Marcus Banks

University of Tasmania · School of Business and Economics

Purpose Service captivity is described as the experience of constrained choice whereby a consumer has no power and feels unable to exit a service relationship. This study aims to explore how positive service experiences can contribute to service captivity in the alternative financial services (AFS) sector for consumers experiencing financial vulner...

The challenge facing decision-makers and those who experience and deal with natural disaster impacts is to lay the foundation for measuring the impact and considering where value add occurs. There are two aspects to the challenge. First, what do we know about the regional economy and what do we not know? Second, when interrogating specific sectors...

When examining the impact of natural disasters at the regional level it is evident that the data limitations we encounter are not the only problem; a more comprehensive and dynamic understanding of the drivers of the economy is also required. We argue that a political economy approach is essential to adequately capture the complexities of a regiona...

The purpose of the report is to assess and evaluate available measurements of the impact of disaster events at a subnational regional level. As indicated in other reports (particularly Report 4 and 5) we approach this task via a developed a political economy understanding which captures the complexities of a regional economy. We first propose an ec...

Disaster events have spatial impacts, environmentally, socially and economically. Such impacts often play out at a regional level, defined both territorially as well as in relational terms (Macleod and Jones, 2007). Territory refers to spatiality, while the relational dimension addresses their connectivity (Goodwin, 2012, p. 1182). The interaction...

This study investigated the potential of using the Department of Social Services DOMINO (Data Over Multiple Individual Occurrences) dataset as a fine-grained, within-year data resource for housing research, and in particular explores the capacity of the DOMINO dataset to yield new insights into patterns of CRA (Commonwealth Rent Assistance).

Key points • This exploratory data project investigates the potential of the DSS DOMINO dataset to support housing research and policy development. • The key difference is that DOMINO is mainly comprised of flow data which gives within year income volatility data rather than stock data which gives a single annual, or point-in-time income and labo...

The Brotherhood of St. Laurence (BSL) is a social justice organisation working to prevent and alleviate poverty across Australia. Our mission is to pursue lasting change, to create a more compassionate and just society where everyone can thrive. Our approach is informed directly by the people experiencing disadvantage and uses evidence drawn from o...

For low‐income or precariously employed households in Australia, the re‐allocation of risk over the past forty years has four crucial economic dimensions: the fraying of the social security net; changes in labour market dynamics; heightened uncertainty arising from income volatilities; and new hazards generated by the financialisation of daily life...

In this article, we draw on a recent Australian study to illustrate how social time in precariously employed or low-income households is increasingly riven by uncertainty and risk. We apply two concepts, riskscapes and timescapes, to examine how these households respond to and are buffeted by the economic and temporal insecurities they experience i...

It is commonly understood that the financial harm resulting from a risk, such as accident, illness or unemployment, can be dealt with in one of two ways: preparation or coping. While social security provides a safety net to moderate some of these harms, increasingly individuals are encouraged to prepare for a future harmful event by having a saving...

Despite sustained economic growth, many households are doing it tough in Australia. The qualitative Spinning the Plates study examined the financial circumstances of people with low and uncertain incomes in Melbourne and how they cope with risk in the short and longer term.

The emotional and moral context of high cost, small loan lending has an important bearing on how low-income people engage in the mixed economy of credit, which is a term used to describe the different sectors involved in providing credit, from informal transactions between family and friends to formal fringe financial lenders and multinational bank...

https://theconversation.com/we-lost-the-house-we-lost-everything-what-dealing-with-financial-stress-looks-like-69788

The seminar 'All being well? Financial wellbeing, inclusion and risk' held on 5 December 2016 was organised and hosted by RMIT and the Brotherhood of St Laurence. Over 100 people from the finance, community, regulatory and academic sectors attended to hear our international panel share their insights and research on the evolving concept of financia...

This paper focuses on how community workers in Shepparton viewed the impact of the Place Based Income Management (PBIM) trial on the lives of their clients, their clients' families, and the broader community. The paper responds to criticism that there has been a lack of community voices in the development of PBIM or of their inclusion in the formal...

Spinning the plates: understanding how people with low and volatile incomes cope with financial uncertainty

This literature brief—prepared for Credi Pty Ltd, a new Australian consumer finance company with an interest in developing a greater understanding of loans between family members and friends—thematically outlines major relevant research initiatives across the world in order to better understand the informal lending practices between family and frie...

Narratives of Globalization explores how a range of key ideas in the study of globalization are made manifest in the lives of people all over the world. Each chapter explores a key theme in globalization studies that is explored through a narrative that draws on the contributors own personal experience. It draws together a collection of experiences...

This Australian Research Council funded study explores the factors that influence women’s financial lives. Women’s financial circumstances represent the intersection of complex structural, interpersonal and individual factors that warrant better understanding if we are to reduce the vulnerabilities that too many women experience in Australia. The m...

This ARC funded study explores the factors that influence women’s financial lives. Women’s financial circumstances represent the intersection of complex structural, interpersonal and individual factors that warrant better understanding if we are to reduce the vulnerabilities that too many women experience in Australia. The main driver of women’s fi...

This paper was funded by a small grant from the Australian Centre for Financial Studies. The paper’s brief was to respond to the following matters:  Provide an overview of the ‘payday lending’ market in Australia.  Investigate the impact of unsecured, short-term, small amount lending in Australia and the issues involved in regulating this sector....

LINK: https://theconversation.com/payday-lending-vacuum-makes-regulation-difficult-48987

https://overland.org.au/2015/03/mo-money-mo-problems/

This briefing note describes data gathered for the first phase of a research project ‘What is the scale, scope and business model of the Australian online small amount credit contract (SACC) industry?’ The research has been funded by grants received from RMIT University College of Business and the National Financial Services Federation. The first p...

In the last few decades, payday lending has mushroomed in many developed countries. The arguments for and against an industry which provides small, short-term loans at very high interest rates have also blossomed. This article presents findings from an Australian study to contribute to the international policy and practice debate about a sector whi...

The Australian payday industry has experienced remarkable growth since the establishment of the first payday outlet on Queensland’s Gold Coast in 1998. Due to the industry’s prominence in the consumer finance market, criticism from some quarters including consumer advocates and the federal government resulted in regulation of the industry in March...

This is primarily an empirical talk about Centrelink – a snapshot of an Australian govt dept with roughly a similar suite of welfare services and payment streams as the DWP here. I illustrate how three arguments can clarify an understanding of various policy shifts, institutional changes and workforce recompositions in Centrelink: 1 That in the str...

This report presents an insight into the role of small, short term loans in the lives of Australians. This area of the financial services sector has been growing rapidly in Australia over the past two decades. Our research aim was to explore the main reasons for this growth and its consequences, particularly from the perspective of borrowers. The r...

The thesis revives the historical importance of a small, relatively obscure Australian workfare policy through a marxist theoretical framework that is equally marginal to Australian social policy analytics. The Jobs, Education and Training Program (JET) was a first-wave Active Society social welfare policy introduced by the Hawke Labor government i...