Kushneel Prakash

Melbourne Postdoctoral Fellow

Melbourne Institute: Applied Economic and Social Research

The University of Melbourne

Email: kushneel.prakash@unimelb.edu.au / kushneelprakash@gmail.com

Welcome to my website !

I am a Melbourne Postdoctoral Fellow at the Melbourne Institute: Applied Economic and Social Research  at The University of Melbourne.

I have obtained my  PhD in Economics degree from Monash University, Melbourne.  My PhD thesis received the Mollie-Holman Award [Gold medal] from Monash University recognising the Best PhD thesis for the Faculty of Business and Economics in 2020.

My research interests are in the areas of applied economics with focus to health economics, economics of happiness, energy economics and other contemporary issues with central theme on ways to make this world a healthier and happier place to live in by each passing day. 

In my current project, I am examining the dynamics of Financial Literacy, Non-cognitive skills and Wellbeing.

Links to UniMelb ResearchGate, Google Scholar, LinkedIn, Repec, ORCID, Publons, GLO, Twitter


Latest publications

Entrepreneurship and subjective wellbeing in China: Exploring linkages and potential channels

(with Isaac Koomson, Quanda Zhang)

Published in Journal of Business Venturing Insights, 21, June, 2024

[ABDC - A]





Refereed Research Articles

Petrol prices and obesity

(with Sefa Awaworyi Churchill, Russell Smyth)


Published in Health Economics, 31 (7), 1381-1401, 2022

[ABDC - A*]





Are you puffing your children's future away? Energy poverty and childhood exposure to passive smoking

(with Sefa Awaworyi Churchill, Russell Smyth)

Published in Economic Modelling, 114, 105937, September, 2022

[ABDC - A]





Energy poverty and obesity

(with Musharavati Ephraim Munyanyi)

Published in Energy Economics, 101, 105428, September, 2021

[ABDC - A*]





Locus of control and the gender gap in mental health

(with Russell Smyth, Sefa Awaworyi Churchill, Musharavati Ephraim Munyanyi)

Published in  Journal of Economic Behavior & Organisation (JEBO), 178, 740-758, October, 2020

[ABDC - A*]





Petrol prices and subjective wellbeing

(with Russell Smyth, Sefa Awaworyi Churchill)
Awarded "Best Paper" prize in the Monash Business School's 2nd Doctoral Colloquium, Nov 2019. 
In the News

Published in Energy Economics, 90, 104867, July 2020

[ABDC - A*]

{ PhD Paper 3 }

Housing wealth and happiness in Urban China

(with Russell Smyth, Zhiming Cheng, Haining Wang)
Published in Cities, 96, 102470, January 2020

[ERA - A]

{ PhD Paper 2 }

‘The Quintessential Chinese Dream’? Homeownership and the Subjective Wellbeing of China’s Next Generation

(with Russell Smyth)
Published in China Economic Review, 58, 101350, December 2019
Awarded "Poster Prize" in the Monash University "Conference on Randomised Trials", Dec 2019.  [Certificate]

[ABDC - A]

{ PhD Paper 1 }

Does devaluation improve trade balance in small island economies? The case of Fiji

(with Dibyendu Maiti)
Published in Economic Modelling, 55, 382-393, 2016

[ABDC - A]


{Masters Research paper}

Book chapters:

The debt experience of SIDS in the Pacific

(with Biman Prasad)
Published in Debt and Development in Small Island Developing States, D. King and D. Tennant (Eds.). Palgrave Macmillan Press, 71-95, 2014