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.
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
The rate of time preference in choice experiments: A systematic re-analysis. This project intends to re-analyse data from over 20 years of past research to understand when and why people sometimes make short-sighted choices. Time preference is a core concept in both theoretical and applied economics and a key input in public policy, yet empirical understanding of it is poor. Almost all important decisions of households, businesses and government involve benefits and costs that unfold over time. ....The rate of time preference in choice experiments: A systematic re-analysis. This project intends to re-analyse data from over 20 years of past research to understand when and why people sometimes make short-sighted choices. Time preference is a core concept in both theoretical and applied economics and a key input in public policy, yet empirical understanding of it is poor. Almost all important decisions of households, businesses and government involve benefits and costs that unfold over time. Many economists have used decision-making experiments to study how people value the future and make trade-offs over time, but these have not reached any clear consensus. This project plans to systematically re-analyse primary data using state-of-the-art estimation techniques to generate new estimates of the discount rate for each study. These will then be analysed in a meta-regression analysis to identify the factors that cause discount rates to vary between studies.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
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
The economics of (mis)information in the age of social media. New media technologies allow anyone to broadcast their views, leading to a “cacophony of voices” where misinformation flourishes. Tools from information economics are tailor-made for understanding information consumption in settings with many biased news sources. We develop economic models where many sources compete to attract and influence heterogenous listeners. We then study how misinformation spreads and amplifies when consumers ....The economics of (mis)information in the age of social media. New media technologies allow anyone to broadcast their views, leading to a “cacophony of voices” where misinformation flourishes. Tools from information economics are tailor-made for understanding information consumption in settings with many biased news sources. We develop economic models where many sources compete to attract and influence heterogenous listeners. We then study how misinformation spreads and amplifies when consumers of information communicate with many others through a social network. Finally, we study how to design simple and robust rules to foster informative discourse and filter misinformation. The results will shape economic policy recommendations for regulating misinformation in media platforms and social media.Read moreRead less
Inequality of opportunity in Australia. This project aims to develop econometric approaches for identifying opportunity gaps in Australia and other developed countries. Inequality of opportunity arises when the birth lottery or external factors in later life, rather than personal efforts, determine a person’s chances of economic success. A high level of inequality of opportunity holds people back from realising their potential and from contributing productively to society. The project will focus ....Inequality of opportunity in Australia. This project aims to develop econometric approaches for identifying opportunity gaps in Australia and other developed countries. Inequality of opportunity arises when the birth lottery or external factors in later life, rather than personal efforts, determine a person’s chances of economic success. A high level of inequality of opportunity holds people back from realising their potential and from contributing productively to society. The project will focus on the effect of inequality of opportunity on income, health and education with special emphasis placed on Indigenous and migrant populations. The findings should help formulate cost-efficient policy interventions aimed at levelling the economic playing field.Read moreRead less
Informal sanctions and bad social norms. This project aims to improve the understanding of informal sanctions to enforce compliance with social norms. Unlike most behavioural economics studies, this project examines norms leading to outcomes that are inefficient, unjust or cruel, such as honour-killings or parochial violence. This project develops experimental paradigms to study "bad" norms in the laboratory. It will investigate a setting in which co-operation is inefficient; the use of sanction ....Informal sanctions and bad social norms. This project aims to improve the understanding of informal sanctions to enforce compliance with social norms. Unlike most behavioural economics studies, this project examines norms leading to outcomes that are inefficient, unjust or cruel, such as honour-killings or parochial violence. This project develops experimental paradigms to study "bad" norms in the laboratory. It will investigate a setting in which co-operation is inefficient; the use of sanctions to segregate groups; and the emergence of honour norms and their implications. The project aspires to build a platform that can lead to effective policies against harmful social norms.Read moreRead less
Voter behaviour and polarisation: The role of social preferences. This project aims to investigate how peer pressure and other social concerns affect voter participation, vote choice, and political polarisation. It will marry behavioural experimental economics with political economics and make use of complementary experimental methods that will allow for the study of carefully controlled elections, followed by a large-scale real-world test of the results. Expected outcomes include improved under ....Voter behaviour and polarisation: The role of social preferences. This project aims to investigate how peer pressure and other social concerns affect voter participation, vote choice, and political polarisation. It will marry behavioural experimental economics with political economics and make use of complementary experimental methods that will allow for the study of carefully controlled elections, followed by a large-scale real-world test of the results. Expected outcomes include improved understanding of how social media and other social factors, and political institutions such as compulsory voting, distort election representation and outcomes. Major benefits include the ability to advise policies to reduce polarisation and improve political institutions to ensure they reflect true societal preferences.Read moreRead less