Inequality, Trade, and Technology. This project aims to improve our understanding of the causes of rising income inequality in the world economy and in Australia since the early 1980s. We focus on the increasing building costs and imports of machinery as significant contributors to the increasing inequality. We hypothesize 1) that the increasing costs of buildings have reduced the demand for workers that are complementary to non-residential building capital; thus, reducing real wages; and 2) tha ....Inequality, Trade, and Technology. This project aims to improve our understanding of the causes of rising income inequality in the world economy and in Australia since the early 1980s. We focus on the increasing building costs and imports of machinery as significant contributors to the increasing inequality. We hypothesize 1) that the increasing costs of buildings have reduced the demand for workers that are complementary to non-residential building capital; thus, reducing real wages; and 2) that the marked increase in imports of machinery since the 1960s has reduced the demand for unskilled labour and widened the employment and wage gap between skilled and unskilled labour. Both factors may have driven the increasing inequality in Australia.
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Understanding Business Dynamism: Drivers and Macroeconomic Implications. Business dynamism – the process of firm entry, growth and exit – is key for productivity as it moves jobs and capital from less to more efficient uses. But, business dynamism (and with it growth in productivity and living standards) has slowed in many countries, including Australia. Grasping the reasons and economic effects of this is a challenge. This Project aims to reshape our thinking about business dynamism, its driver ....Understanding Business Dynamism: Drivers and Macroeconomic Implications. Business dynamism – the process of firm entry, growth and exit – is key for productivity as it moves jobs and capital from less to more efficient uses. But, business dynamism (and with it growth in productivity and living standards) has slowed in many countries, including Australia. Grasping the reasons and economic effects of this is a challenge. This Project aims to reshape our thinking about business dynamism, its drivers, and how it impacts the economy – from sources of long-run productivity growth and the cleansing effect of firm exit, to how climate risks impact business dynamism. The delivered empirical facts and models will aid policy design for reviving business dynamism, underpinning potentially large societal and economic gains.Read moreRead less
Origins, evolution, and economic cost of gender norms. Gender norms are slow to change, and key drivers of economic development. This proposal leverages natural experiments to test their causal implications on two major channels of economic growth: the trust shared by individuals and the productivity of firms. It will use cutting-edge empirical techniques to generate novel measures of diversity and inclusion for Australian firms, and will conduct original fieldwork, matching experimental measure ....Origins, evolution, and economic cost of gender norms. Gender norms are slow to change, and key drivers of economic development. This proposal leverages natural experiments to test their causal implications on two major channels of economic growth: the trust shared by individuals and the productivity of firms. It will use cutting-edge empirical techniques to generate novel measures of diversity and inclusion for Australian firms, and will conduct original fieldwork, matching experimental measures of trust and cooperation with variation in traditional male versus female roles. This research aims at improving fundamental knowledge about how cultural norms shape economic outcomes and anticipates delivering practical policy recommendations for more efficient and inclusive economic growth. Read moreRead less
Optimal Tax Policy Meets Modern Labour Supply Theory. This project aims to generate new evidence on the optimal design of the federal tax system. Specifically, it seeks to determine the optimal combination of taxes on income, capital and consumption to raise necessary revenue while minimizing disincentives for work and capital formation. The project is innovative because, for the first time, it does optimal tax calculations using models that account fully for how taxes affect human capital inves ....Optimal Tax Policy Meets Modern Labour Supply Theory. This project aims to generate new evidence on the optimal design of the federal tax system. Specifically, it seeks to determine the optimal combination of taxes on income, capital and consumption to raise necessary revenue while minimizing disincentives for work and capital formation. The project is innovative because, for the first time, it does optimal tax calculations using models that account fully for how taxes affect human capital investment and labour force participation. It aims to enhance or understanding of the optimal mix between taxes on earnings, capital and consumption, and the optimal degree of income tax progressivity. The benefit is a tax system better designed to promote economic efficiency and human capital formation. Read moreRead less
Skills, productivity, and wages: Theory and evidence . This project aims to build a macroeconomic model to help understand the implications of heterogeneity in workers skills for wages and productivity.
The research significance of this project is in its treatment of worker skills as an indivisible bundle. This bundling of skills gives rise to the possibility that a given skill is priced differently in different occupations which in turn has implications for firms' incentives to invest in tech ....Skills, productivity, and wages: Theory and evidence . This project aims to build a macroeconomic model to help understand the implications of heterogeneity in workers skills for wages and productivity.
The research significance of this project is in its treatment of worker skills as an indivisible bundle. This bundling of skills gives rise to the possibility that a given skill is priced differently in different occupations which in turn has implications for firms' incentives to invest in technology and training and workers' incentives to invest in education.
This project uses state of the art economic theory and empirical methods and expects to provide a new and better understanding of the sources of wage growth that helps guide national policy formation in innovation and training.
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Structural Adjustment, Income Risk, and Human Capital Specificity. This project will build a macroeconomic model to attempt to understand how an economy should manage structural adjustment to economic shocks (such as a substantial change in trade policy, significant exchange rate appreciation, or major technological change) in order to induce the reallocation of labour and other factors of production across different sectors of the economy. Two key features of the model will be human capital spe ....Structural Adjustment, Income Risk, and Human Capital Specificity. This project will build a macroeconomic model to attempt to understand how an economy should manage structural adjustment to economic shocks (such as a substantial change in trade policy, significant exchange rate appreciation, or major technological change) in order to induce the reallocation of labour and other factors of production across different sectors of the economy. Two key features of the model will be human capital specificity, that is, skills may not be easily transferrable across sectors of the economy, and incomplete markets for income risk so that the burdens of adjustment may be concentrated on displaced workers rather than being efficiently shared. Various policies for managing adjustment will be evaluated quantitatively.Read moreRead less
The Integrated Bio-economy Project and the Controlled Biosphere. This project aims to develop advanced controlled environment production systems (Controlled Biosphere) that exceed the industry standard for profitability, sustainability and climatic resilience. It will generate new knowledge and innovations in technology integration through a highly multi-disciplinary approach. The project outcomes will yield Techno-Economic and Life-Cycle Analyses, designs of the Controlled Biosphere and support ....The Integrated Bio-economy Project and the Controlled Biosphere. This project aims to develop advanced controlled environment production systems (Controlled Biosphere) that exceed the industry standard for profitability, sustainability and climatic resilience. It will generate new knowledge and innovations in technology integration through a highly multi-disciplinary approach. The project outcomes will yield Techno-Economic and Life-Cycle Analyses, designs of the Controlled Biosphere and supporting policy frameworks. The benefits of this project address worsening resource constraints (e.g. available fresh water, arable land, nutrients); By 2050 we will require 70% more food, and 80% greenhouse gas emissions reductions, to maintain economic, social, political and climate security.Read moreRead less