The value of financial planning advice - process and outcome effects on consumer well-being. Knowledge of how financial advice contributes to consumer well-being is vital as industry and policy-makers strive to professionalise financial planning and enhance the quality of advice. Outcomes of this research project will inform policy debate and industry practices for improving the value of financial planning advice to consumers and their well-being.
The impact of payout policy changes on firm value and short selling activities across different taxation regimes. Brealey et al (2011) assert that we don't know enough yet about how payout policy varies across firms. This project examines the information content of dividend changes and repurchase programs and the long-term market impact of these announcements, controlling for the substitution effect of repurchases/dividends in different institutional/tax regimes. This project also examines wheth ....The impact of payout policy changes on firm value and short selling activities across different taxation regimes. Brealey et al (2011) assert that we don't know enough yet about how payout policy varies across firms. This project examines the information content of dividend changes and repurchase programs and the long-term market impact of these announcements, controlling for the substitution effect of repurchases/dividends in different institutional/tax regimes. This project also examines whether short sellers manifest abnormal behaviour around the announcement of dividend changes and repurchase programs, and whether earnings are manipulated upwards to maintain the dividend or downwards prior to the announcement of repurchase programs. The findings will be of major interest to academics, managers, investors and regulators.Read moreRead less
Participatory Visualisation & Assessment of Risks: A Crowdsourcing Approach. The aim of this study is to develop and evaluate innovative interaction and visualisation approaches that allow the insurance sector to include social media and crowdsourced data in risk identification and assessment. This data, combined with traditional risk assessment information, offers time-critical insights into emerging hazards and threats. The study aims to deliver methods and tools to crowdsource data from contr ....Participatory Visualisation & Assessment of Risks: A Crowdsourcing Approach. The aim of this study is to develop and evaluate innovative interaction and visualisation approaches that allow the insurance sector to include social media and crowdsourced data in risk identification and assessment. This data, combined with traditional risk assessment information, offers time-critical insights into emerging hazards and threats. The study aims to deliver methods and tools to crowdsource data from contributors through sensing and active sharing, as well as novel interaction and visualisation approaches to aid in the analysis of the resulting data. The project intends to benefit both the insurers and the insured by making non-traditional data sources available for risk assessment and prevention.Read moreRead less
Change Detection in Causal Relationships and Measurement of Systemic Risk. Empirical measures of interconnectedness between financial institutions based on tests of Granger causality are currently used in detecting systemic risk. However, researchers need to define periods of calm and stress exogenously in order to implement these tests appropriately. This project aims to develop a new procedure to identify changes in causal relationships and the timing of these changes. The new approach has the ....Change Detection in Causal Relationships and Measurement of Systemic Risk. Empirical measures of interconnectedness between financial institutions based on tests of Granger causality are currently used in detecting systemic risk. However, researchers need to define periods of calm and stress exogenously in order to implement these tests appropriately. This project aims to develop a new procedure to identify changes in causal relationships and the timing of these changes. The new approach has the potential to be a significant improvement in the real-time identification of emerging turmoil in financial markets and provide an improved method for the detection of systemic risk. The new test procedure will be implemented using data for financial and non-financial institutions across Europe, the US and Australia.Read moreRead less
Rare Event Simulation with Heavy Tails. The project provides a rigorous way to enhance our understanding of the mechanisms that bring about catastrophic rare events such as urban flooding, electricity shortages and financial bankrupcy. Australia is at the forefront of exciting recent developments in rare event simulation. The advancement of the knowledge in this area will generate a competitive advantage for various sections of the Australian industry, including the areas of industrial reliabili ....Rare Event Simulation with Heavy Tails. The project provides a rigorous way to enhance our understanding of the mechanisms that bring about catastrophic rare events such as urban flooding, electricity shortages and financial bankrupcy. Australia is at the forefront of exciting recent developments in rare event simulation. The advancement of the knowledge in this area will generate a competitive advantage for various sections of the Australian industry, including the areas of industrial reliability, finance and insurance, were accurate simulation techniques are becoming increasingly important.Read moreRead less
Novel econometric techniques for dealing with point processes in high frequency financial data with applications to financial risk management. The recent global financial crisis highlighted the inherent risk involved in investing in financial assets. This project aims to develop novel statistical methods for forecasting the onset of instability in asset prices. The outcomes of this research will lead to improvements in the management of financial risk.
Farming 4 Care: Using nature to cultivate resilience in young people. This project aims to explore how passive and active engagement with nature might influence outcomes for young people who have experienced trauma, maltreatment and disrupted families. These people are extremely vulnerable, but often slip through the system. As they rarely engage in traditional therapy, non-traditional interventions may offer a viable alternative that should be explored and harnessed for this population. In addi ....Farming 4 Care: Using nature to cultivate resilience in young people. This project aims to explore how passive and active engagement with nature might influence outcomes for young people who have experienced trauma, maltreatment and disrupted families. These people are extremely vulnerable, but often slip through the system. As they rarely engage in traditional therapy, non-traditional interventions may offer a viable alternative that should be explored and harnessed for this population. In addition, traditional interventions are delivered at enormous cost and with minimal success for this group. Using an innovative multidisciplinary design, the project plans to test four hypotheses about nature engagement to contribute to the growing field of nature-based interventions. Our approach offers an alternative that draws on existing community resources and benefits local organisations, young people and farmers.Read moreRead less
Improving contact between children in out-of-home care and their birth parents: developing and trialling a contact intervention. There is little evidence on how to best manage contact between the 37,648 children in care nationally and their birth parents. The aim of this project is to develop and trial a new model of contact which will reduce distress, improve children's relationships with their birth parents and increase successful reunifications in the long term.
Reducing recurrence in the child protection system. The project examines the factors associated with once-only and repeated notifications of child abuse and neglect. It is important that early intervention services for vulnerable children are targeted to ensure an evidence-based match between child and family needs and services.
A study of best practice in intervention with parental agreement: creating change with families in statutory child protection services. This project will explore how parental agreements can be used in statutory child protection services as an alternative to more intrusive forms of intervention. Expected outcomes include better use of parental agreements to enhance the protection of children and promote the well-being of vulnerable families.