The great divergence, long-run growth and unified theories of economic growth. This project investigates why income has been close to subsistence levels for most of human history, and in particular, the factors that were responsible for take-off in Europe two centuries ago and then later in other countries. It is expected that both major and minor technological innovations have played a critical role in take-off.
Growth, IQ, diseases, and the great demographic transition. This project investigates firstly whether poor health and malnutrition among young children was a cause of severe cognitive impairment in the pre-industrialised West and in developing countries today, and secondly whether this has been a major factor behind the large disparities in income and growth over the 150 years since industrialisation.
Inequality, Trade, and Technology. This project aims to improve our understanding of the causes of rising income inequality in the world economy and in Australia since the early 1980s. We focus on the increasing building costs and imports of machinery as significant contributors to the increasing inequality. We hypothesize 1) that the increasing costs of buildings have reduced the demand for workers that are complementary to non-residential building capital; thus, reducing real wages; and 2) tha ....Inequality, Trade, and Technology. This project aims to improve our understanding of the causes of rising income inequality in the world economy and in Australia since the early 1980s. We focus on the increasing building costs and imports of machinery as significant contributors to the increasing inequality. We hypothesize 1) that the increasing costs of buildings have reduced the demand for workers that are complementary to non-residential building capital; thus, reducing real wages; and 2) that the marked increase in imports of machinery since the 1960s has reduced the demand for unskilled labour and widened the employment and wage gap between skilled and unskilled labour. Both factors may have driven the increasing inequality in Australia.
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Inequality and economic growth. This project aims to identify forces driving inequality. Piketty’s influential book, Capital in the 21st Century, stimulated research on inequality to address the increased public concern about inequality and its side-effects such as reduced growth. Piketty proposes three laws that explain and predict inequality paths over time, but there is no empirical evidence or theoretical foundations for these laws. This project will examine Piketty’s laws and investigate fa ....Inequality and economic growth. This project aims to identify forces driving inequality. Piketty’s influential book, Capital in the 21st Century, stimulated research on inequality to address the increased public concern about inequality and its side-effects such as reduced growth. Piketty proposes three laws that explain and predict inequality paths over time, but there is no empirical evidence or theoretical foundations for these laws. This project will examine Piketty’s laws and investigate factors that shape inequality and its relation to growth. This knowledge should enable Australian governments to reduce inequality and benefit economic growth, thereby reducing disadvantage and building stronger, more resilient communities.Read moreRead less
Plantwide Control of Modern Chemical Processes from a Network Perspective. Complex plants increasingly appear in modern Australian process industries, particularly in mineral processing, petrochemical and renewable energies sectors. These plants represent vast capital costs and manufacture products at a very large scale. Improvement in control and operation of these processes can potentially provide significant economic benefits. The expected outcome of this research is an effective approach to ....Plantwide Control of Modern Chemical Processes from a Network Perspective. Complex plants increasingly appear in modern Australian process industries, particularly in mineral processing, petrochemical and renewable energies sectors. These plants represent vast capital costs and manufacture products at a very large scale. Improvement in control and operation of these processes can potentially provide significant economic benefits. The expected outcome of this research is an effective approach to improve operational safety, efficiency, product quality and manufacturing flexibility, helping to build a more efficient and environmental conscious Australian chemical industry. This project will also enhance Australia's scientific reputation in the frontier research area of advanced process control and management.Read moreRead less
Insect-inspired flapping wing robots: autonomous flight control systems. This project aims to design a novel control scheme for insect-inspired, flapping-wing, micro aerial vehicles. This type of micro aerial vehicle has complex, periodic, time-varying and inherently unstable dynamics, which are practically challenging to model and implement in hardware. This project will design energy-based automatic stabilization and task-dependent control, and develop the insect-inspired platform for testing ....Insect-inspired flapping wing robots: autonomous flight control systems. This project aims to design a novel control scheme for insect-inspired, flapping-wing, micro aerial vehicles. This type of micro aerial vehicle has complex, periodic, time-varying and inherently unstable dynamics, which are practically challenging to model and implement in hardware. This project will design energy-based automatic stabilization and task-dependent control, and develop the insect-inspired platform for testing nonlinear control strategies. The expected outcomes will include new system and control theories, concepts, principles and technologies in controller design that can provide reliable flight control for bio-inspired, flapping-wing systems.Read moreRead less
Complexity-manageable methodologies and efficient computational tools for analysis and design of large-scale systems. The tools to be developed in this project have impact on a broad range of disciplines, including system analysis, feedback control technology, signal processing, communication network, and information theory. Practically, the success of this project will create cutting edge technologies applicable to design and management of important infrastructures of the modern society such as ....Complexity-manageable methodologies and efficient computational tools for analysis and design of large-scale systems. The tools to be developed in this project have impact on a broad range of disciplines, including system analysis, feedback control technology, signal processing, communication network, and information theory. Practically, the success of this project will create cutting edge technologies applicable to design and management of important infrastructures of the modern society such as communication networks, transportation systems, electrical power grids, and collaborative intelligent machines, and water distribution networks. Success of this project will bring novel methodologies and computational tools which help engineers to systematically design and validate the performance of their engineering systems.Read moreRead less
Robustness Analysis and Control Design of Distributed and Networked Systems. The theory and computational tools to be developed in this project have impact on a broad range of areas, including various engineering disciplines, biology, and medical and environmental sciences. In terms of practical interests, this project will create cutting edge technologies which are applicable to important infrastructures of the modern society such as communication networks, transportation systems, electrical po ....Robustness Analysis and Control Design of Distributed and Networked Systems. The theory and computational tools to be developed in this project have impact on a broad range of areas, including various engineering disciplines, biology, and medical and environmental sciences. In terms of practical interests, this project will create cutting edge technologies which are applicable to important infrastructures of the modern society such as communication networks, transportation systems, electrical power grids, collaborative intelligent machines, and water distribution networks. Read moreRead less
Fast Precision Robust Control of Resonant Flexible Systems. The project aims to produce new control system design tools to enable fast precision control of advanced engineering systems encorporating flexible structures. This should enable improved speed and accuracy in control systems for precision instruments such as atomic force microscopes along with improving control system performance in areas of precision engineering such as semiconductor manufacturing, robotics and microelectromechanical ....Fast Precision Robust Control of Resonant Flexible Systems. The project aims to produce new control system design tools to enable fast precision control of advanced engineering systems encorporating flexible structures. This should enable improved speed and accuracy in control systems for precision instruments such as atomic force microscopes along with improving control system performance in areas of precision engineering such as semiconductor manufacturing, robotics and microelectromechanical systems. The outcomes are expected to be new control system synthesis and modelling tools enabling fast and highly accurate control of industrial systems using nonlinear and switching elements and achieving high levels of robustness. This will benefit Australian precision manufacturing industries.Read moreRead less
Nonlinear Quantum Control Engineering. This project will develop tractable methods for the design of robust, nonlinear, coherent feedback control systems building on the approach of quantum risk sensitive control and extending classical nonlinear control methods. It will also develop methods to design robust and nonlinear filters and coherent observers for nonlinear and finite level quantum systems and apply these results to the design of robust measurement based quantum controllers. In addition ....Nonlinear Quantum Control Engineering. This project will develop tractable methods for the design of robust, nonlinear, coherent feedback control systems building on the approach of quantum risk sensitive control and extending classical nonlinear control methods. It will also develop methods to design robust and nonlinear filters and coherent observers for nonlinear and finite level quantum systems and apply these results to the design of robust measurement based quantum controllers. In addition, the project will apply coherent and measurement based robust control methods to achieve useful emergent behaviours in nonlinear quantum networks. Such emergent behaviours may involve the robust reduction of decoherence effects and the robust solution of quantum computational problems. Read moreRead less