Small firms' finances: effects on employment, wages and growth. The project aims to estimate how difficulties in accessing financial and credit markets affect small and medium enterprise (SME) decisions about employment, wages, entry and exit. Although the SME sector is Australia’s largest employer, the extent to which financial constraints affect these firms' market performance and their ability to create and sustain employment is unknown. The project plans to use an econometric analysis of fir ....Small firms' finances: effects on employment, wages and growth. The project aims to estimate how difficulties in accessing financial and credit markets affect small and medium enterprise (SME) decisions about employment, wages, entry and exit. Although the SME sector is Australia’s largest employer, the extent to which financial constraints affect these firms' market performance and their ability to create and sustain employment is unknown. The project plans to use an econometric analysis of firm level panel data to fill this gap. The intended outcome is micro-econometric findings tailored to improve targeted labour and financial policy. The expected benefit is to provide input to policy responses that support employment, productivity and wages in volatile market conditions.Read moreRead less
Intergenerational Disadvantage: Causes, Pathways, and Consequences. This Project aims to prevent poor Australian children from becoming poor adults by developing scientific evidence and creative policy approaches to overcome entrenched disadvantage. The Project will generate new knowledge on how social assistance dependence is linked across generations using new Australian data. Expected outcomes are the identification of i) the causal link between parents’ and children’s social assistance depen ....Intergenerational Disadvantage: Causes, Pathways, and Consequences. This Project aims to prevent poor Australian children from becoming poor adults by developing scientific evidence and creative policy approaches to overcome entrenched disadvantage. The Project will generate new knowledge on how social assistance dependence is linked across generations using new Australian data. Expected outcomes are the identification of i) the causal link between parents’ and children’s social assistance dependence; ii) the pathways through which youths overcome disadvantage; and iii) the role of family structure in transmitting disadvantage. Transforming the evidence base, the findings will have significant benefits in redesigning the Australian social safety net, promoting social and economic mobility.Read moreRead less
An inter-disciplinary analysis of the dynamics of Aboriginal interactions with the criminal justice system. The over-representation of Indigenous Australians in prison continues to be a serious problem, more than a decade after the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody. There are few rigorous studies identifying the dynamic factors associated with Indigenous interaction with the criminal justice system. This project will identify the Indigenous pathways within the system, in order t ....An inter-disciplinary analysis of the dynamics of Aboriginal interactions with the criminal justice system. The over-representation of Indigenous Australians in prison continues to be a serious problem, more than a decade after the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody. There are few rigorous studies identifying the dynamic factors associated with Indigenous interaction with the criminal justice system. This project will identify the Indigenous pathways within the system, in order to alert policy-makers to potential interventions at crucial junctures of criminal careers. It will use dynamic statistical models to identify important socioeconomic and geographic factors. Qualitative data will facilitate a deeper understanding of processes underlying the high rates of Indigenous arrest and imprisonment.Read moreRead less