Growing unequal: diverging childhood outcomes in Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom and the United States. How and why do the outcomes of children from rich and poor families differ in the early and middle school years? This study will compare Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom and the United States and help to explain why mobility between generations is greater in some countries than others.
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE120101642
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$375,000.00
Summary
Army service, employment incentives and veterans' life outcomes: a natural experiment. This project will analyse the complex long-run effects of Australia's conscription ballots on the lives of conscripts and their families. Treating the ballots as 'natural experiments', it will consider direct effects of army service, including service in Vietnam and the effects of incentives created by veterans' compensation on a range of outcomes.
Using behavioural economic insights to overcome student procrastination. This project aims to study the relations between present-biased time preference, procrastination, and achievement at school, using economic experiments. Investment in human capital generates economic benefits for students, families, employers, and society, but its benefits are realised far into the future. Because of these immediate costs and delayed benefits, behavioural economic theory predicts that students will procrast ....Using behavioural economic insights to overcome student procrastination. This project aims to study the relations between present-biased time preference, procrastination, and achievement at school, using economic experiments. Investment in human capital generates economic benefits for students, families, employers, and society, but its benefits are realised far into the future. Because of these immediate costs and delayed benefits, behavioural economic theory predicts that students will procrastinate. This project will identify the characteristics of students at greatest risk of procrastination, evaluate practical strategies to overcome it, and examine whether it is associated with poorer outcomes. This should help schools and policy makers reduce educational inequalities, and yield long-term benefits over students’ lives.Read moreRead less
Microeconomic effects of Australian natural disasters. This project aims to describe and identify the effects of Australian natural disasters – such as the Black Saturday bushfires and the Brisbane floods – on important microeconomic outcomes, including health, education and employment. Natural disasters have profound economic and social effects on individuals and communities. This project intends to bring evidence on how disasters affect individuals and how the effects can be lessened. The proj ....Microeconomic effects of Australian natural disasters. This project aims to describe and identify the effects of Australian natural disasters – such as the Black Saturday bushfires and the Brisbane floods – on important microeconomic outcomes, including health, education and employment. Natural disasters have profound economic and social effects on individuals and communities. This project intends to bring evidence on how disasters affect individuals and how the effects can be lessened. The project expects to inform policy-makers on these critical issues by analysing field, survey and administrative data on individuals before and after past disasters.Read moreRead less
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE140100463
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$380,364.00
Summary
Exceptional upward mobility against all odds: Non-cognitive skills and early-childhood disadvantage. Children from economically disadvantaged backgrounds who exceed their parents' social achievements are pioneers. The aims of this project are to introduce this exceptional upward mobility as an alternative measure of economic success and to study its distribution and determinants. The main hypothesis is that these pioneers, apart from being intelligent, have a set of non-cognitive skills that mak ....Exceptional upward mobility against all odds: Non-cognitive skills and early-childhood disadvantage. Children from economically disadvantaged backgrounds who exceed their parents' social achievements are pioneers. The aims of this project are to introduce this exceptional upward mobility as an alternative measure of economic success and to study its distribution and determinants. The main hypothesis is that these pioneers, apart from being intelligent, have a set of non-cognitive skills that make them successful. This will be the first study to analyse these individuals and the personality-related determinants of their life trajectories. It will contribute to understand the various pathways via which non-cognitive skills affect upward mobility, and assess their malleability during childhood or adolescence.Read moreRead less
Human Capital, Cognitive Skills and Labour Market Outcomes. As Australia competes in the ‘educational race,’ this project will generate new knowledge on the relationship between education, skill attainment and economic outcomes in Australia. The research will provide new empirical evidence on cognitive and non-cognitive skills formation over the life-cycle, and the relationship between these skills and labour market outcomes in Australia within the broader international context. The research wil ....Human Capital, Cognitive Skills and Labour Market Outcomes. As Australia competes in the ‘educational race,’ this project will generate new knowledge on the relationship between education, skill attainment and economic outcomes in Australia. The research will provide new empirical evidence on cognitive and non-cognitive skills formation over the life-cycle, and the relationship between these skills and labour market outcomes in Australia within the broader international context. The research will advance methodological techniques for the economic analysis of cognitive skills and their economic impacts. The research will inform public policy formulation relating to educational attainment, skill development, and strategies to encourage longer workforce engagement over the life-cycle.Read moreRead less
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE170101060
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$323,000.00
Summary
Employer strategies for developing a skilled workforce. This project aims to discover why employers use particular strategies when sourcing skills and whether these strategies benefit their workers.Addressing employer skills needs expediently is imperative for productivity and national prosperity. Employers’ strategies have profound implications for the workforce and the Australian labour market, particularly at a time of rising unemployment. This project will study why employers increasingly ‘b ....Employer strategies for developing a skilled workforce. This project aims to discover why employers use particular strategies when sourcing skills and whether these strategies benefit their workers.Addressing employer skills needs expediently is imperative for productivity and national prosperity. Employers’ strategies have profound implications for the workforce and the Australian labour market, particularly at a time of rising unemployment. This project will study why employers increasingly ‘buy’ skills externally, through recruitment and sponsored immigration, rather than ‘build’ skills internally through employee development strategies. Understanding how immigration and domestic policy mechanisms addressing employer and labour market needs is expected to inform policy development on this vital issue.Read moreRead less
Endgame: managing superannuation in later life. This project aims to come up with strategies for improving superannuation advice for the elderly - including retirees, and also those on the cusp of retirement, who often have little or no scope for working harder or longer to restore their finances. It applies recent developments in financial economics to improve the quality of financial planning advice.
Predicting the diagnostic performance of individuals and organisations. Predicting the diagnostic performance of individuals and organisations. This project aims to address diagnostic error in advanced technology systems, by providing a mechanism to assess and improve individual diagnosticians’ performance. Organisations that rely on their employees’ diagnostic skills rarely assess them once the operators become qualified, so there is no basis for interventions that might prevent diagnostic erro ....Predicting the diagnostic performance of individuals and organisations. Predicting the diagnostic performance of individuals and organisations. This project aims to address diagnostic error in advanced technology systems, by providing a mechanism to assess and improve individual diagnosticians’ performance. Organisations that rely on their employees’ diagnostic skills rarely assess them once the operators become qualified, so there is no basis for interventions that might prevent diagnostic errors affecting thousands. This research tests a new method of assessing diagnostic skills based on how skilled operators respond to cues. This project will test how employees’ diagnostic skills change and whether this change corresponds to measures of organisational performance. This research is expected to provide organisations with a tool to pre-empt diagnostic errors that could minimise costs to the economy.Read moreRead less
Living With Uncertainty: Creating the Postmodern Self in Contemporary Australia. Life in postmodernity is marked by rapid change and uncertainty. Increasingly, as tradition is worn away, individuals must create new scripts to give life meaning and structure. Through a case study of gays and lesbians, this project will investigate how a group of Australians are creating postmodern selves. Drawing on in-depth interviews, it traces the relationship between discursive and psychological accounts of t ....Living With Uncertainty: Creating the Postmodern Self in Contemporary Australia. Life in postmodernity is marked by rapid change and uncertainty. Increasingly, as tradition is worn away, individuals must create new scripts to give life meaning and structure. Through a case study of gays and lesbians, this project will investigate how a group of Australians are creating postmodern selves. Drawing on in-depth interviews, it traces the relationship between discursive and psychological accounts of the postmodern self and their political effects. With a particular interest in emotional life, this study will provide critical information on how individuals and communities can manage creatively the uncertain conditions of postmodernity.Read moreRead less