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.
Market Design for the Reallocation of Land. This fellowship uses laboratory and lab-in-the-field experiments to explores how market design can be used to develop combinatorial exchanges that allow participants to exchange packages of land. Allowing for package bids can facilitate trade in situations where owning one piece of land increases the value of adjacent land and where assembling contiguous pieces of land is important. Combinatorial exchanges have the potential to increase the productivit ....Market Design for the Reallocation of Land. This fellowship uses laboratory and lab-in-the-field experiments to explores how market design can be used to develop combinatorial exchanges that allow participants to exchange packages of land. Allowing for package bids can facilitate trade in situations where owning one piece of land increases the value of adjacent land and where assembling contiguous pieces of land is important. Combinatorial exchanges have the potential to increase the productivity of agriculture land in both Australia and developing countries, encourage urban redevelopment, and help the government secure land for infrastructure and environmental protection in a cost-effective way.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
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
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.
Micro-panel data with non-linear error components. This project aims to develop methods for panel data models with heterogeneous marginal effects and discrete choice outcomes, controlling for unobserved common factors and nonlinear error components; and apply the methodologies to analyse alcohol-fuelled violence and drug-related harm in Australia. The project lies at the forefront of advances in econometrics, and the outcomes are expected to broaden and deepen Australia’s knowledge base. Empiric ....Micro-panel data with non-linear error components. This project aims to develop methods for panel data models with heterogeneous marginal effects and discrete choice outcomes, controlling for unobserved common factors and nonlinear error components; and apply the methodologies to analyse alcohol-fuelled violence and drug-related harm in Australia. The project lies at the forefront of advances in econometrics, and the outcomes are expected to broaden and deepen Australia’s knowledge base. Empirical outcomes should inform and evaluate evidence-based policy interventions for crime prevention, and influence policy making about public transport and economic growth.Read moreRead less
Partial Identification of Treatment Effects in Binary Response Models with Applications in Health Economics. The broad objectives of this project are to study the issues of partial identification in the context of models involving binary endogenous treatment variables and binary outcomes, and to investigate the implications for econometric estimation of policy effects in empirical economics. Identified sets for treatment effects for several Australian health economic applications will be estimat ....Partial Identification of Treatment Effects in Binary Response Models with Applications in Health Economics. The broad objectives of this project are to study the issues of partial identification in the context of models involving binary endogenous treatment variables and binary outcomes, and to investigate the implications for econometric estimation of policy effects in empirical economics. Identified sets for treatment effects for several Australian health economic applications will be estimated and compared with conventional point identified estimates. Performance of alternative bound estimators will be examined and particular attention given to the issue of the weakness of the instruments and the size of the bounds. The new theoretical developments in this literature have significant implications for empirical economics.Read moreRead less
Identification Power and Instrument Strength in Discrete Outcome Models. This project aims to develop new econometric and statistical techniques to quantify causal effects in treatment models with discrete outcomes. Expected outcomes include a much-needed weak instrument test, a measure for identification strength in partial identification setting, and an instrument-covariate selection procedure for high dimensional discrete models based identification power. The benefits include advanced knowle ....Identification Power and Instrument Strength in Discrete Outcome Models. This project aims to develop new econometric and statistical techniques to quantify causal effects in treatment models with discrete outcomes. Expected outcomes include a much-needed weak instrument test, a measure for identification strength in partial identification setting, and an instrument-covariate selection procedure for high dimensional discrete models based identification power. The benefits include advanced knowledge in econometrics and statistics, and enhanced tools for program evaluation and policy assessment in empirical causal analysis using observational data. The project falls into the category of smarter information use and is relevant to any national priority areas where policy interventions require assessment.Read moreRead less
Changing Institutions to Mitigate Gender Leadership Gaps: Power of Defaults. This project aims to improve diversity in organisations by investigating a simple yet novel institutional change that can increase women’s participation in leadership. This involves a change in the default used for leadership selection, from an opt-in to an opt-out mechanism. This project expects to generate new knowledge in the area of diversity and inclusion by showing how appropriate choice of defaults can reduce lab ....Changing Institutions to Mitigate Gender Leadership Gaps: Power of Defaults. This project aims to improve diversity in organisations by investigating a simple yet novel institutional change that can increase women’s participation in leadership. This involves a change in the default used for leadership selection, from an opt-in to an opt-out mechanism. This project expects to generate new knowledge in the area of diversity and inclusion by showing how appropriate choice of defaults can reduce labour market gaps and inequality. Expected outcomes include understanding mechanisms underlying the gender default effect both in the short and long run which will help identify appropriate interventions that can be scaled up. Insights gained should provide significant benefits by improving workplace diversity and productivity.Read moreRead less