Dr Sarah Ball
Deputy Director, Graduate Centre
ARC DECRA
School of Political Science and International Studies
Books
Althaus, Catherine, Ball, Sarah, Bridgman, Peter, Davis, Glyn and Threlfall, David (2022). The Australian policy handbook: a practical guide to the policymaking process. 7th ed. London, United Kingdom: Routledge. doi: 10.4324/9781003351993
Ball, Sarah (2022). Behavioural public policy in Australia: how an idea became practice. London, United Kingdom: Routledge. doi: 10.4324/9781003290742
Book Chapter
Ball, Sarah, McGann, Michael, Lewis, Jenny M. and Considine, Mark (2024). Digital-first employment services in Australia: Challenges and opportunities. The Routledge International Handbook of Public Administration and Digital Governance. (pp. 272-283) edited by Sarah Giest and Ian Roberge. London, United Kingdom: Routledge. doi: 10.4324/9781003458081-22
Journal Articles
Ball, Sarah (2025). Who decides what works? Ethical considerations arising from the Australian Government's use of behavioural insights and Robodebt. Australian Journal of Public Administration, 84 (1), 159-171. doi: 10.1111/1467-8500.12676
Mcgann, Michael, Considine, Mark, Nguyen, Phuc and Ball, Sarah (2025). Introduction to the Special Issue on Activation and the Digital Welfare State. Australian Journal of Social Issues, 60 (2), 376-383. doi: 10.1002/ajs4.70002
Ball, Sarah and Hannah, Adam (2025). Robodebt: administrative harm and Australian social policy. Australian Journal of Political Science, ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print), 1-8. doi: 10.1080/10361146.2025.2542739
Ball, Sarah (2025). Doing the right thing, not just doing the thing right: the importance of explicitly ethical policy advice. Australian Journal of Political Science, 60 (2), 1-14. doi: 10.1080/10361146.2025.2486120
Ball, Sarah (2025). Using interpretive political science to understand policy-making in practice. Australian Journal of Political Science, 59 (4), 1-13. doi: 10.1080/10361146.2025.2454556
Ball, Sarah (2024). Collaboration and public policy: agency in the pursuit of public purpose. Critical Policy Studies, 18 (4), 728-731. doi: 10.1080/19460171.2024.2311198
McGann, Michael and Ball, Sarah (2024). Beyond administrative burden: activation and administrative harm. Australian Journal of Social Issues, 60 (2), 441-455. doi: 10.1002/ajs4.371
Ball, Sarah and Rejón, René (2024). Unlocking policy success: is codesign the key to achieving effective policy outcomes?. Policy Design and Practice, 7 (3), 1-14. doi: 10.1080/25741292.2024.2368911
Ball, Sarah, McGann, Michael, Nguyen, Phuc and Considine, Mark (2023). Emerging modes of digitalisation in the delivery of welfare‐to‐work: implications for street‐level discretion. Social Policy and Administration, 57 (7), 1166-1180. doi: 10.1111/spol.12939
Ball, Sarah (2023). Employer engagement: Making active labour market policies work Edited by JoIngold and PatrickMcGurk. Bristol University Press, Mar 1, 2024, 270 pp., ISBN: 978–1529223002, Price GBP 28.99, p/b. British Journal of Industrial Relations, 61 (4), 990-992. doi: 10.1111/bjir.12772
Pykett, Jessica, Ball, Sarah, Dingwall, Robert, Lepenies, Robert, Sommer, Theresa, Strassheim, Holger and Wenzel, Lars (2023). Ethical moments and institutional expertise in UK Government COVID-19 pandemic policy responses: where, when and how is ethical advice sought?. Evidence and Policy, 19 (2), 236-255. doi: 10.1332/174426421X16596928051179
Ball, Sarah, McConnell, Allan and Stark, Alastair (2022). Dramaturgy and crisis management: a third act. Public Administration, 100 (3) padm.12775, 585-599. doi: 10.1111/padm.12775
Considine, Mark, McGann, Michael, Ball, Sarah and Nguyen, Phuc (2022). Can robots understand welfare? Exploring machine bureaucracies in welfare-to-work. Journal of Social Policy, 51 (3) PII S0047279422000174, 519-534. doi: 10.1017/s0047279422000174
Reddel, Tim and Ball, Sarah (2021). Knowledge coproduction: panacea or placebo? Lessons from an emerging policy partnership. Policy Design and Practice, 5 (2), 1-14. doi: 10.1080/25741292.2021.1992106
Ball, Sarah (2021). Translating behavioral public policy into practice: Interpretations and traditions. Critical Policy Studies, 16 (3), 315-332. doi: 10.1080/19460171.2021.1973525
Ball, Sarah and Head, Brian W. (2021). Behavioural insights teams in practice: nudge missions and methods on trial. Policy and Politics, 49 (1), 105-120. doi: 10.1332/030557320X15840777045205
Ball, Sarah and Feitsma, Joram (2019). The boundaries of behavioural insights: observations from two ethnographic studies. Evidence and Policy: A Journal of Research, Debate and Practice, 16 (4) https://doi.org/10.1332/174426419X15643724702722, 559-577. doi: 10.1332/174426419X15643724702722
Ball, Sarah (2019). How far to nudge?: assessing behavioural public policy. Local Government Studies, 45 (2), 283-286. doi: 10.1080/03003930.2019.1570048
Sarah Ball, Michael Hiscox and Tara Oliver (2017). Starting a behavioural insights team: three lessons from the Behavioural Economics Team of the Australian Government. Journal of Behavioral Economics for Policy, 1 (Special Issue), 21-26.
Thesis
Ball, Sarah (2020). Behaviour change, rigorous evidence and public policy: an ethnography of the use of ‘behavioural insights’ in policy development by the Australian Federal Government. PhD Thesis, Institute for Social Science Research, The University of Queensland. doi: 10.14264/uql.2020.886
Research Reports
Baxter, Janeen, Povey, Jenny, Burger, Sarah-Ann, Plage, Stefanie, Kennedy, Elizabeth, O'Flaherty, Martin, Tseng, Yi-Ping, Polidano, Cain, Kalb, Guyonne, Borland, Jeff, Ribar, David, Mamun, Abdullah, Ball, Sarah, Gramotnev, Alexandra, Bellotti, Melindy, Simpson Reeves, Laura, Tomaszewski, Wojtek and Western, Mark (2020). Try, test and learn evaluation - interim report. Brisbane, Australia: The University of Queensland.
Parsell, Cameron, Robinson, Richard, ten Have, Charlotte and Ball, Sarah (2019). A convergence study of emergency relief providers and recipients. Brisbane, QLD, Australia: Institute for Social Science Research.
Parsell, Cameron, Walter, Zoe, ten Have, Charlotte, Ball, Sarah and Lam, Jack (2018). What happens at Pindari matters: a longitudinal study. Brisbane, QLD, Australia: The University of Queensland.
Ambrey, Christopher, Parsell, Cameron, Robinson, Richard and Ball, Sarah (2018). Service delivery models and repeat requests for emergency relief. ISSR021235 Brisbane, QLD, Australia: Institute for Social Science Research.