiency. It examines markets with directed search: buyers visit sellers based on any information they have. Simultaneous buyer choices and sellers’ capacity constraints lead to “frictions” where not all profitable exchanges occur - more realistic than the usual “frictionless” assumption. The project will vary: whether sellers can post prices in advance; and, whether and how negotiation occurs based on how many buyers (one vs two or more) visit a seller. The project will use results from auction, bargaining, game and search theories, and new analysis, to form predictions, which will be tested using experiments. The results should have implications for labour and competition policies.Read moreRead less
Applying behavioural insights to the tax system in Australia. Applying behavioural insights to the tax system in Australia. This project aims to improve compliance and payment in the Australian tax system. It aims to tackle debts of individuals and businesses, the most challenging aspect of tax systems, by applying behavioural insights to design innovative payment interventions and conducting rigorous randomised controlled trials to evaluate their effects. An empirical analysis will account for ....Applying behavioural insights to the tax system in Australia. Applying behavioural insights to the tax system in Australia. This project aims to improve compliance and payment in the Australian tax system. It aims to tackle debts of individuals and businesses, the most challenging aspect of tax systems, by applying behavioural insights to design innovative payment interventions and conducting rigorous randomised controlled trials to evaluate their effects. An empirical analysis will account for heterogeneity in treatment responses, and the findings will be combined with a study of regulatory and administrative processes to support the ultimate goal of a legitimate, fair, cost-effective and responsive tax system.Read moreRead less