Social Safety Nets in India: Effectiveness, Nutritional Impact and Political Economy. India is, potentially, one of Australia's most significant trading and strategic partners. As India, a democratic country with low per capita income deepens its economic reforms programs, their success depends critically upon domestic political support which would require that the policies adopted make a significant dent on poverty. The proposed research will examine the impact of two of the most significant p ....Social Safety Nets in India: Effectiveness, Nutritional Impact and Political Economy. India is, potentially, one of Australia's most significant trading and strategic partners. As India, a democratic country with low per capita income deepens its economic reforms programs, their success depends critically upon domestic political support which would require that the policies adopted make a significant dent on poverty. The proposed research will examine the impact of two of the most significant policy initiatives for poverty alleviation and thus provide critical analyses of how a democratic polity should address poverty. The project's results will also have significant implications for the design of AusAID's recommended anti-poverty interventions in other developing countries. Read moreRead less
Higher order moment contagion testing: implications of the US subprime mortgage crisis for Australia. Even though crises are usually short lived, the long term implications of changes in asset values may be profound, particularly for superannuation assets. Implications of financial crises are also profound for institutions such as the RBA who change policy to achieve domestic objectives. The understanding of how internationally based financial crises affect Australia is important particularly wh ....Higher order moment contagion testing: implications of the US subprime mortgage crisis for Australia. Even though crises are usually short lived, the long term implications of changes in asset values may be profound, particularly for superannuation assets. Implications of financial crises are also profound for institutions such as the RBA who change policy to achieve domestic objectives. The understanding of how internationally based financial crises affect Australia is important particularly when domestic inflationary pressures would appear to precipitate the need for the RBA to take the opposite policy stance to that prevalent of central banks internationally. This proposal highlights these relationships to provide insights into portfolio allocation decisions and provides information to facilitate well founded decisions by policy makers.Read moreRead less
Can Electronic Point-of-Sale (POS) Data Improve the Australian Consumer Price Index? This project will investigate how new sources of data can be used to improve the accuracy of price indexes that are used in policy formation, such as the consumer price index. The adoption of bar-code labelling for products has provided statistical agencies with an information-rich source of 'scanner data' on prices and quantities of purchased goods. In collaboration with the Australian Bureau of Statistics, thi ....Can Electronic Point-of-Sale (POS) Data Improve the Australian Consumer Price Index? This project will investigate how new sources of data can be used to improve the accuracy of price indexes that are used in policy formation, such as the consumer price index. The adoption of bar-code labelling for products has provided statistical agencies with an information-rich source of 'scanner data' on prices and quantities of purchased goods. In collaboration with the Australian Bureau of Statistics, this project will develop mathematical and statistical methods for exploiting this new data source. The findings will contribute to the improvement of price indexes, and subsequently the many government policies that depend on these indexes.Read moreRead less
Scanner Data in the Consumer Price Index: How to expand and improve their use. The Consumer Price Index (CPI) is used in a variety of policy contexts, such as setting interest rates and determining the level of welfare payments, as well as by private industry for determining wages. The CPI is aggregate measure of price changes. It is typically constructed using survey data, which is a small sample of all the goods purchased. Electronic recording of sales, using scanned product bar codes, provide ....Scanner Data in the Consumer Price Index: How to expand and improve their use. The Consumer Price Index (CPI) is used in a variety of policy contexts, such as setting interest rates and determining the level of welfare payments, as well as by private industry for determining wages. The CPI is aggregate measure of price changes. It is typically constructed using survey data, which is a small sample of all the goods purchased. Electronic recording of sales, using scanned product bar codes, provides a huge amount of price and quantity information that potentially can be used to construct an improved CPI, and hence improved policies. The project includes the collaboration of the Australian Bureau of Statistics and the Central Bureau of Statistics (The Netherlands).Read moreRead less