Price Discovery in Equity and Volatility Futures for Trading and Hedging. This project aims to develop a multivariate asynchronous technique to analyse the price discovery of movements in equity stock indices, volatility index futures and exchange traded products. This project expects to generate new knowledge in the area of financial econometrics using an innovative mixed frequency sampling approach to establish robust causal inferences. Expected outcomes of the project include enhanced econome ....Price Discovery in Equity and Volatility Futures for Trading and Hedging. This project aims to develop a multivariate asynchronous technique to analyse the price discovery of movements in equity stock indices, volatility index futures and exchange traded products. This project expects to generate new knowledge in the area of financial econometrics using an innovative mixed frequency sampling approach to establish robust causal inferences. Expected outcomes of the project include enhanced econometric theory and its implementation in applied finance. This should provide significant benefits in the price discovery of the equity index in Australia, including insights that will help Australian funds in hedging and trading volatility.Read moreRead less
The economics of cooperative behaviour. Free-riding and rent-seeking, such as tax avoidance and nepotism, are group-undermining activities that societies including Australia continuously struggle with. The aim of this project is to develop a fuller understanding of how to protect human groups from these socially damaging group-related behaviours. Drawing on a conceptual grounding that combines ideas from across social science, the project aims to implement a suite of economic experiments to deve ....The economics of cooperative behaviour. Free-riding and rent-seeking, such as tax avoidance and nepotism, are group-undermining activities that societies including Australia continuously struggle with. The aim of this project is to develop a fuller understanding of how to protect human groups from these socially damaging group-related behaviours. Drawing on a conceptual grounding that combines ideas from across social science, the project aims to implement a suite of economic experiments to develop a view of humans' cooperative behaviour that unites several strands of economics literature and offers new insights about how institutions that counter free-riding and rent-seeking arise and are maintained.Read moreRead less
Strengthening economic resilience in Monsoon Asia. Sharing, reciprocity and resource pooling are at the frontline of recovery and relief when economic crisis or disaster hits Monsoon Asia. This research aims to shed light on cases where these economic practices have been innovatively harnessed to diversify livelihoods and build economic resilience. Working with contemporary Asian scholars, practitioners in the disaster field and a data set gleaned from multiple sources, including mid-20th centur ....Strengthening economic resilience in Monsoon Asia. Sharing, reciprocity and resource pooling are at the frontline of recovery and relief when economic crisis or disaster hits Monsoon Asia. This research aims to shed light on cases where these economic practices have been innovatively harnessed to diversify livelihoods and build economic resilience. Working with contemporary Asian scholars, practitioners in the disaster field and a data set gleaned from multiple sources, including mid-20th century tropical geography texts, the project aims to bring to the fore a regional landscape of diverse economic practices across Monsoon Asia. A cross-regional on-line knowledge community is expected to be formed to explore how this asset base might be mobilised towards more effective local development and disaster response.Read moreRead less
Farmers of the Future: the Challenges of Feminised Agriculture in India. Neoliberal economic policies are fundamentally transforming the social landscapes of rural India, causing a deep agrarian crisis. The agrarian changes accentuate the unequal consequences for poor women and men in relation to: production (labour, tenure); livelihood and food security; access to and ownership of assets such as land and water and access to agricultural innovations and institutions. This multiscalar project inv ....Farmers of the Future: the Challenges of Feminised Agriculture in India. Neoliberal economic policies are fundamentally transforming the social landscapes of rural India, causing a deep agrarian crisis. The agrarian changes accentuate the unequal consequences for poor women and men in relation to: production (labour, tenure); livelihood and food security; access to and ownership of assets such as land and water and access to agricultural innovations and institutions. This multiscalar project investigates the causes and consequences of feminisation of agriculture in India’s transitioning economy in order to understand how gender roles and relations are being re-shaped in communities and households in diverse socioeconomic and cultural contexts and agro-ecological areas.Read moreRead less
Reliability of purchasing power parities from the World Bank. This project aims to provide an econometric framework to estimate purchasing power parities (PPPs) and a method to compute standard errors associated with the World Bank’s International Comparison Programme (ICP)’s PPPs. The ICP regularly compiles and publishes estimates of PPPs of currencies and real incomes. These results are used for study of global inequality and poverty; macroeconomic analysis; the Human Development Index; and cr ....Reliability of purchasing power parities from the World Bank. This project aims to provide an econometric framework to estimate purchasing power parities (PPPs) and a method to compute standard errors associated with the World Bank’s International Comparison Programme (ICP)’s PPPs. The ICP regularly compiles and publishes estimates of PPPs of currencies and real incomes. These results are used for study of global inequality and poverty; macroeconomic analysis; the Human Development Index; and cross-country productivity comparisons. However, no estimates of ICP PPPs’ reliability are available. Results from this project are likely to improve the quality of widely used data sets including the Penn World Tables and the University of Queensland International Comparison Database relevant to banking.Read moreRead less
A new methodology for the measurement of transition metals ions in complex, high temperature oxide systems relevant to non-ferrous metal production. Complex multi-component molten oxide phases, known commonly as slags, are used in the high temperature production and refining of metals. The slag systems of commercial interest contain transition metals species, such as, Fe2+, Fe3+. Each of these species behaves as if it were a separate chemical component. Researchers at the University of Queensla ....A new methodology for the measurement of transition metals ions in complex, high temperature oxide systems relevant to non-ferrous metal production. Complex multi-component molten oxide phases, known commonly as slags, are used in the high temperature production and refining of metals. The slag systems of commercial interest contain transition metals species, such as, Fe2+, Fe3+. Each of these species behaves as if it were a separate chemical component. Researchers at the University of Queensland have developed a new methodolgy, which enables the concentrations of these transition metal ions to be measured.
These types of measurements cannot be made with any of the techniques currently in use. The study will provide data on high temperature slags in a number of industrially and scientifically important systems. This approach will be applicable to a wide range of chemical systems in the fields of extractive metallurgy, materials science and geology; systems which could not previously be characterised.Read moreRead less
Numerical modelling of deformation partitioning and its role in metamorphism, tectonism and mineralization. Targeting blind mineralization is the biggest problem facing the Australian mining industry. The modelling developed in this project will integrate deformation, fluid and chemical processes and provide a means for understanding the deformation partitioning that localizes epigenetic ore regionally as well as along portions of large-scale structures. Applying this to known ore deposits may ....Numerical modelling of deformation partitioning and its role in metamorphism, tectonism and mineralization. Targeting blind mineralization is the biggest problem facing the Australian mining industry. The modelling developed in this project will integrate deformation, fluid and chemical processes and provide a means for understanding the deformation partitioning that localizes epigenetic ore regionally as well as along portions of large-scale structures. Applying this to known ore deposits may delineate adjacent plus regionally distributed zones where the deformation event responsible for mineralization is locally present at sufficient intensity to form ore. This would allow targeted deep drilling in ground with no ore close to the surface saving millions in drilling costs and dramatically increasing the financial viability of this industry. Read moreRead less
Computer simulation to study emergence of material texture in the Earth and Plate Tectonics. Plate tectonics has played a crucial role in the evolution and dynamics of the earth impacting on the diversity of life, mineralisation, and crustal dynamics. Despite its significance, how and under what conditions material texture and plate tectonics emerge from a proto-planet is not well understood. New computational methodologies to simulate the evolution of the plate-mantle system will be used to stu ....Computer simulation to study emergence of material texture in the Earth and Plate Tectonics. Plate tectonics has played a crucial role in the evolution and dynamics of the earth impacting on the diversity of life, mineralisation, and crustal dynamics. Despite its significance, how and under what conditions material texture and plate tectonics emerge from a proto-planet is not well understood. New computational methodologies to simulate the evolution of the plate-mantle system will be used to study how the upper mantle emerges as a thermo-mechanically distinct boundary layer, how this emergent structure relates to anisotropy in the upper mantle, and how it is affected by cross-scale effects controlling fault zone behaviour and crustal dynamics.Read moreRead less
Nitrogen Removal in Wastewater Treatment Using the Nitrite Pathway. Nitrogen removal from our wastewater is becoming very important in most parts of Australia to protect our unique aquatic environment. This removal is achieved biologically through two steps: Nitrification converts ammonium via nitrite to nitrate; and denitrification converts nitrate via nitrite again to harmless nitrogen gas. This project aims to develop a method that allows this process to go just via nitrite, instead of nitrat ....Nitrogen Removal in Wastewater Treatment Using the Nitrite Pathway. Nitrogen removal from our wastewater is becoming very important in most parts of Australia to protect our unique aquatic environment. This removal is achieved biologically through two steps: Nitrification converts ammonium via nitrite to nitrate; and denitrification converts nitrate via nitrite again to harmless nitrogen gas. This project aims to develop a method that allows this process to go just via nitrite, instead of nitrate, to nitrogen gas. This would significantly reduce oxygen and/or carbon requirement in nitrogen removal. If successful, the new operating method will allow modern wastewater treatment plants to achieve a better effluent quality at lower costs.Read moreRead less
Modeling fluid flow and mineralisation at crustal interfaces. Several types of mineral resources, including some uranium, iron, and base metal ore deposits, may be created by fluid flow through and around interfaces in the Earth's crust. By understanding how, where and why such deposits form, we will assist exploration for future resources of these metals. Insights will also be gained into petroleum resource generation and extraction, the distribution of seismicity and volcanoes in time and spac ....Modeling fluid flow and mineralisation at crustal interfaces. Several types of mineral resources, including some uranium, iron, and base metal ore deposits, may be created by fluid flow through and around interfaces in the Earth's crust. By understanding how, where and why such deposits form, we will assist exploration for future resources of these metals. Insights will also be gained into petroleum resource generation and extraction, the distribution of seismicity and volcanoes in time and space, the problems of underground nuclear waste disposal and sequestration of CO2, and the potential for geothermal energy, with benefits in resource identification and/or hazard assessment in these areas.Read moreRead less