Understanding online attention and user-generated content creation: An information consumption and production perspective. There is a strong practical need for methods for understanding and measuring online behaviour. In this project, economic index number theory will be used to study information consumption, leading to new ways of measuring online attention and influence. Techniques for studying scaling relationships in the physical world will be used to study information production, leading to ....Understanding online attention and user-generated content creation: An information consumption and production perspective. There is a strong practical need for methods for understanding and measuring online behaviour. In this project, economic index number theory will be used to study information consumption, leading to new ways of measuring online attention and influence. Techniques for studying scaling relationships in the physical world will be used to study information production, leading to new insights into the efficiency of production of user-generated content. The project will contribute to understanding how social media such as Twitter contribute to social unrest and affect consumer decisions, and how distributed online collaboration can produce economically-valuable information resources such as Wikipedia.Read moreRead less
Improving Choice Models: Multiple Goal Pursuit and Multi-Stage Decision Processes. This project aims to develop new econometric models of choice behaviour that recognise individuals adopt “how to decide” strategies when choosing between alternatives. Existing models simplistically assume that people evaluate all goods and choose the best of them, when in fact they ignore some goods, select what information is relevant, pursue multiple goals, and otherwise deviate from the assumptions commonly ma ....Improving Choice Models: Multiple Goal Pursuit and Multi-Stage Decision Processes. This project aims to develop new econometric models of choice behaviour that recognise individuals adopt “how to decide” strategies when choosing between alternatives. Existing models simplistically assume that people evaluate all goods and choose the best of them, when in fact they ignore some goods, select what information is relevant, pursue multiple goals, and otherwise deviate from the assumptions commonly made in econometric models. Filling in this significant gap in the choice modelling literature constitutes a significant contribution to improving our understanding of human decision making and policy analysis in every area of human endeavour.Read moreRead less
Accounting for preference seperability in stated choice experiments. This project aims to unite three separate streams of applied economic research into a single framework in order to develop a micro-economically consistent framework for demand forecasting and analysis. Forecasting demand to improve product performance or policy impacts requires realistic representations of how humans actually make choices. Combining theories of preference separability with recent developments in both activity a ....Accounting for preference seperability in stated choice experiments. This project aims to unite three separate streams of applied economic research into a single framework in order to develop a micro-economically consistent framework for demand forecasting and analysis. Forecasting demand to improve product performance or policy impacts requires realistic representations of how humans actually make choices. Combining theories of preference separability with recent developments in both activity and time use modelling and stated choice techniques, the project plans to develop new insights into consumer equilibrium as well as new econometric methods to test for the assumption of preference separability. Project outcomes would lead to an improved understanding of consumer behaviour as well as demand forecasting, with benefits to studies involving the need for benefit cost comparisons.Read moreRead less
Innovative approach to a fair tax system for Multinationals and Governments. Multinationals (MNCs) tax avoidance has become a national blight and a global problem impacting tax fairness, transparency and economic efficiency. This project aims to find the optimal solution for the tax avoidance problem for both MNCs and governments via effective cost-benefit analysis through the design of a cutting-edge interdisciplinary machine-learning technique. Expected outcomes will include profound breakthro ....Innovative approach to a fair tax system for Multinationals and Governments. Multinationals (MNCs) tax avoidance has become a national blight and a global problem impacting tax fairness, transparency and economic efficiency. This project aims to find the optimal solution for the tax avoidance problem for both MNCs and governments via effective cost-benefit analysis through the design of a cutting-edge interdisciplinary machine-learning technique. Expected outcomes will include profound breakthroughs for enhancing economic growth via tax policy reform in Australia but also globally through cross-country tax avoidance comparison. The benefits will be instrumental in reforming fiscal and investment policies that are highly critical for improving economic welfare and capital inflows in Australia.Read moreRead less
Heuristic-based behavioural models with an application to macroeconomics. This project will develop behavioural micro-foundations for economic models with heterogeneous agents. In these models the interaction of decision rules used by agents leads to complex phenomena at the aggregate level, for example, the cycles of bubbles and crashes. The agents switch between decision rules on the basis of past performance. However, a broad range of specifications of the rules and switching mechanisms has l ....Heuristic-based behavioural models with an application to macroeconomics. This project will develop behavioural micro-foundations for economic models with heterogeneous agents. In these models the interaction of decision rules used by agents leads to complex phenomena at the aggregate level, for example, the cycles of bubbles and crashes. The agents switch between decision rules on the basis of past performance. However, a broad range of specifications of the rules and switching mechanisms has led to many degrees of freedom in modelling. In this project, laboratory experiments with paid human subjects will be used to discipline this modelling. The resulting models will improve macroeconomic and financial policy responses to volatile market conditions.Read moreRead less
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE120101426
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$375,000.00
Summary
Understanding industrialisation, entrepreneurship, and technology adoption in emerging economies: new evidence from historical Japanese firms. Japan's pre-war industrialisation is widely used as a model by emerging economies, despite a lack of detailed data. This project provides a new firm-level dataset from hitherto unused archives, which allows empirical testing of theories about entrepreneurial activity, technology adoption, financial access, and other determinants of economic growth.
Information design, cognitive abilities and macro-economic stability. This project aims to improve our understanding of individual decision making in financial markets and its implications for macro-economic stability. Using laboratory and internet experiments, models of adaptive choice behaviour will be developed and validated. The project will help to gain insight into how past information, and the way it is presented, affects investment decisions, which individual characteristics matter for d ....Information design, cognitive abilities and macro-economic stability. This project aims to improve our understanding of individual decision making in financial markets and its implications for macro-economic stability. Using laboratory and internet experiments, models of adaptive choice behaviour will be developed and validated. The project will help to gain insight into how past information, and the way it is presented, affects investment decisions, which individual characteristics matter for decisions, and how this behaviour translates into the evolution of aggregate macro-economic variables. The expected outcomes of the project will have the potential to improve the design of tools for better individual financial decision making, to stabilize volatile markets and to enhance economic welfare.Read moreRead less
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE200100653
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$399,350.00
Summary
Tools of racial control: an economic analysis of laws vs. violence. This project aims to develop and empirically test a theory of racial violence, which predicts that as racist laws are removed, racial violence increases. To test this hypothesis, I will construct a new, comprehensive dataset of lynchings and racist legislation in post-Civil War America, where newly freed blacks gained significant freedoms, but also experienced widespread violence. The empirical analysis proposes to identify a no ....Tools of racial control: an economic analysis of laws vs. violence. This project aims to develop and empirically test a theory of racial violence, which predicts that as racist laws are removed, racial violence increases. To test this hypothesis, I will construct a new, comprehensive dataset of lynchings and racist legislation in post-Civil War America, where newly freed blacks gained significant freedoms, but also experienced widespread violence. The empirical analysis proposes to identify a novel mechanism for racial violence in this context: a desire for racial control in areas that incurred shocks to the white sex ratio during the Civil War and distorted marriage markets thereafter. The findings aim to significantly contribute to our understanding of racial violence in both the US and Australia today.Read moreRead less
Adaptive economic management of Australia's urban water. This project responds to the so-called 'wicked problem' of ensuring an adequate supply of water to urban consumers at the lowest price even during long-term droughts. The project will generate, for the first time in the world, an integrated, dynamic, and adaptive supply and demand model to manage urban water optimally over time.
Market Design for the Reallocation of Land. This fellowship uses laboratory and lab-in-the-field experiments to explores how market design can be used to develop combinatorial exchanges that allow participants to exchange packages of land. Allowing for package bids can facilitate trade in situations where owning one piece of land increases the value of adjacent land and where assembling contiguous pieces of land is important. Combinatorial exchanges have the potential to increase the productivit ....Market Design for the Reallocation of Land. This fellowship uses laboratory and lab-in-the-field experiments to explores how market design can be used to develop combinatorial exchanges that allow participants to exchange packages of land. Allowing for package bids can facilitate trade in situations where owning one piece of land increases the value of adjacent land and where assembling contiguous pieces of land is important. Combinatorial exchanges have the potential to increase the productivity of agriculture land in both Australia and developing countries, encourage urban redevelopment, and help the government secure land for infrastructure and environmental protection in a cost-effective way.Read moreRead less