Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE190100887
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$375,000.00
Summary
Economic analysis of time constraints on decision-making in health. This project aims to determine whether and how time constraints affect decision-making. Time constraints can impair the quality of decisions in health, resulting in serious medical and financial consequences. This project will employ experimental economic methods to examine how misaligned preferences and incentives influence decision-making under time constraints. The project will offer scientific evidence and accurate measureme ....Economic analysis of time constraints on decision-making in health. This project aims to determine whether and how time constraints affect decision-making. Time constraints can impair the quality of decisions in health, resulting in serious medical and financial consequences. This project will employ experimental economic methods to examine how misaligned preferences and incentives influence decision-making under time constraints. The project will offer scientific evidence and accurate measurements, provide insights into interventions to align the preferences of doctors and patients, and to lower the overtreatment of patients in the health-care market. The project expects to benefit society and contribute to a more efficient healthcare system.Read moreRead less
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE150101032
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$378,000.00
Summary
Economic analysis of peer effects in adolescence and adulthood. Although healthier, stronger and better at reasoning than young children, adolescents' morbidity and mortality rates are double those of young children. Unintentional injury, mostly avoidable and attributed to wrong decisions, is the biggest cause of death and hospitalisation among adolescents in Australia. Peer presence is likely to be a major cause of adolescents' inferior decision-making. This project aims to use experimental eco ....Economic analysis of peer effects in adolescence and adulthood. Although healthier, stronger and better at reasoning than young children, adolescents' morbidity and mortality rates are double those of young children. Unintentional injury, mostly avoidable and attributed to wrong decisions, is the biggest cause of death and hospitalisation among adolescents in Australia. Peer presence is likely to be a major cause of adolescents' inferior decision-making. This project aims to use experimental economics methods to study how peer presence affects the parameters of the economic decision model, specifically risk tolerance, discounting, and propensity to make errors. The project aims to advance the understanding of decision-making across the lifespan, inform theoretical modelling and advise policy-makers how to reduce the risks to adolescents.Read moreRead less
Strategic Behaviour in Games. John von Neumann’s minimax solution (1928) and its generalisation to mixed-strategy Nash (1950) equilibrium are the cornerstones of modern game theory, the mathematical framework for the study of decision making when the actions of different decision makers interact. This project studies human behaviour in situations where decision makers have an incentive to be unpredictable. The proposed research will shed light on the sources of the failure of the theory in the l ....Strategic Behaviour in Games. John von Neumann’s minimax solution (1928) and its generalisation to mixed-strategy Nash (1950) equilibrium are the cornerstones of modern game theory, the mathematical framework for the study of decision making when the actions of different decision makers interact. This project studies human behaviour in situations where decision makers have an incentive to be unpredictable. The proposed research will shed light on the sources of the failure of the theory in the lab, and assesses the practical significance of the statistical tests used to evaluate laboratory data on mixed-strategy play.Read moreRead less
Neuroeconomic foundations of probability and value perception. This project aims to investigate well-known behavioural “biases” in probability and value perception through the lens of neurobiology. This project will generate new knowledge on how the value of rewards, and the likelihood of receiving them, are incorporated in the decision-making process. Using an interdisciplinary approach, this project will be of interest to researchers from several domains of social science, which focus on how a ....Neuroeconomic foundations of probability and value perception. This project aims to investigate well-known behavioural “biases” in probability and value perception through the lens of neurobiology. This project will generate new knowledge on how the value of rewards, and the likelihood of receiving them, are incorporated in the decision-making process. Using an interdisciplinary approach, this project will be of interest to researchers from several domains of social science, which focus on how and why people make their decisions and how we could improve people’s wellbeing by improving their choices. The findings will provide insights into effective, behaviour-related policy design that aims to improve peoples’ well-being.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
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE120101642
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$375,000.00
Summary
Army service, employment incentives and veterans' life outcomes: a natural experiment. This project will analyse the complex long-run effects of Australia's conscription ballots on the lives of conscripts and their families. Treating the ballots as 'natural experiments', it will consider direct effects of army service, including service in Vietnam and the effects of incentives created by veterans' compensation on a range of outcomes.
Using behavioural economic insights to overcome student procrastination. This project aims to study the relations between present-biased time preference, procrastination, and achievement at school, using economic experiments. Investment in human capital generates economic benefits for students, families, employers, and society, but its benefits are realised far into the future. Because of these immediate costs and delayed benefits, behavioural economic theory predicts that students will procrast ....Using behavioural economic insights to overcome student procrastination. This project aims to study the relations between present-biased time preference, procrastination, and achievement at school, using economic experiments. Investment in human capital generates economic benefits for students, families, employers, and society, but its benefits are realised far into the future. Because of these immediate costs and delayed benefits, behavioural economic theory predicts that students will procrastinate. This project will identify the characteristics of students at greatest risk of procrastination, evaluate practical strategies to overcome it, and examine whether it is associated with poorer outcomes. This should help schools and policy makers reduce educational inequalities, and yield long-term benefits over students’ lives.Read moreRead less
Equitable funding for health care: integrating social outcomes. This project will develop an innovative method for decision makers to achieve more equitable allocation of scarce health care resources. Health programs and treatments affect not just health (survival & health related quality of life) but also broader aspects of well-being (e.g. dignity, autonomy, safety). Our current methods for evaluating value for money in health do not capture these aspects. The project will provide benefit by a ....Equitable funding for health care: integrating social outcomes. This project will develop an innovative method for decision makers to achieve more equitable allocation of scarce health care resources. Health programs and treatments affect not just health (survival & health related quality of life) but also broader aspects of well-being (e.g. dignity, autonomy, safety). Our current methods for evaluating value for money in health do not capture these aspects. The project will provide benefit by allowing health system decision makers to achieve fairer allocation of resources across diverse health conditions, interventions and patient populations. Expected outcomes include a new tool for assessing interventions and measuring population health incorporating both health and social outcomes. Read moreRead less
Understanding and overcoming confusion in consumer financial decisions. This project aims to develop consumer-centred approaches to reducing the harmful effects of confusion in financial decisions by studying superannuation investment and home loan decisions where confused choices are individually and collectively costly. The project intends to develop comprehensive models to capture the full complexity of financial products and the diverse preferences and capability of consumers, then to use ad ....Understanding and overcoming confusion in consumer financial decisions. This project aims to develop consumer-centred approaches to reducing the harmful effects of confusion in financial decisions by studying superannuation investment and home loan decisions where confused choices are individually and collectively costly. The project intends to develop comprehensive models to capture the full complexity of financial products and the diverse preferences and capability of consumers, then to use advanced statistical methods to estimate the benefits of clearer decision-making. The outcomes of this project includes new models of complex financial decisions, and a better understanding of where confusion arises and the effects it may have. Decreased confusion will raise financial well-being and help communities become more resilient to financial shocks.Read moreRead less
Improving external validity of stated choice experiments. This project aims to deliver more accurate estimates of choice behaviour by reducing biases due to choice task complexity in surveys as well as design artefacts. Extracting 'true' preferences is challenging, not only due to possible hypothetical bias, but also due to increasingly complex choice tasks and the existence of design artefacts. This project will investigate the latter two in the context of marketing, transport, health, and envi ....Improving external validity of stated choice experiments. This project aims to deliver more accurate estimates of choice behaviour by reducing biases due to choice task complexity in surveys as well as design artefacts. Extracting 'true' preferences is challenging, not only due to possible hypothetical bias, but also due to increasingly complex choice tasks and the existence of design artefacts. This project will investigate the latter two in the context of marketing, transport, health, and environmental economics, and proposes new methodologies to extract preferences that more closely reflect true behaviour in real markets.Read moreRead less