Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE140101260
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$390,821.00
Summary
Tackling obesity: What role for behavioural and standard economics? The international community is grappling with the obesity epidemic. Behavioural economics has gained international attention by offering insights into individual decision making that can potentially be used in policy to nudge individuals to change their behaviour to improve their health. However, there is a paucity of evidence regarding its likely success in this endeavour. This project uses discrete choice and economic laborato ....Tackling obesity: What role for behavioural and standard economics? The international community is grappling with the obesity epidemic. Behavioural economics has gained international attention by offering insights into individual decision making that can potentially be used in policy to nudge individuals to change their behaviour to improve their health. However, there is a paucity of evidence regarding its likely success in this endeavour. This project uses discrete choice and economic laboratory experiments to investigate social acceptability of, and predicted behaviour change in response to, a range of behavioural and standard economic inspired policies. Results will inform optimal investment and targeting of policy to prevent and reduce obesity.Read moreRead less
Econometric studies of the dynamics of loneliness and social isolation. This project aims to provide new insights into the socioeconomic dynamics of loneliness and social isolation using advanced econometric modelling techniques applied to longitudinal data from Australia and the UK. This project will apply advanced econometric modelling techniques to data from four nationally-representative longitudinal surveys to substantively help address these knowledge gaps, giving policy-makers new informa ....Econometric studies of the dynamics of loneliness and social isolation. This project aims to provide new insights into the socioeconomic dynamics of loneliness and social isolation using advanced econometric modelling techniques applied to longitudinal data from Australia and the UK. This project will apply advanced econometric modelling techniques to data from four nationally-representative longitudinal surveys to substantively help address these knowledge gaps, giving policy-makers new information about how to address these growing societal concerns. The expected outcomes will provide policy-makers with a better understanding of the socioeconomic triggers for loneliness and social isolation; quantify the costs of loneliness and social isolation on health and wellbeing; and identify policy interventions aimed at reducing loneliness and social isolation.Read moreRead less
Time Delay, Externalities and Attitudes Toward Taxation. Public attitudes toward a policy have a significant impact on its effectiveness. The aim of this project is to investigate the determinants of public attitudes for incentive-based institutions, particularly taxes, by highlighting the importance of considering the intertemporal properties of taxation: when costs and benefits of taxation occur at different times. This project is designed to be a controlled study of how and why public attitud ....Time Delay, Externalities and Attitudes Toward Taxation. Public attitudes toward a policy have a significant impact on its effectiveness. The aim of this project is to investigate the determinants of public attitudes for incentive-based institutions, particularly taxes, by highlighting the importance of considering the intertemporal properties of taxation: when costs and benefits of taxation occur at different times. This project is designed to be a controlled study of how and why public attitudes towards taxation are influenced by the temporal structure of the externalities that the taxes are meant to control. The anticipated goal is to inform the design of institutions that the public will accept and, more generally, improve the understanding of intertemporal decision-making in environments with delayed externalities.Read moreRead less
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE160100141
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$385,000.00
Summary
Creating food environments that encourage healthy eating. The aim of this project is to trial scalable and sustainable interventions that encourage healthy purchasing and eating behaviours in supermarket settings. Most food in Australia is purchased in supermarkets and unhealthy eating is the greatest contributor to Australian life years lost. The project will assess the effect of a range of interventions on purchases of healthy and unhealthy foods and the financial impact on the retailer in eig ....Creating food environments that encourage healthy eating. The aim of this project is to trial scalable and sustainable interventions that encourage healthy purchasing and eating behaviours in supermarket settings. Most food in Australia is purchased in supermarkets and unhealthy eating is the greatest contributor to Australian life years lost. The project will assess the effect of a range of interventions on purchases of healthy and unhealthy foods and the financial impact on the retailer in eight supermarkets and a novel virtual supermarket. The economic analysis aims to ensure that successful public policy interventions are translatable to other retailers.Read moreRead less
Posted prices, bargaining and auctions: an experimental examination. This project uses economic methods to investigate how trading institutions affect prices and efficiency. It examines markets with directed search: buyers visit sellers based on any information they have. Simultaneous buyer choices and sellers’ capacity constraints lead to “frictions” where not all profitable exchanges occur - more realistic than the usual “frictionless” assumption. The project will vary: whether sellers can pos ....Posted prices, bargaining and auctions: an experimental examination. This project uses economic methods to investigate how trading institutions affect prices and efficiency. It examines markets with directed search: buyers visit sellers based on any information they have. Simultaneous buyer choices and sellers’ capacity constraints lead to “frictions” where not all profitable exchanges occur - more realistic than the usual “frictionless” assumption. The project will vary: whether sellers can post prices in advance; and, whether and how negotiation occurs based on how many buyers (one vs two or more) visit a seller. The project will use results from auction, bargaining, game and search theories, and new analysis, to form predictions, which will be tested using experiments. The results should have implications for labour and competition policies.Read moreRead less
The Aging Population, Superannuation and Corporate Dividend Policy. The project intends to examine how population wealth and age affect one important aspect of corporate decision-making, namely dividend policy. Researchers invest considerable effort in understanding how demographics impact upon the need for, and structure of, government systems including social security and taxation, but relatively little is known about its effect on capital markets or corporate decision-making. Although individ ....The Aging Population, Superannuation and Corporate Dividend Policy. The project intends to examine how population wealth and age affect one important aspect of corporate decision-making, namely dividend policy. Researchers invest considerable effort in understanding how demographics impact upon the need for, and structure of, government systems including social security and taxation, but relatively little is known about its effect on capital markets or corporate decision-making. Although individual investors are, by nature, atomistic, the project argues changes in investor preferences will ultimately prompt companies to alter their dividend policies. Pressure on firms to update these policies will come from superannuation and pension fund managers who, as fiduciaries, will invest money consistent with clients' revised preferences. The project aims to more fully characterise how Australia's ageing population will affect the public and private sectors.Read moreRead less
Alcohol, tobacco and gambling expenditure and socioeconomic inequalities. Drinking, smoking and gambling are common lifestyle risk behaviors, which constitute critical social and health challenges for Australia. This project is the first study to examine trends in household expenditure on alcohol, tobacco, gambling, and other goods and services over the past 30 years. More importantly, this project pioneers analysis of the associations between alcohol, tobacco and gambling expenditure and housin ....Alcohol, tobacco and gambling expenditure and socioeconomic inequalities. Drinking, smoking and gambling are common lifestyle risk behaviors, which constitute critical social and health challenges for Australia. This project is the first study to examine trends in household expenditure on alcohol, tobacco, gambling, and other goods and services over the past 30 years. More importantly, this project pioneers analysis of the associations between alcohol, tobacco and gambling expenditure and housing and socioeconomic inequalities over time. The research findings will provide key insights into the changing place of these three risk behaviors in Australian society and inform future public policies to reduce problem drinking, smoking and gambling and related harms. Read moreRead less
The effect of bargaining power on bargaining outcomes: the roles of institutions, earned bargaining position and social norms. Previous research has found that people exploit their bargaining power far less than economic theories predict. This project uses an economics experiment to study several factors affecting how bargaining power is used: restrictions on the bargaining process; whether and how bargaining power is 'earned' and whether equal divisions are plausible.
Threshold models in micro-econometrics with applications to empirical models of health. The aim of this project is to develop and apply new statistical approaches to endogenously identify non-linear relationships between explanatory variable(s) and the response variable in non-linear econometric models and to illustrate these with applications important to empirical health economics. Literature proliferates in linear models with non-linear effects, but in health economics non-linear models domin ....Threshold models in micro-econometrics with applications to empirical models of health. The aim of this project is to develop and apply new statistical approaches to endogenously identify non-linear relationships between explanatory variable(s) and the response variable in non-linear econometric models and to illustrate these with applications important to empirical health economics. Literature proliferates in linear models with non-linear effects, but in health economics non-linear models dominate. This project will generalise these techniques to allow for various forms of the threshold variable(s), including categorical and continuous, endogenous and exogenous, and those measured with error.Read moreRead less
Multidisciplinary analysis of financial reference points and wellbeing. The aim is to find how to improve financial decisions (i) during unexpected economic shocks, and (ii) by the socially disadvantaged. The project will produce the first large-scale evidence on heterogeneity in benchmarks (reference points) against which people evaluate financial alternatives and the role of such benchmarks in financial risk-taking and in creating and perpetuating economic inequality. The expected outcomes inc ....Multidisciplinary analysis of financial reference points and wellbeing. The aim is to find how to improve financial decisions (i) during unexpected economic shocks, and (ii) by the socially disadvantaged. The project will produce the first large-scale evidence on heterogeneity in benchmarks (reference points) against which people evaluate financial alternatives and the role of such benchmarks in financial risk-taking and in creating and perpetuating economic inequality. The expected outcomes include transformed interdisciplinary understanding of financial decisions and significantly greater capacity for multidisciplinary collaboration. The findings will inform policy on promoting financial wellbeing and to mitigate the devastating effects of sudden economic shocks such as that of COVID-19.Read moreRead less