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: 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
Information and market design: mediation and analogical argumentation. This project aims to increase knowledge of how judicious disclosure of information facilitates economic exchange and social interactions and to shed light on how mediation can be an effective mode of dispute resolution. The project seeks to uncover how analogical arguments can be persuasive and determine social outcomes as well as provide guidance for advocates and decision makers on the best way to persuade and counteract mi ....Information and market design: mediation and analogical argumentation. This project aims to increase knowledge of how judicious disclosure of information facilitates economic exchange and social interactions and to shed light on how mediation can be an effective mode of dispute resolution. The project seeks to uncover how analogical arguments can be persuasive and determine social outcomes as well as provide guidance for advocates and decision makers on the best way to persuade and counteract misleading persuasion practices. Besides producing significant new knowledge, the project promises to inform future innovative economic, social and cultural developments of benefit to the Australian and international community.Read moreRead less
Price-Setting Rules and Allocative Efficiency in Oligopolies. This project aims to investigate under which circumstances restrictions on how often firms can change prices increase competition in an oligopoly and bring down prices. For this, we propose the use of laboratory experiments with a novel design followed by field experiments and a real price-data analysis for external validation. This study will result in both the advancement of theory describing how firms compete in dynamic oligopolies ....Price-Setting Rules and Allocative Efficiency in Oligopolies. This project aims to investigate under which circumstances restrictions on how often firms can change prices increase competition in an oligopoly and bring down prices. For this, we propose the use of laboratory experiments with a novel design followed by field experiments and a real price-data analysis for external validation. This study will result in both the advancement of theory describing how firms compete in dynamic oligopolies and practical policy advice on how price setting rules can be used to improve consumer welfare. This project has the potential to generate sizable benefits to Australian consumers, as the resulting policy advice would be applicable to large markets such as those for petrol, groceries and online retail.Read moreRead less
Tertiary admissions: towards a healthier university system. The project aims to identify the demand for university places, quantify the gains from the Australian semi-centralised admissions system and propose measures to increase these gains. The effectiveness of any tertiary education system depends critically on the quality of the match between students and courses, with mismatches resulting in millions of dollars of wasted public resources and life dissatisfaction of graduates in occupations ....Tertiary admissions: towards a healthier university system. The project aims to identify the demand for university places, quantify the gains from the Australian semi-centralised admissions system and propose measures to increase these gains. The effectiveness of any tertiary education system depends critically on the quality of the match between students and courses, with mismatches resulting in millions of dollars of wasted public resources and life dissatisfaction of graduates in occupations misaligned with their interests. Using an Australian tertiary admissions dataset containing both student preferences and rankings of students by courses, the project aims to empirically assess the trade-off between the efficiency of a match, an equitable welfare distribution and equal access to higher education. It then plans to propose the best system to balance these objectives.Read moreRead less
Trustworthiness and reputation in markets: empirical and experimental studies. This project studies why consumers sometimes do not tell the truth when reporting their shopping experiences. This creates a problem for markets, since other consumers rely on that information. This research will guide firms, regulators and market platforms in how to elicit honest feedback from market participants, facilitating trust in the market.
Solving and estimating dynamic models of strategic interaction. This project aims to investigate how firms interact with each other through time and how these interactions drive both the operation of, and value created in, economic markets. While recent theoretical models predominantly capture the complexity of these dynamic interactions, the methods for testing these models’ predictions against observed data do not. Instead, they are based on a range of simplifying assumptions that undermine th ....Solving and estimating dynamic models of strategic interaction. This project aims to investigate how firms interact with each other through time and how these interactions drive both the operation of, and value created in, economic markets. While recent theoretical models predominantly capture the complexity of these dynamic interactions, the methods for testing these models’ predictions against observed data do not. Instead, they are based on a range of simplifying assumptions that undermine the reliability of their analysis. This project will develop statistical and computational methods to better understand observed economic behaviour. By allowing the effects of proposed economic interventions and regulations ex ante, this project will support the development of more efficient and better-targeted policies in every area of the economy.Read moreRead less
Wicked defaults: how to overcome the dark side of choice architecture. This project aims to investigate how defaults and product complexity might be used to exploit consumers in environments like private insurance where consumers are prone to making systematic errors. Defaults are used to nudge individuals into socially beneficial actions such as increasing their retirement savings and joining organ donor lists. However, in the hands of firms, defaults can also be used to exploit consumers by en ....Wicked defaults: how to overcome the dark side of choice architecture. This project aims to investigate how defaults and product complexity might be used to exploit consumers in environments like private insurance where consumers are prone to making systematic errors. Defaults are used to nudge individuals into socially beneficial actions such as increasing their retirement savings and joining organ donor lists. However, in the hands of firms, defaults can also be used to exploit consumers by encouraging choices that help the firm but disadvantage consumers. The project intends to study experimentally whether exploitation can be reduced via competition and reputation building systems based on consumer feedback.Read moreRead less