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
Incentivizing Attendance and Performance at School: A Field Experiment. This project aims to develop and evaluate an incentive-based program to increase the school attendance and performance of Indigenous students to help alleviate current inequalities between Indigenous and non-indigenous Australians. Only 43 per cent of Indigenous Australians graduate from high school compared to 78 per cent for non-Indigenous Australians. The study plans to investigate whether high value rewards (e.g. driving ....Incentivizing Attendance and Performance at School: A Field Experiment. This project aims to develop and evaluate an incentive-based program to increase the school attendance and performance of Indigenous students to help alleviate current inequalities between Indigenous and non-indigenous Australians. Only 43 per cent of Indigenous Australians graduate from high school compared to 78 per cent for non-Indigenous Australians. The study plans to investigate whether high value rewards (e.g. driving licence instruction) are effective in incentivising year 11 and 12 students. It also aims to examine whether the way incentives are provided — ex-post as traditionally done or ex-ante in the form of a trust-based contract — increase high school completion rates of Indigenous students where previous incentive schemes have failed.Read moreRead less
Macro and micro level subjective expectations information and economic behaviour. This project examines the importance of economic expectations on the future state of the economy in decision making. It focuses on large life decisions such as going into retirement, paying for a university education and buying a house. The project also assess the extent to which people are able to make these predictions accurately.
The impact of income support design on the outcomes of children and youth. This project aims to assess how children from low-income families are affected by welfare policy design in Australia – specifically, by policy intended to influence welfare payment receipt and workforce participation of their parent(s). Causal impacts of policy design on children will be identified and evaluated using unique administrative and survey data, and treating recent welfare reforms in Australia as natural experi ....The impact of income support design on the outcomes of children and youth. This project aims to assess how children from low-income families are affected by welfare policy design in Australia – specifically, by policy intended to influence welfare payment receipt and workforce participation of their parent(s). Causal impacts of policy design on children will be identified and evaluated using unique administrative and survey data, and treating recent welfare reforms in Australia as natural experiments.. This will be the first comprehensive Australian analysis of intergenerational impacts of welfare policy design.Read moreRead less