Associate Professor, Centre for Social Research and Methods, Director, Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR), Research School of Economics, Australian National University
Ben is an Associate Professor at the ANU Centre for Social Research and Methods and the Director of the Research School of Economics' Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR)
Ben leads the microsimulation modelling team at the Centre for Social Research and Methods (CSRM) which produces the PolicyMod model of the Australian Tax and Transfer system. The team recently modelled the 2018-19 Federal Budget and has undertaken a number of modelling projects modelling the Australian childcare system.
Prior to this Ben was Principal Research Fellow at NATSEM where he led STINMOD, NATSEM's static microsimulation model of Australia's income tax and transfer system. Ben's main interest is the application of social and economic models to important social and economic policy matters such as income inequality, social exclusion, housing affordability and demographic change, taxation and social security and policy development.
Ben has published several reports with AMP in the areas of the cost of living, housing affordability, childcare and household debt.
Ben has a wide range of experience in both the public and private sector over the past 20 years in the field of economics and statistics. Prior to working with NATSEM and the ANU, Ben was a senior economist with the Housing Industry Association where he was responsible for housing and economic forecasting within the Economics Group. Ben also played an integral role in developing housing policy and analysis for housing affordability. He presented widely to conferences, industry groups and had a large media presence.
Ben has also worked as a methodologist with the Australia Bureau of Statistics for five years and an economic forecaster with the Bureau of Tourism Research.
Inflation isn't the 6.1% they say it is – for many of us, it is much lower
Aug 04, 2022 04:46 am UTC| Economy
We learnt last week inflation is officially 6.1% way above the average over the past 20 years of 2.5%. This is right in the middle of the Reserve Banks 2-3% target band. But although the rate is now 6.1%, not everybody...
Those future tax cut promises... they're nowhere near as big as you'd think
Apr 08, 2019 05:31 am UTC| Insights & Views Economy
The 2018 budget contained big tax measures worth A$143 billion over the next decade initially targeted at lower and middle income Australians, but after five or so years to be heavily weighted towards higher income...