The Effects of a Wealth Tax in Australia
This research project, funded by Oxfam Australia, aims to examine the potential role of a wealth tax in promoting fiscal sustainability and equity in Australia. The study will provide quantitative insights into how a wealth tax could influence government revenue, wealth inequality, and aggregate welfare, using a calibrated general equilibrium framework grounded in Australian data. Chief Investigator is Associate Professor Cagri Kumru (RSE). The project commenced in 2026.
ARC Discovery Project: Innovation in durable goods: expansion of electric cars in Australia
Highly desirable transition to environmentally friendly technologies such as electric automobiles requires well-designed governmental support. Short-sighted policies may lead to unintended consequences and do more harm than good. The importance of a secondary market for durable goods makes the policy design a complex dynamic problem. This project will produce mathematical and computational tools to explore potential regulation standards and stimulus programs in a simulated environment to find an optimal approach for expanding electric cars in Australia. Built on the team's groundbreaking research in modelling equilibria in markets for automobiles, this project will enable the search for optimal policy that will benefit Australian society. Professor Fedor Iskhakov (RSE) is Chief Investigator on this ANU-led ARC Discovery Project which commenced in 2025.
ARC Discovery Project: Counter-COVID public policies and the impacts on Australian children
This project aims to identify the causal effects of counter-COVID school closures, stay-at-home mandates and government support payments on the educational and developmental outcomes of Australian children. It will establish, for the first time, a comprehensive causal evidence base on the average and distributional impacts of these policies on children across the spectrum of schooling years from preschool to secondary school completion. This project expects to advance our understanding of child skill accumulation and the relative importance of schools, parents, peers and government intervention. Anticipated benefits include providing policy recommendations to restore student learning outcomes and reduce educational inequality in Australia. Associate Professor Yijuan Chen (RSE) is Chief Investigator on this ANU-led ARC Discovery Project, along with academic colleagues from NCEPH. The project commenced in 2024.
Hospital competition via healthcare quality differentiation under the reform of hospital payment mode: from the perspective of industrial organization and incentive theory
In this project, funded by the Chinese Academy of Sciences, theoretical investigations will be conducted on healthcare quality improvement through reforms on medical payment systems. The researchers will combine economic theoretical methods, including the theory of industrial organization, incentive theory, regulation theory and the game theory. The project is motivated by ongoing healthcare reforms in developing countries that implement multi-compound medical insurance payment mode that is mainly based on the Diagnostic Related Groups (DRG) system. ANU Lead Chief Investigator is Associate Professor Yijuan Chen (RSE). This project commenced in 2024.
ARC Discovery Project: Lifetime Approach to Measuring Inequality in Living Standards in Australia
This project aims to develop a new methodology to study trends in inequality in Australia. It expects to advance the body of knowledge by measuring inequality in living standards over the whole lifetime and by identifying the role of the Australian fiscal system in redistributing lifetime resources across households and generations. This new approach would help clarify the potential bias embedded in commonly used inequality indicators based on current-year income. Its findings expect to provide new insights into how the gains from economic growth have been shared among Australians. It should also offer policy options for designing a better tax and transfer system that would sustain economic prosperity and fairness in Australia. Associate Professor Chung Tran (RSE) is lead Chief Investigator for this ARC Discovery Project. The project commenced in 2021.
ARC Discovery Project: Automation and Income Inequality: Macroeconomic Policy Implications
The transition to wider use of robotics and artificial intelligence may eventually make our citizens better off, yet effects on domestic income and wealth inequality remain uncertain, depending strongly on general governance and macroeconomic policy regimes. This project will help clarify income inequality effects, both abroad and in Australia, through (i) new numerical theory from calibrated economic models at the global and national levels; (ii) econometric testing of results from global and national data; (iii) the use of emerging insights to analyse economic policy responses and their global interaction as well as the implications for Australian economic policy. Professor Markus Brueckner (RSE) is Chief Investigator on this ANU-led ARC Discovery Project. The project commenced in 2020.