2020 Mollie Holman Medal

The Mollie Holman Medal was established in 1998 and is named after the late pioneering physiologist, Emeritus Professor Mollie Holman AO, in honour of her significant contributions to science and education.

This is the highest honour for Monash PhD candidates presented for each faculty’s best thesis of the year.

A pioneer in her field, Professor Holman’s memory is preserved in these medals struck in her honour. They are among the highest academic honours we bestow, and mark the recipients as researchers of the highest order. Each year, a maximum of 10 medals are awarded to doctoral students, normally one from each faculty, who have fulfilled their degree requirements and presented their faculty’s best thesis of the year. The Vice-Chancellor’s commendations for thesis excellence are also awarded annually to outstanding Doctoral and Research Master’s thesis excellence. A maximum of five Commendations are awarded each year.

Winner of the 2020 Mollie Holman Medal

Dr Kushneel Avneet Prakash
Department of Economics

Thesis Title
Three Essays on Subjective Wellbeing

Supervisors
Professor Russell Smyth (Deputy Dean Research) and Dr Ratbek Dzhumashev (Senior Lecturer, Department of Economics)

Outline
Economists are increasingly turning their attention to shining a light on what determines how satisfied people are with their lives and why some people are more satisfied with their lives than others. This dissertation is a collection of three distinct, but related, papers on subjective wellbeing (SWB) in China. The first paper, The Quintessential Chinese Dream? Homeownership and the Subjective Wellbeing of China’s Next Generation examines how homeownership influences the SWB of children. The second paper, Housing Wealth and Happiness in Urban China contributes to the discourse regarding rapid growth in inequality in housing wealth and examines how housing wealth and housing wealth inequality are associated with happiness. The third paper, Petrol Prices and Subjective Wellbeing details the effect of petrol prices on SWB using household panel data.