2026 HILDA Survey Research Conference

The Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research is proud to present the 2026 HILDA Survey Research Conference, supported by the Australian Government Department of Social Services (DSS).

The conference will showcase research findings that track how the lives of many Australians have been changing over the course of the 21st century, and the social, economic, and institutional forces driving these changes. Particular attention will be given to the consequences of change, including impacts on health and subjective well-being, employment and jobs, family life and incomes and wealth.

The HILDA Survey Research Conference will be held at the University of Melbourne over two days:
Thursday 1 and Friday 2 October, with an optional three-course dinner on Thursday evening at the Woodward Conference Centre at the University.

Standard registration (conference and dinner): $400
Standard registration (conference only): $300
Student registration (conference and dinner): $200
Student registration (conference only): $150

Important dates

Thursday 18 December 2025	Paper submissions open
Friday 15 May 2026	Paper submissions close
Friday 26 June 2026	Notification of paper acceptance
Monday 13 July 2026	Registrations open
Wednesday 23 September 2026	Registrations close Cancellations after this date will not be refunded
Thursday 1 & Friday 2 October 2026	HILDA Survey Research Conference

About HILDA

The Melbourne Institute has championed best-practice longitudinal survey methods and enabled researchers to produce powerful insights into Australian life via the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia Survey for more than two decades.

Learn more

The HILDA Survey Research Conference will take place at the The Spot, 198 Berkeley St, the University of Melbourne.

Day 1 - Thursday 1 October

Time	Session	Location
8:30 am - 9:00 am	Registration	Ground Floor Foyer, The Spot
9:00 am - 9:15 am	Welcome to Country Welcome Address Professor Serge da Motta Veiga, Dean & Sidney Myer Chair of Commerce, Faculty of Business and Economics, University of Melbourne Opening Remarks	Copland Theatre, The Spot
9:30 am - 10:30 am	Keynote Address Longitudinal evidence on housing as a social determinant of health Rebecca Bentley, University of Melbourne Drawing on longitudinal research, including extensive analysis of the HILDA dataset, this presentation demonstrates that housing affordability, stability, and quality significantly protect mental and physical health. The presentation makes an economic case that investing in healthy housing through rental standards, affordability support, and improved conditions would generate substantial health gains and cost savings.	Copland Theatre, The Spot
10:30 am - 11:00 am	Morning Tea	Level 1, The Spot
11:00 am - 12:30 pm	Session 1A Life Satisfaction Dynamics Does adversity build resilience? Childhood socioeconomic status and wellbeing dynamics in adulthood - David Johnston, Monash University Who adapts to adversity? Adjustment heterogeneity and negative life events in Australian panel data - Nicholas Rohde, Griffith University Two decades of hidden transitions: A joint latent Markov analysis of mental health and life satisfaction trajectories in Australia - Oyelola Adegboye, Charles Darwin University	Room 4007, Level 4, The Spot
	Session 1B Fertility and Family Do mental health declines contribute to falling fertility motivations - a cohort analysis from Australia - Natalie Nitsche, Australian National University Working from home and fertility intentions: Evidence from Australia - Pelin Akyol, e61 Institute The impact of paid parental leave on intra-household bargaining dynamics in Australia - Md Rabiul Karim, Macquarie University	Room 4012, Level 4, The Spot
	Session 1C Natural Disasters and Insurance Residential responses to natural disasters: The mediating role of residential insurance - Ha Nguyen, The Kids Research Institute Australia Non-insurance in Australia and the effect of natural hazard risk - Michael McLean, Finity Consulting / University of Newcastle Disaster exposure and household financial disruption - Sundar Ponnusamy, Deakin University	Room 4014, Level 4, The Spot
12:30 pm - 1:15 pm	Lunch	Level 1, The Spot
1:15 pm - 2:00 pm	Poster Session	Level 1, The Spot
2:00 pm - 3:30 pm	Session 2A Disability Disability, labour productivity and lifetime earnings- New evidence from Australia - Man Hin (Iris) Cho, Australian National University Does disability reshape who we are? Personality change following permanent disability onset - Michael Palmer, University of Western Australia Disability employment and working from home in Australia - Aaron Mollross, Australian National University	Room 4007, Level 4, The Spot
	Session 2B Divorce, Drugs, and Problem Gambling Compatibility in personalities and non-cognitive skills and relationship dissolution in Australia - Xiadong Gong, University of Canberra Beyond parental absence: Parental divorce, bereavement, and illicit drug use in Australia - Derek Tong, Melbourne Institute From participation to problem gambling: Does financial literacy prevent harmful escalation? - Vandana Arya, Adelaide University	Room 4012, Level 4, The Spot
	Session 2C Financial Hardship and Poverty Dynamics Monetary and multidimensional poverty in Australia: Overlap, persistence and prediction - Melek Cigdem-Bayram, Melbourne Institute The dynamics of household financial hardship - entry, duration, path and exit - Mei Qiu, Massey University Early access to retirement savings and financial distress evidence from Australia’s COVID-19 policy - Shah Alam, Monash University	Room 4014, Level 4, The Spot
3:30 pm - 4:00 pm	Afternoon Tea	Level 1, The Spot
4:00 pm - 5:30 pm	Session 3A Wellbeing Dynamics Fatherhood, wellbeing, and social isolation: Longitudinal evidence around the birth of a first child - Jan Kabátek, Melbourne Institute Delving into the eye of the cyclone to quantify the causal impacts of natural disasters on life satisfaction - Francis Mitrou, The Kids Research Institute Australia Life course events and decisions under duress: Disruptive events and their impact on migration, neighbourhood choices, and wellbeing - William Clark, University of California, Los Angeles	Room 4007, Level 4, The Spot
	Session 3B Immigrants Health assimilation of Australian immigrants - Rennie Lee, University of Queensland Cultural uncertainty avoidance and homeownership: Evidence from immigrants in Australia - Lai Hoang, University of Western Australia Intergenerational educational attainment and wage outcomes among migrants and Australian-born individuals - Lenah Ankliss, University of Melbourne	Room 4012, Level 4, The Spot
	Session 3C Labour Market Issues The effect of acquiring disability on employment outcomes in Australia - Mingji Liu, Economics Researcher The Trade Off Between Union Wage Gains and Working Time Flexibility - Yuqi Huang, University of Auckland Labour mobility of award-reliant employees - Jamie van Netten and Justin Strong, Fair Work Commission	Room 4014, Level 4, The Spot
6:00 pm - 10:00 pm	Dinner Note: only for attendees who registered	Woodward Conference Centre, 185 Pelham Street, Carlton

Day 2 - Friday 2 October

Time	Session	Location
8:30 am - 9:00 am	Registration	Ground Floor Foyer, The Spot
9:00 am - 10:30 am	Session 4A Housing, Working from Home, and Health Housing tenure as a structural determinant of sleep quality in Australia - Kate Mason, University of Melbourne Does work from home contribute to increased BMI and obesity? Evidence from Australian data - Anastasia Semykina, RMIT University Associations between the extent of working from home and health risk behaviours among Australian workers - Lisa Becker, Deakin University	Room 4007, Level 4, The Spot
	Session 4B Child Care and Aged Care How successful are childcare subsidy reforms in promoting childcare usage and maternal employment in Australia? - Lina Doan, Aalto Pty Ltd Who cares? Trends in the division of care among separated parents - Sandra Buchler, University of Queensland Who cares when governments spend more? Regional aged care funding and informal care provision - Anam Bilgrami, Macquarie University	Room 4012, Level 4, The Spot
	Session 4C Digital Technology and Education Mapping generative AI exposure across Australia's ageing and gender-segregated workforce - Suneha Seetahul, University of Sydney Digital exclusion in Australia: Evidence from the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) survey - Ewa Orzechowska-Fischer, Department of Infrastructure Alignment of the low-SES equity target to higher education access an assessment - Michael Dockery, Curtin University	Room 4014, Level 4, The Spot
10:30 am - 11:00 am	Morning Tea	Level 1, The Spot
11:00 am - 12:30 pm	Session 5A Loneliness Social health dynamics around the onset of long-term health conditions - Fikru Rizal, Monash University Have Australians become more lonely and socially isolated? A longitudinal analysis of the HILDA study - Neta Hagani, University of Sydney Volunteering and trajectory of loneliness among older adults in Australia - Ha-Linh Quach, University of Sydney	Room 4007, Level 4, The Spot
	Session 5B Data Collection and Data Quality I think my father was a project manager: Reliability and validity of parental occupation and schooling measurement in the HILDA survey - Ann Evans, Australian National University Cross-sectional Representativeness in Longitudinal Surveys: Income Distribution Trends in HILDA - Maximillian Longmuir, UNSW Sydney HILDA immigrant top-up sample - Nicole Watson, Melbourne Institute	Room 4012, Level 4, The Spot
	Session 5C Work Arrangements Do weekend workers like their jobs? - Harshita Bhatia, Melbourne Institute A healthy work–life balance is linked to good mental health: Longitudinal evidence from Australian workers - Md Mahmudul Hasan Sagar, University of Queensland Working from home and working time (mis)match - Inga Lass, Melbourne Institute	Room 4014, Level 4, The Spot
12:30 pm - 1:30 pm	Lunch	Level 1, The Spot
1:30 pm - 3:00pm	Session 6A Mental Health Neighbourhood characteristics and mental health among Australian adults - Syed Afroz Keramat, University of Melbourne Debts in the shadows: Informal borrowing and mental health in Australia - Chi Minh Ho, University of Western Australia The long shadow of distress: Scarring effects of mental health episodes on Australian labour market trajectories, 2001–2023 - Md Ehsanul Haque Tamal, Murdoch University	Room 4007, Level 4, The Spot
	Session 6B Panel Session: Measuring Gender Attitudes Beyond the traditional-egalitarian continuum: Rethinking gender attitudes as multidimensional - Natalie Nitsche, Australian National University The times, they are a-changin’ — but are gender roles? Two decades of Australian attitudes towards work, care and responsibility - Brendan Churchill, University of Melbourne From survey items to attitudinal profiles: Analytical choices in analysing multidimensional gender attitudes - Christina Bornatici, University of Queensland	Room 4012, Level 4, The Spot
	Session 6C Inequality Measurement error and the dynamics of consumption inequality - Josh Clyne, e61 Institute Measuring the changing size of intergenerational transfers in the Australian tax and transfer system - Robert Breunig, Australian National University Income class dynamics and inequality of opportunity: A full distributional approach - Alessio Rebechi, University of Tasmania	Room 4014, Level 4, The Spot
3:00 pm - 3:30 pm	Afternoon Tea	Level 1, The Spot
3:30 pm - 4:30 pm	Keynote Address Some economics of self-control Deborah Cobb-Clark AO FASSA, University of Sydney This presentation explores the conceptual foundations of self-control in both psychology and economics, focusing on public policy insights and the new opportunities for quantifying and analysing self-control in the Australian context.	Copland Theatre, The Spot
4:30 pm - 4:45 pm	Closing Remarks	Copland Theatre, The Spot

Professor Deborah Cobb-Clark AO FASSA

University of Sydney

Deborah Cobb-Clark AO FASSA is Professor in the School of Economics at the University of Sydney. She is Deputy Director of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Children and Families Over the Life Course; an Officer of the Order of Australia; an elected Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences in Australia; and a Distinguished Fellow of the Economic Society of Australia.

She is passionate about preventing poor children from becoming poor adults. Her research centres on building psychological concepts (locus of control, self-control, risk attitudes) into economic models of family decision-making.

She studies the way that poverty affects the attention (cognitive capacity) parents have available; the role of depression, risk attitudes, and welfare receipt in risk-taking behaviour; the role of locus of control and self-control in human capital formation; and the link between parents’ self-control and children’s outcomes.

Professor Rebecca Bentley

University of Melbourne

Professor Rebecca Bentley (BBSc (Hons) PhD) is an internationally recognised researcher working at the intersection of housing, the built environment, health, and epidemiology.

She is Director of the National Health and Medical Research Council Centre for Research Excellence in Healthy Housing, leads the Victorian Community of Practice of the NHMRC Healthy Environments and Lives Network and sits of the Global Commission for Healthy Indoor Air.

Bentley's scholarship has been recognised by the NHMRC Fiona Stanley Research Excellence award and a Dame Kate Campbell Fellowship.

Getting to the University:

The HILDA Conference will take place at the The Spot, 198 Berkeley St, Carlton, at the University of Melbourne's Parkville campus.

Accessible Wayfinding document download (DOCX 38.8 KB)

From the CBD:

To get to the University of Melbourne from the Melbourne city centre, simply catch any tram going up Swanston Street. These trams run from Flinders Street Station and allow you to disembark at Stop 1 – opposite the University.

The Veriu Queen Victoria Market Hotel is a ten minute walk to the University and located in the vibrant area of the Queen Victoria Market.

From Carlton:

Zagame's House, Best Western Plus Travel Inn, and Melbourne Carlton Central Apartment Hotel are a 12-15 minute walk from the University of Melbourne.

Navigating the University of Melbourne

The University of Melbourne was founded in 1853 and is Australia’s second oldest university. The University spans two campuses with main campus located in Parkville and the second campus located in Southbank, where the Victorian College of the Arts resides.

You can download a PDF copy, or access the University of Melbourne interactive map.

Navigating Melbourne

Melbourne, the capital of Victoria, is a beautiful city with fine buildings and spacious parks, which gives Melbourne its 'garden-city' title. Settlers from a variety of countries have given Melbourne a cosmopolitan outlook and the city has developed as the cultural, fashion, shopping, sporting and culinary centre of Australia.

Catching public transport:

Using public transport in the Melbourne CBD requires a myki card. You can purchase a myki card at most convenience stores or major train stations across Melbourne for $6. This will provide you access to Melbourne's trams, trains, and buses. There is a ‘Free Tram Zone’ within the Melbourne CBD, however outside of this area you will need to 'Touch On' your myki. You can download a map of the Free Tram Zone here. The free PTV app is also a useful resource to help with navigation by public transport.

Travelling from the airport:

The SkyBus travels from Tullamarine Airport to Southern Cross Station in the Melbourne CBD. The shuttle bus leaves the airport roughly every 20 minutes and costs $24 for a one-way pass or $40 for a return fare. Private shuttle buses from the airport can also be booked.

Things to see and do in Melbourne:

The central business district of Melbourne is based around the delta of the Yarra River at the top of a large bay. The city area contains some of Australia's finest parks, gardens and historic buildings, all within walking distance. Melbourne is also Australia's entertainment, sporting and cultural capital. Nearly every cuisine is represented in Melbourne's hundreds of restaurants and cafes.

Places of interest include:

Melbourne Zoo
Melbourne Skydeck for the awe inspiring view of Melbourne from the Southern Hemisphere's highest viewing platform
Fed Square, a venue for food, arts, culture and public events across from Flinders St Station, including the amazing Torres Strait owned and operated Indigenous restaurant, Mabu Mabu
Many waterfront restaurants and cafes along the Yarra River or the District Docklands precinct
The National Gallery of Victoria
Royal Botanic Gardens, recognised as one of the world's best, extending over 38 hectares and housing a collection of more than 8,500 species of plants from around the world
The Koorie Heritage Centre, exploring 60,000 years of culture of the Indigenous people of south-eastern Australia

For more information on Melbourne and its surrounding regions, please visit the following websites:

Contact: HILDA-Conference@unimelb.edu.au

Stay connected:

Website: melbourneinstitute.unimelb.edu.au

LinkedIn: Melbourne Institute

Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research

The Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research has worked for over 60 years to advance opportunity, equity, and prosperity in Australia and our region. Our world-class economists conduct rigorous, independent research and analysis, providing an evidence base for effective policy reform. We are a trusted partner for governments, industry, and communities, working to solve the complex challenges of our time.

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