Supporting Entry and Growth of Australian Businesses via Tax and Transfers. This project aims to characterise the optimal tax treatment of business income for insurance and efficiency purposes. Using new data for Australia, the project expects to first identify key determinants of businesses creation, growth and exit, before and after COVID-19. In light of those determinants, the project expects to develop original macroeconomic models integrating firm dynamics into optimal taxation frameworks. ....Supporting Entry and Growth of Australian Businesses via Tax and Transfers. This project aims to characterise the optimal tax treatment of business income for insurance and efficiency purposes. Using new data for Australia, the project expects to first identify key determinants of businesses creation, growth and exit, before and after COVID-19. In light of those determinants, the project expects to develop original macroeconomic models integrating firm dynamics into optimal taxation frameworks. Expected outcomes include formulating fiscal policies that provide adequate stimulus to businesses, by balancing public insurance and income inequality. This should deliver evidence-based inputs to promote Australia's post-pandemic recovery, through the design of a fairer and more efficient business tax and transfer system.Read moreRead less
Technological innovation, trade liberalization, unemployment, and policy design. Australia, like all economies, is heavily influenced by technological changes and shifting trade patterns. Understanding these influences, and the impact they have on the distribution of income, the unemployment rate, and the job mix, is very important for the design of appropriate policy initiatives. The proposed research aims to achieve exactly this by developing a mathematical model which incorporates technologic ....Technological innovation, trade liberalization, unemployment, and policy design. Australia, like all economies, is heavily influenced by technological changes and shifting trade patterns. Understanding these influences, and the impact they have on the distribution of income, the unemployment rate, and the job mix, is very important for the design of appropriate policy initiatives. The proposed research aims to achieve exactly this by developing a mathematical model which incorporates technological change, trade, and unemployment. The model will be used to analyse the effects of these changes and, thus, to design optimal policy. The results from this project should also stimulate policy discussions both within Australia and abroad - enriching academic relations between domestic and international universities.Read moreRead less
The Role of a Central Bank’s Balance Sheet in Shaping the Economy. In response to the global financial crisis, the world’s major central banks cut their rates to near zero and implemented untested unconventional monetary policies, significantly expanding the size and composition of their balance sheets. More than a decade later, the Reserve Bank of Australia is considering similar balance sheet policies. This proposal aims to develop various frameworks that can be used to simulate and evaluate w ....The Role of a Central Bank’s Balance Sheet in Shaping the Economy. In response to the global financial crisis, the world’s major central banks cut their rates to near zero and implemented untested unconventional monetary policies, significantly expanding the size and composition of their balance sheets. More than a decade later, the Reserve Bank of Australia is considering similar balance sheet policies. This proposal aims to develop various frameworks that can be used to simulate and evaluate when and how to eventually undo unconventional monetary policies in order to prevent a prolonged recession. Thus this research proposal will contribute to the current Australian monetary policy debate while providing some insights on how best to implement such policies, improving the living standards of Australians.Read moreRead less
Honesty and efficiency in the provision of expert services: doctors and other experts as participants in economic experiments. Experts serve us when we see the doctor, the financial planner or the car mechanic. In all these case the expert can take advantage of his superior knowledge and sell us something we do not need. This research will inform policy makers about the underlying motives of real world experts and allow them to design better institutions.
Information acquisition and voting behaviour. This project aims to understand citizens’ decisions to acquire information about different policy proposals within a democracy and how such information affects their voting behaviour. Proper democracies rely on the informed participation of their citizens in the political debate and political institutions. The project intends to provide formal theories of information acquisition together with empirical evidence on how voting decisions are shaped by t ....Information acquisition and voting behaviour. This project aims to understand citizens’ decisions to acquire information about different policy proposals within a democracy and how such information affects their voting behaviour. Proper democracies rely on the informed participation of their citizens in the political debate and political institutions. The project intends to provide formal theories of information acquisition together with empirical evidence on how voting decisions are shaped by the quantity and quality of information. Understanding how citizens decide to acquire information would help devise policies to reduce polarisation and improve the quality of the political debate and the democracy.Read moreRead less
Talent Mismatch: Evidence from Australian Administrative Tax Records. The project aims to study the skill composition of the Australian workforce. Changes in the macroeconomic and technology environments make it hard to predict skill shortage. The project expects to develop macroeconomic models quantifying skill-mismatch of university graduates, identify sources of mismatch, highlight gender and generational differences, and estimate associated costs to Australia. The expected outcomes are to he ....Talent Mismatch: Evidence from Australian Administrative Tax Records. The project aims to study the skill composition of the Australian workforce. Changes in the macroeconomic and technology environments make it hard to predict skill shortage. The project expects to develop macroeconomic models quantifying skill-mismatch of university graduates, identify sources of mismatch, highlight gender and generational differences, and estimate associated costs to Australia. The expected outcomes are to help shape policy recommendations on the funding of tertiary education in a changing economic climate. This should provide significant benefits to Australians, as policies shaping the tertiary education system affect individual income and the aggregate economy by determining labour supply and taxpayers' financial burden.Read moreRead less
Climate change: adaptation and resilience in the face of uncertainty. Climate change poses a wide range of challenges to Australia's agricultural sector and for the management of natural ecosystems. These challenges are recognised in the National Research Priorities 1, An Environmentally Sustainable Australia, and 4, Safeguarding Australia. The potential economic costs of climate change to vital national assets such as the Murray-Darling Basin and the Great Barrier Reef, amount to billions of do ....Climate change: adaptation and resilience in the face of uncertainty. Climate change poses a wide range of challenges to Australia's agricultural sector and for the management of natural ecosystems. These challenges are recognised in the National Research Priorities 1, An Environmentally Sustainable Australia, and 4, Safeguarding Australia. The potential economic costs of climate change to vital national assets such as the Murray-Darling Basin and the Great Barrier Reef, amount to billions of dollars per year, and ecological costs are even more significant. Uncertainty about the rate at which climate change will take place and about effects in different regions is central to the problem. This project will explore adaptive management strategies that promote resilience in the face of uncertainty.
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Investigating the Concordance and Transmission of International Business Cycles. Business cycle recessions are costly. Apart from the economic cost, there is the devastating social and psychological impact of unemployment on individuals and families. The 1990/91 recession cost Australia somewhere between $25 and $30 billion in lost output and resulted in a half a million additional unemployed. Australia will certainly experience another recession and, given its openness to international influenc ....Investigating the Concordance and Transmission of International Business Cycles. Business cycle recessions are costly. Apart from the economic cost, there is the devastating social and psychological impact of unemployment on individuals and families. The 1990/91 recession cost Australia somewhere between $25 and $30 billion in lost output and resulted in a half a million additional unemployed. Australia will certainly experience another recession and, given its openness to international influences, it is likely that it will originate elsewhere in the world. In delivering a greater understanding of the interdependencies in international business cycles, the project will assist economic policymakers in their efforts to ameliorate Australia's next recession. Read moreRead less
Understanding macroeconomic fluctuations with unobserved networks. Whilst empirical evidence suggests that firm-level shocks can have large aggregate effects, via network connections, macroeconomic policies have mostly an aggregate nature. This project aims to build a new framework to disentangle aggregate shocks from shocks to individual units. The major innovations are i) to infer the network from the data and ii) to jointly estimate aggregate factors and network effects. Expected outcomes are ....Understanding macroeconomic fluctuations with unobserved networks. Whilst empirical evidence suggests that firm-level shocks can have large aggregate effects, via network connections, macroeconomic policies have mostly an aggregate nature. This project aims to build a new framework to disentangle aggregate shocks from shocks to individual units. The major innovations are i) to infer the network from the data and ii) to jointly estimate aggregate factors and network effects. Expected outcomes are i) measures of systemic risk and ii) a theoretical framework to study the optimality of aggregate versus sectoral stabilization policies. Benefits include a better understanding of macroeconomic fluctuations in Australia and proposed economic policies to mitigate large and persistent declines in employment and GDP.Read moreRead less
Advertising and Drinking: Does it Matter? The Health profession and various community groups have been demanding the government introduce new alcohol advertising policies that aim to reduce the social cost and misery associated with the misuse of alcohol (estimated to cost Australians about $8 billion, cause about 3,300 deaths and 72,000 hospitalisations annually) and to maintain the health and future well-being of Australians. This project will assess the impact of current advertising policies ....Advertising and Drinking: Does it Matter? The Health profession and various community groups have been demanding the government introduce new alcohol advertising policies that aim to reduce the social cost and misery associated with the misuse of alcohol (estimated to cost Australians about $8 billion, cause about 3,300 deaths and 72,000 hospitalisations annually) and to maintain the health and future well-being of Australians. This project will assess the impact of current advertising policies and the impact of a possible ban on alcohol advertising on the level of alcohol consumption in Australia. The results will be useful to the Australian government, the Australian community and the alcohol industry in developing new advertising policies that aim to reduce alcohol consumption.Read moreRead less