Information Quality in Auctions of Multiple Objects. This project aims at using both theory and laboratory experiments to analyse the formation of prices and the buyers' behaviour at auctions of multiple objects. The study focusses on the comparison of simultaneous auction procedures (in which the objects are sold at once) to sequential auction procedures (in which the objects are sold one after the other) and attention is drawn on the effects of the quality of the buyers' information about the ....Information Quality in Auctions of Multiple Objects. This project aims at using both theory and laboratory experiments to analyse the formation of prices and the buyers' behaviour at auctions of multiple objects. The study focusses on the comparison of simultaneous auction procedures (in which the objects are sold at once) to sequential auction procedures (in which the objects are sold one after the other) and attention is drawn on the effects of the quality of the buyers' information about the assets to be sold on their bidding behaviour and on the seller's revenues. The conduct of laboratory experiments will provide a useful assessment of the theoretical predictions and valuable insights into the effects of buyers' information quality on their bidding behaviour at such markets.Read moreRead less
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE120102640
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$375,000.00
Summary
Behavioural foundations of economic design for an uncertain world. The aim of this project is to incorporate behavioural foundations into mechanism design to improve our understanding of economic institutions in incomplete information environments. To accomplish this goal, it considers a framework where agents have reference-dependent preferences and explores implications of this assumption for economic design.
Banks, endogenous network formations and financial crisis. This project aims to understand how endogenous network formations affect financial crisis and how such situations can be made into a coherent microeconomic model of financial network formations using modern tools in economics. The project intends to study the properties of financial systems in the presence of possible financial crisis, conduct applied economic policy analysis and provide policy implications for lifting productivity and e ....Banks, endogenous network formations and financial crisis. This project aims to understand how endogenous network formations affect financial crisis and how such situations can be made into a coherent microeconomic model of financial network formations using modern tools in economics. The project intends to study the properties of financial systems in the presence of possible financial crisis, conduct applied economic policy analysis and provide policy implications for lifting productivity and economic growth. The projects expected outcomes would contribute to the theoretical understanding of financial crisis and consequences in financial markets as well as the economy and public policy. In the longer term, the project should benefit the health of the financial system.Read moreRead less
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE160100964
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$371,000.00
Summary
Understanding and designing persuasion mechanisms. The objective of this project is to understand and design persuasion mechanisms. Persuasion is about conveying information, influencing beliefs and manipulating actions. Educational campaigns and media censorship regulations are examples of persuasion mechanisms. Existing techniques from the economics of persuasion only permit analysis of specific and limited settings. This project aims to apply the classical mechanism design approach in a novel ....Understanding and designing persuasion mechanisms. The objective of this project is to understand and design persuasion mechanisms. Persuasion is about conveying information, influencing beliefs and manipulating actions. Educational campaigns and media censorship regulations are examples of persuasion mechanisms. Existing techniques from the economics of persuasion only permit analysis of specific and limited settings. This project aims to apply the classical mechanism design approach in a novel way to model persuasion in rich and realistic settings, thus providing insights into real-world situations. It is anticipated that this will allow us to answer questions such as ‘Should an educational campaign target different consumers with different information?’ and ‘When should a government censor extreme media outlets?'.Read moreRead less
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE170100340
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$311,000.00
Summary
Competition in persuasion. This project aims to develop tools to analyse situations where multiple self-interested persuaders attempt to convince a set of listeners. It will build upon recent developments in the economics of persuasion literature, and apply tools from mechanism design literature. This approach, unlike other existing work, is not limited to specific settings and has the advantage of being highly tractable. Using these tools, this project intends to provide insights into the mecha ....Competition in persuasion. This project aims to develop tools to analyse situations where multiple self-interested persuaders attempt to convince a set of listeners. It will build upon recent developments in the economics of persuasion literature, and apply tools from mechanism design literature. This approach, unlike other existing work, is not limited to specific settings and has the advantage of being highly tractable. Using these tools, this project intends to provide insights into the mechanisms behind grade inflation among universities, the optimal design of certification industries and information disclosure in clinical trials.Read moreRead less
A robust approach to designing mechanisms for budget constrained agents. This project aims to study the design of robust implementable allocation mechanisms for agents who face financial constraints. Financial constraints are important for housing markets, big business auctions and government procurement. Yet their effect on the performance of allocation policies is not well understood. The project intends to develop a general and tractable framework of allocation mechanisms that are implementab ....A robust approach to designing mechanisms for budget constrained agents. This project aims to study the design of robust implementable allocation mechanisms for agents who face financial constraints. Financial constraints are important for housing markets, big business auctions and government procurement. Yet their effect on the performance of allocation policies is not well understood. The project intends to develop a general and tractable framework of allocation mechanisms that are implementable without deficits. The project will adapt this framework to the study of revenue-maximising multi-object auctions with complementarities, and to house allocation problems and related situations where efficiency and priority assignments are important considerations. The project expects to provide policy insights and implications relevant to the Australian housing market.Read moreRead less
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE180101452
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$357,996.00
Summary
Strategic interaction with limited memory: A theoretical approach. This project aims to propose a theoretical framework that would allow economists to explore and uncover the behavioural and welfare effects of memory constraints. By integrating cognitive constraints into existing economic theory, this project is expected to enhance economists’ future capacity to inform a diverse range of economic policies. Incorporating cognitive constraints into economic research can reduce unintended conseque ....Strategic interaction with limited memory: A theoretical approach. This project aims to propose a theoretical framework that would allow economists to explore and uncover the behavioural and welfare effects of memory constraints. By integrating cognitive constraints into existing economic theory, this project is expected to enhance economists’ future capacity to inform a diverse range of economic policies. Incorporating cognitive constraints into economic research can reduce unintended consequences of policy recommendations and is especially important in in complex markets such as health or household finance.Read moreRead less
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE160101242
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$358,000.00
Summary
Market responses to behavioral consumer policy: Experimental study. This project aims to investigate the effectiveness of regulatory policies such as industry standards, optimal defaults and third-party comparison services in supporting consumer decision-making. In complex market environments, consumers often struggle to make good purchasing decisions and can be vulnerable to exploitation by firms. Understanding how regulatory consumer policy directly affects consumer decisions and the dynamic s ....Market responses to behavioral consumer policy: Experimental study. This project aims to investigate the effectiveness of regulatory policies such as industry standards, optimal defaults and third-party comparison services in supporting consumer decision-making. In complex market environments, consumers often struggle to make good purchasing decisions and can be vulnerable to exploitation by firms. Understanding how regulatory consumer policy directly affects consumer decisions and the dynamic strategies of participating firms is important to improve our markets, inform consumer policy and provide evidence-based policy recommendations. This is particularly important in the increasingly complex market domains such as health, insurance and household finance.Read moreRead less
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE170101346
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$358,000.00
Summary
Integrating social media with conventional data sources to model land use. This project aims to design a framework linking urban pattern development to changing demographics. This multi-level modelling framework for housing, job and school searches is linked to a demographics evolution module providing information about household lifestyle changes. The framework benefits from detailed behavioural models which capture inter-dependencies among household members’ decisions. This project examines th ....Integrating social media with conventional data sources to model land use. This project aims to design a framework linking urban pattern development to changing demographics. This multi-level modelling framework for housing, job and school searches is linked to a demographics evolution module providing information about household lifestyle changes. The framework benefits from detailed behavioural models which capture inter-dependencies among household members’ decisions. This project examines the capacity of social media data to complement the existing data resources. The expected outcome is a tool for policy appraisal for city planning.Read moreRead less
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE180100190
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$363,996.00
Summary
Auction design with behavioural bidders. This project aims to incorporate behavioural elements from psychology into the economic analysis of auctions. The project will address discrepancies between traditional economic analysis of auctions based on fully rational bidders, and evidence from psychology and behavioural economics which demonstrates systemic departures from rational decision-making. This will expand realism in economic analysis and contribute new insights for the design of relevant, ....Auction design with behavioural bidders. This project aims to incorporate behavioural elements from psychology into the economic analysis of auctions. The project will address discrepancies between traditional economic analysis of auctions based on fully rational bidders, and evidence from psychology and behavioural economics which demonstrates systemic departures from rational decision-making. This will expand realism in economic analysis and contribute new insights for the design of relevant, real-world auctions such as real-estate auctions or internet auctions. The project outcomes are expected to enhance the efficient allocation of resources, improve our understanding of how different rules affect buyers' well-being and help design fairer auctions.Read moreRead less