Research Teams

Professor Guyonne Kalb

Professor Kalb is Deputy Director of the Melbourne Institute, Leader of the Family and Labour Economics Team and Chief Investigator for the ARC Centre of Excellence for Children and Families over the Life Course. Her research focuses on micro-economics, in particular female labour supply and its interaction with family, tax and social policies. She has worked on several high-profile government policy reforms including the Paid Parental Leave Scheme and NSW Social Housing reform.

Dr Barbara Broadway

Dr Broadway is a family economist who studies how women’s, children’s and families’ economic wellbeing is shaped by social policy, and in particular how social policy can help disadvantaged families. She has 15 years’ experience in policy evaluation for various government departments at the state and federal level.

Dr Melek Cigdem-Bayram

Dr Cigdem-Bayram is the Ronald Henderson Senior Research Fellow, jointly appointed by the Melbourne Institute and the Brotherhood of St Laurence. She specialises in wealth inequality, intergenerational wealth transfers, poverty and disadvantage, and housing. She currently leads a program of research on measuring and defining poverty in Australia that aims to advance a nationally accepted definition and framework.

Dr Nichola Coombs

Dr Coombs is an Academic Specialist with a unique clinical background in infant and child mental health. Her research focuses on evaluating enhanced early education interventions for children living with high levels of family stress and social vulnerability. Her work bridges the gap between infant mental health, early education and economic policy.

Dr Sarah C. Dahmann

Dr. Dahmann is a Senior Research Fellow at the Melbourne Institute, interested in the human development of adolescents and young adults. Her work focuses on the determinants of skill formation, consequences of childhood disadvantage, impacts of education and welfare policies, and importance of mental health and self-control for economic behavior.

Dr Ana Gamarra Rondinel

Dr Gamarra Rondinel is a public economist at the Melbourne Institute and the ARC Centre of Excellence for Children and Families over the Life Course. Her research explores government policies on taxation, education, early childhood, and financial insecurity. She is also a Research Affiliate with CESifo and the Tax and Transfer Policy Institute.

Ms Tanya Gupta

Tanya Gupta is a Senior Foundation Fellow at the Melbourne Institute and has experience in education, family and labour economics. Her research studies the effectiveness of government policy interventions and seeks to bridge critical gaps in the field.

Ms Alison Tilbrook

Associate Professor Yi-Ping Tseng

Associate Professor Yi-Ping Tseng, an expert in program evaluation and policy design, employs rigorous methods like randomised trials and quasi-experimental evaluations using survey and administrative data. Her passion lies in generating robust evidence to inform education and social policies, with the aim of improving the life trajectories of vulnerable populations.

Ms Yuchen Zhong