Integrating economics and science for land, water and biodiversity policy. Australian government programs for land and water conservation involve expenditure of billions of dollars, combined with much larger contributions from program participants. However, various problems with these programs have been identified. This research will assist program investors to better target funding, to employ more appropriate policy mechanisms, and to operate in a cost-effective way, achieving the most highly v ....Integrating economics and science for land, water and biodiversity policy. Australian government programs for land and water conservation involve expenditure of billions of dollars, combined with much larger contributions from program participants. However, various problems with these programs have been identified. This research will assist program investors to better target funding, to employ more appropriate policy mechanisms, and to operate in a cost-effective way, achieving the most highly valued environmental outcomes that can be achieved with the available budget. The project will develop improved theories, frameworks and economic models, integrating information from physical, biological and social sciences, and decision tools for use by environmental decision makers.Read moreRead less
The Role of Directors in CorporateTakeovers. This research deals with one of the causes and consequences of mergers and acquisitions (M&A) for boards of directors of companies involved in M&As. The Federal Government's Corporate Law and Economic Reform Program (CLERP), Paper No:3 states that corporate governance practices by Australian companies should be continuously monitored by the Australian Stock Exchange and relevant industries and professional bodies. Our research on the extent to which ....The Role of Directors in CorporateTakeovers. This research deals with one of the causes and consequences of mergers and acquisitions (M&A) for boards of directors of companies involved in M&As. The Federal Government's Corporate Law and Economic Reform Program (CLERP), Paper No:3 states that corporate governance practices by Australian companies should be continuously monitored by the Australian Stock Exchange and relevant industries and professional bodies. Our research on the extent to which directors get penalised and/or rewarded for acquisition decisions depending on the outcomes of the M&A, contribute towards this monitoring.Read moreRead less
Designing Better Landowner Contracts to Protect Australia's Environment. There will be two main benefits from this project. First a reduction in the cost of protecting the environment and second, a greater awareness amongst regulators of the determinants of compliance costs and their variability amongst landowners. By making environmental contracts more efficient, this project will contribute towards making Australian agriculture more sustainable in terms of protecting biodiversity, conserving ....Designing Better Landowner Contracts to Protect Australia's Environment. There will be two main benefits from this project. First a reduction in the cost of protecting the environment and second, a greater awareness amongst regulators of the determinants of compliance costs and their variability amongst landowners. By making environmental contracts more efficient, this project will contribute towards making Australian agriculture more sustainable in terms of protecting biodiversity, conserving water and reducing the rate of soil loss.Read moreRead less
Designing Weather Derivatives and Yield Index Contracts for Rural Australia. This project addresses the security of communities in rural areas. Successful risk management based on weather derivatives and yield index contracts will stabilise the income of rural industries and improve the financial viability of rural communities. It will allow systemic risks from climate change to be reinsured with financial institutions, maintain some of Australia's most important export industries and help maint ....Designing Weather Derivatives and Yield Index Contracts for Rural Australia. This project addresses the security of communities in rural areas. Successful risk management based on weather derivatives and yield index contracts will stabilise the income of rural industries and improve the financial viability of rural communities. It will allow systemic risks from climate change to be reinsured with financial institutions, maintain some of Australia's most important export industries and help maintain leadership in climate risk research. It will use state of the art methods to derive and estimate nonlinear yield indexes, and develop new option pricing methods to value the premium that farmers should pay for a yield index contract. Finally it will evaluate the likely adoption by farmers using nonlinear portfolio theory.Read moreRead less
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE160101306
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$373,848.00
Summary
Valuing the non-market benefits of mine site rehabilitation. This project aims to improve decisions about mine site rehabilitation. Mining causes environmental damage, which mine operators are legally required to rehabilitate. Although companies invest considerably in mine site restoration and biodiversity offsets, we don’t know whether their practices match public preferences for rehabilitation outcomes. Filling this knowledge gap is challenging because the benefits of rehabilitation (eg biodiv ....Valuing the non-market benefits of mine site rehabilitation. This project aims to improve decisions about mine site rehabilitation. Mining causes environmental damage, which mine operators are legally required to rehabilitate. Although companies invest considerably in mine site restoration and biodiversity offsets, we don’t know whether their practices match public preferences for rehabilitation outcomes. Filling this knowledge gap is challenging because the benefits of rehabilitation (eg biodiversity) are not traded in markets. This project aims to address these challenges by estimating, in monetary terms, the values provided by mine site restoration. By identifying these values, the project expects to contribute to improving the design of mine rehabilitation standards, and will enable future policy decisions to be more closely aligned with society’s preferences.Read moreRead less
Evaluating the impact of Indigenous preferential procurement programs. This project aims to conduct a multi-disciplinary, multi-method evaluation of the implementation and impacts of Indigenous preferential procurement programs (IPPPs) on Indigenous businesses, Indigenous communities, procurers’ operations and outcomes. Bringing together researchers in partnership with corporate and government procurers, Indigenous data custodians and the Australian Bureau of Statistics we aim to produce a signi ....Evaluating the impact of Indigenous preferential procurement programs. This project aims to conduct a multi-disciplinary, multi-method evaluation of the implementation and impacts of Indigenous preferential procurement programs (IPPPs) on Indigenous businesses, Indigenous communities, procurers’ operations and outcomes. Bringing together researchers in partnership with corporate and government procurers, Indigenous data custodians and the Australian Bureau of Statistics we aim to produce a significant national program evaluation of IPPPs and the impact at the community level. The project aims to highlight ways in which IPPPs can be [re]designed to reduce implementation friction, facilitate access and participation among Indigenous businesses and help guarantee positive effects on Indigenous communities.Read moreRead less
Do scientist and public preferences diverge? Analysing expert and public preferences for environmental and social outcomes for the Swan River. Expert judgements and public preferences may be quite different, so when can organisations rely on experts, how serious is the divergence, and when does it matter? In a case study of Perth's iconic Swan River, the project will explore this issue and its consequences for decision makers, to assist the Swan River Trust in their future decision making.
Designing better soil quality indexes to improve land and environmental management. This project will develop sound methods for capturing diverse soil quality attributes in summary soil quality indexes to facilitate wiser land and environmental management. The project will generate benefits through: 1) improvements in the sustainability of our agricultural industries by providing better tools for matching soils with crops and for more efficient chemical input use on farms, 3) improvements in env ....Designing better soil quality indexes to improve land and environmental management. This project will develop sound methods for capturing diverse soil quality attributes in summary soil quality indexes to facilitate wiser land and environmental management. The project will generate benefits through: 1) improvements in the sustainability of our agricultural industries by providing better tools for matching soils with crops and for more efficient chemical input use on farms, 3) improvements in environmental water quality through reductions in nonpoint source pollution from agriculture, 3) tools for monitoring the recovery of degraded agricultural or mining soil resources, and 4) better conservation contract design.Read moreRead less
Exchange Rates and Commodity Prices in a Volatile Business Environment. In recent years, many Australian companies have been hurt by the large movements in the value of the Australian dollar, by their inability to forecast these movements, and by deficiencies of their hedging strategies to deal with foreign-exchange risk. This project will develop an alternative way of forecasting the $A in real time using a new methodology, based on purchasing power parity, that shows much promise. Additional ....Exchange Rates and Commodity Prices in a Volatile Business Environment. In recent years, many Australian companies have been hurt by the large movements in the value of the Australian dollar, by their inability to forecast these movements, and by deficiencies of their hedging strategies to deal with foreign-exchange risk. This project will develop an alternative way of forecasting the $A in real time using a new methodology, based on purchasing power parity, that shows much promise. Additionally, an innovative way to analyse gold prices will be further developed, which when combined with the $A forecasts, offers a potentially valuable method of hedging foreign exchange and commodity price risk faced by Australian gold producers.Read moreRead less
Industrial Transformation Training Centres - Grant ID: IC210100008
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$4,282,859.00
Summary
ARC Training Centre for Behavioural Insights for Technology Adoption (BITA). Australia needs accelerated adoption of innovation technologies to improve outcomes in health, agriculture and cybersecurity. Despite technically viable solutions, innovations fail to be adopted due to behavioural barriers. Behavioural approaches can promote significant gains by bridging the barriers to technology adoption. The Centre for Behavioural Insights for Technology Adoption will boost national productivity by i ....ARC Training Centre for Behavioural Insights for Technology Adoption (BITA). Australia needs accelerated adoption of innovation technologies to improve outcomes in health, agriculture and cybersecurity. Despite technically viable solutions, innovations fail to be adopted due to behavioural barriers. Behavioural approaches can promote significant gains by bridging the barriers to technology adoption. The Centre for Behavioural Insights for Technology Adoption will boost national productivity by identifying, designing and evaluating solutions that address these barriers. By uniting industry and government with world-leading interdisciplinary researchers, the Centre will build transformative capability in people, data and solutions and support Australian organisations to achieve higher returns on technology investment.Read moreRead less