It is with great pleasure that I announce I am now officially Dr. Ali Furkan Kalay. I would like to extend my sincere gratitude to my PhD thesis advisors, Chris Rose and Alicia Rambaldi, for their unwavering support. I eagerly anticipate our continued collaborations throughout my academic career.
I began my PhD studies at the School of Economics, The University of Queensland, in 2020. I decided to pursue an econometrics thesis focused on the use of administrative data in economics research, anticipating its broader applications. Completing this thesis at UQ was a great opportunity, as the Australian Bureau of Statistics had begun to improve the data access infrastructure and promote the use of linked administrative data for economics research.
My thesis, entitled “Essays on Administrative Data Methodologies”, addresses strongly associated statistical challenges and explores novel empirical applications enabled by linked administrative data. I introduced novel methods – Double Score Matching for mass-imputation to make inferences with nonrepresentative samples and the Local Resampler algorithm for synthetic data generation – in the first two main chapters. In subsequent chapters, I employed linked administrative data to estimate household preferences for urban parks and to examine the effect of colleagues on private health insurance demand. These empirical studies underscore the unique research opportunities enabled by linked administrative data.
I have clearly observed that the ABS’s microdata products are becoming increasingly prevalent in economics research. As exemplified by my thesis chapters and many ongoing projects, linked administrative data enables new research opportunities. I will continue to explore these opportunities using linked administrative data at the Macquarie University Centre for Health Economy as a research fellow in the upcoming years.