Associate Professor Cain Polidano

Associate Professor Cain Polidano is a Principal Research Fellow at the Melbourne Institute: Applied Economic & Social Research at the University of Melbourne. His research involves the use of administrative data to understand the causal factors that shape the life trajectories of disadvantaged Australians, especially in the spheres of education, Indigenous and retirement policy. Currently he is working on two ARC Linkage Grants, one with the Australian Taxation Office to understand the equity impacts of superannuation policy changes and the other with the National Indigenous Australia Agency to understand the impact of policies that give Indigenous businesses preferential access to government contracts. He is also working on a Life Course Centre project using MADIP data to understand the role that apprenticeship incentive payments play in generating education and employment opportunities for disadvantaged young people. Prior to completing a PhD in Econometrics and Monash University in 2010, Cain worked as a senior research economist with the Productivity Commission.

Research interests

• Education economics
• Applied microecometric analysis
• Youth transition
• Program evaluation
• Labour economics