Rebecca Cassells

Deputy Director
Qualifications

BA Applied Economics (Canberra)
BA Social Sciences | Law and Geography (Canberra)

Telephone+61 438 070 528
Research Fields

Economic evaluation, cost-effectiveness analysis, labour economics, gender equity, poverty, disadvantage and inequality, spatial analyses, wealth and superannuation, social mobility, social exclusion, child wellbeing.

Biography

Associate Professor Rebecca Cassells is Deputy Director of the Bankwest Curtin Economics Centre and works alongside the Director in setting the strategic and operational objectives of the Centre. Rebecca also oversees the Centre’s research impact and engagement portfolio, the BCEC Monthly Labour Market Update and the Gender Equity Insights series. Prior to her appointment at BCEC, Rebecca worked as an independent consultant, working with state and federal government departments on a number of major economic evaluations. Rebecca previously spent many years with the National Centre for Social and Economic Modelling (NATSEM), where she led the Women, Children and Families team and oversaw the AMP.NATSEM Income and Wealth Series.

Rebecca has a diverse research portfolio that deals both with research methods and policy evaluation. Her principal areas of research include: gender equity, poverty and disadvantage, social exclusion, wealth and superannuation; child wellbeing; education inequality; and the role of geography in influencing social and economic outcomes. Rebecca has published extensively through commissioned and public reports and across academic and policy journals.

She has led major commissioned research reports for a number of organisations including the Department of Health, Department of Defence, NSW Department of Premier and Cabinet, AMP, Office for Women, CPA, The Smith Family and the Commonwealth Bank. Her work has been influential in driving public debates and influencing policy and legislation. Rebecca has provided evidence to parliamentary inquiries on the economic security for women in retirement, childcare availability and affordability and the Productivity Commission’s investigation into the childcare workforce and geographic mobility.

Rebecca also serves as a member on the ABS Time Use Survey Reference Group, the Workplace Gender Equality Agency’s Educators Round table; the ABS Labour Force Statistical Advisory Group, a table of ten member at mwah. Making Work Absolutely Human and was the inaugural Chair of the ACT Women in Economics Network.