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
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
Information acquisition and voting behaviour. This project aims to understand citizens’ decisions to acquire information about different policy proposals within a democracy and how such information affects their voting behaviour. Proper democracies rely on the informed participation of their citizens in the political debate and political institutions. The project intends to provide formal theories of information acquisition together with empirical evidence on how voting decisions are shaped by t ....Information acquisition and voting behaviour. This project aims to understand citizens’ decisions to acquire information about different policy proposals within a democracy and how such information affects their voting behaviour. Proper democracies rely on the informed participation of their citizens in the political debate and political institutions. The project intends to provide formal theories of information acquisition together with empirical evidence on how voting decisions are shaped by the quantity and quality of information. Understanding how citizens decide to acquire information would help devise policies to reduce polarisation and improve the quality of the political debate and the democracy.Read moreRead less
Redesigning Landcare policy to better coordinate across landholders. This project aims to study how landscape-sensitive economic incentives and social norms can be leveraged to enhance the short- and long-term effectiveness of conservation programs. It will yield new knowledge for innovative designs in conservation contracting that is urgently needed to address worsening environmental threats in Australia and worldwide. In collaboration with Nobel laureate Vernon Smith’s team, new methods and pr ....Redesigning Landcare policy to better coordinate across landholders. This project aims to study how landscape-sensitive economic incentives and social norms can be leveraged to enhance the short- and long-term effectiveness of conservation programs. It will yield new knowledge for innovative designs in conservation contracting that is urgently needed to address worsening environmental threats in Australia and worldwide. In collaboration with Nobel laureate Vernon Smith’s team, new methods and protocols will improve our ability to generate better data and better understand how social and incentive mechanisms can constructively interact to facilitate collaborative environmental action. Results will help make the achievement of environmental targets and the use of public funds more cost-effective. Read moreRead less
The rise of mistrust: Digital platforms and trust in news media. This project aims to investigate how trust and mistrust in news changes audiences’ behaviours as they increasingly access news through digital platforms. Observing the global crisis of trust, the project will undertake a longitudinal analysis of trust and mistrust in news, a four-country experiment that links trust and audience responses, and an in-depth qualitative study that provides specific contexts of these choices. The resear ....The rise of mistrust: Digital platforms and trust in news media. This project aims to investigate how trust and mistrust in news changes audiences’ behaviours as they increasingly access news through digital platforms. Observing the global crisis of trust, the project will undertake a longitudinal analysis of trust and mistrust in news, a four-country experiment that links trust and audience responses, and an in-depth qualitative study that provides specific contexts of these choices. The research will directly benefit policy makers, as it addresses questions of how to better secure trustworthy news content in an age of increasing dominance of digital platforms that algorithmically sort the range of news available to the Australian public.
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Managing Carbon Offsets to Improve Australian Climate Policy Effectiveness. This project aims to evaluate the Emissions Reduction Fund-Australia’s flagship climate policy-by using a combination of state-of-the-art theoretical and experimental economic methods. This project expects to generate new knowledge by investigating how the use of aggregators (intermediaries) and contract design impact the current regulation. Expected outcomes of this project include a clear scholarly understanding of how ....Managing Carbon Offsets to Improve Australian Climate Policy Effectiveness. This project aims to evaluate the Emissions Reduction Fund-Australia’s flagship climate policy-by using a combination of state-of-the-art theoretical and experimental economic methods. This project expects to generate new knowledge by investigating how the use of aggregators (intermediaries) and contract design impact the current regulation. Expected outcomes of this project include a clear scholarly understanding of how to redesign the regulatory system to deliver better environmental outcomes for less public funds. The insights gained should provide significant benefits to both Federal and State Australian policymakers (as well as policymakers worldwide) on the design and implementation of carbon offsetting mechanisms.Read moreRead less
3D Hypersonic Shock-Turbulent-Boundary-Layer Interactions. Shock-wave turbulent-boundary-layer interactions occur on hypersonic flight vehicles and can lead to high heating and increased drag. This is a paramount design issue that needs addressing. We aim to understand and quantify fundamental phenomena occurring in such interactions using state-of-the-art instrumentation and wind-tunnel facilities. Surfaces will be heated to realistic flight temperatures to simulate accurately the flight enviro ....3D Hypersonic Shock-Turbulent-Boundary-Layer Interactions. Shock-wave turbulent-boundary-layer interactions occur on hypersonic flight vehicles and can lead to high heating and increased drag. This is a paramount design issue that needs addressing. We aim to understand and quantify fundamental phenomena occurring in such interactions using state-of-the-art instrumentation and wind-tunnel facilities. Surfaces will be heated to realistic flight temperatures to simulate accurately the flight environment and include effects not reproduced with cold models. The effects of 3D features of the interactions will lead to new understanding of how the flow develops through a combination of experiments and numerical simulations. Future designs of hypersonic flight vehicles will benefit from knowledge gained.Read moreRead less