Economics Discipline ANNUAL REPORT 2016 Economics Discipline ANNUAL REPORT 2016 Business School The University of Western Australia Mailbag 251 35 Stirling Highway Crawley, Western Australia, 6009 http://www.business.uwa.edu.au/school/economics This report was prepared by Peter Robertson, Xing Shi and Yanrui Wu with valuable inputs from many colleagues in the Economics Discipline. CONTENTS 1. INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................ 4 2. STAFF MEMBERS .......................................................................................................... 6 3. SEMINAR SERIES ........................................................................................................ 15 4. THE SHANN MEMORIAL LECTURE ...................................................................... 20 5. PHD CONFERENCE IN ECONOMICS AND BUSINESS ....................................... 21 6. VISITORS ....................................................................................................................... 22 7. FACULTY PRIZES ........................................................................................................ 23 8. RESEARCH GRANTS................................................................................................... 24 9. TEACHING ..................................................................................................................... 25 10. PHD STUDENT TOPICS .............................................................................................. 27 11. MASTER OF ECONOMICS PROGRAM................................................................... 29 12. HONOURS PROGRAM ................................................................................................ 30 13. PRIZES AND SCHOLARSHIPS .................................................................................. 32 14. PUBLICATIONS ............................................................................................................ 34 15. DISCUSSION PAPERS ................................................................................................. 38 16. SEMINAR AND CONFERENCE PRESENTATIONS BY STAFF .......................... 40 17. OTHER PROFESSIONAL ACTIVITIES ................................................................... 47 3 1. Introduction Economics was a founding discipline of mentoring. With a number of new staff on the University and has seen a large number board and strong participation the seminar of changes in School and Faculty programme has continued to thrive. As structures. It is an indication of the usual there was also a strong line up of resilience of the discipline and its strong PhD, Masters and Honours presentations, intellectual and policy core that Economics as well as staff internal seminars. has thrived for over 100 hundred years and remains a leading department in Australia The Shann lecture for 2016 was given by with a great international reputation. Professor Mary Morgan from London School of Economics and attracted a large In 2016 Economics faced another audience and gave an extremely engaging challenge, as one of the 4 Discipline of the presentation on how we use ideas and Business School, with the amalgamation models in economics. 2016 was also of university Faculties. Next year UWA’s turn to host the PhD Conference in Economics will be part of a large faculty Economics and Business and Ken of Arts Business, Law and Education and I Clements and Izan, who have been drivers am sure as it has in the past the Economics of this annual event since its inception scholarly research and dedicated teaching delivered another example of why this is will shine through as a centre of academic Australia’s premier event for PhD training. rigor and excellence in the University, but It’s great to see the level of commitment also grounded in policy and real-world from all the experienced discussants and issues that contribute to improving the the real time learning of PhD students. welfare of societies. Another great outcome was the As always the seminar programme has appointment of three outstanding been the key focal point for academic life academics as Adjunct Professors: Prof and 2016 was no exception in offering a Rachel Murphey, Oxford, Professor Billy very strong line up of national and Jack, Georgetown and Professor Xiabo international visitors. I am constantly told Zhang. They have all visited in the past by visiting speakers how much they and we look forward to hosting them in the enjoyed the experience of presenting to future and possible research collaboration. Economics at UWA and the high quality of feedback they received as well as great There were many other exiting hospitality. developments in Economics, such as the development of a new Master of Public As has been the case in recent years, the Policy, teaching into China and welcoming seminar programme was also supported by articulation students. As always there was the BHP Visiting Professor Programme an enormous amount of research generated which supported a number of outstanding in publications and a large pipeline of international scholars to spend some time working papers. at UWA and engage in research and It was a challenging year in many ways Thanks to everyone for all the efforts and and running a department through change extra hours that go into making a thriving relies on a supportive team. Staff have academic environment. engaged in an enormous amount of external service to the profession and Peter Robertson attended and presented at international Head of Department conferences. Thanks are also due to the Admin Team for their friendly and supportive environment. 5 2. Staff Members ACADEMIC STAFF Staff member Primary research fields Dr Elisa Birch Labour economics, education economics Dr Simon Chang Labour economics, health economics, demographic economics Dr Ishita Chatterjee Applied microeconomics, game theory, industrial organisation, institutions Dr Shawn Chen Development economics, economic growth, public finance, Chinese economy Prof Ken Clements International finance, monetary economics, applied macroeconomics Dr Paul Crompton Energy and resource economics Dr Luciana Fiorini Microeconomics Prof Nicolaas Groenewold Macroeconomics, regional economics, Chinese economy, financial economics Prof Peter Hartley Energy and resource economics, macroeconomics Dr Michael Jetter Political economy, public economics, behavioural economics, media economics Dr James Key International trade, education economics Dr Ingebjorg Kristoffersen The economics of happiness and satisfaction, Health economics Dr Bei Li Macroeconomics, public finance, economic growth Dr Leandro Magnusson Econometric theory, applied econometrics Prof Michael McLure History of economic thought Dr Chris Parsons Development economics, migration, applied microeconomics Prof Anu Rammohan Health economics, development economics, Asian economies Prof Peter Robertson International trade, economic growth, development economics, Asian economies Assoc/Prof Abu Siddique Trade, Migration & Economic development Dr Sam Tang Macroeconomics, Asian economies, development economics Prof Rod Tyers International trade, applied macroeconomics, international finance, Asian economies Dr Andrew Williams Education economics, development economics Prof Yanrui Wu Chinese economy, development economics, energy economics, economic growth 6 ADJUNCT PROFESSORS Professor Billy Jack Georgetown University Professor Rachel Murphy University of Oxford Professor Xiaobo Zhang Peking University OTHER ACADEMIC STAFF The Economics Discipline has also benefited from the teaching assistance of the following: Jordan Armstrong Karen Knight Nathan Pitts Raul Bajo Brooke Loneragan Anis Rezae Troy Barry James Ma Daniel Seymour Corey Davies David Marshall Manal Shehabi Samantha Denford Dianne McWilliam Xing Shi Aiden Depiazzi Amanda Meloni Jessica Smith Alex Dixon Jordan Mittasch Dasmesh Sron Aunchisa Foo Scott Montarello Grace Taylor Andrew Gann Kelly Neill Kazuki Tomioka Michael Hey Son Nguyen Jill Trinh Jenny Hughes Brodie Olma Emily Twigger Vanessa Juliana Ben Ong Long Vo Vivek Karia Susan Pen Fiona Kim Sigit Perdana In addition, the following individuals acted as Research and/or Administration Assistants to members of staff: Akbar, Riznaldi Simpson, Tom Si, Jiawei Barry, Troy McGrath, Gabrielle Syaifudin, Noor Depiazzi, Aiden Monteleone, Jason Tarvedi Mamaghani, Yashar Jabeen, Fakhra Mudiyanselage, Harsha Taylor, Grace Juliana, Vanessa Neill, Kelly Tomioka, Kazuki Ma, James (Ning) Nguyen, Son Trinh, Jill (Thao) Marshall, David Shi, Xing Twigger, Emily 7 PROFESSIONAL STAFF The Economics Discipline has also benefited from the assistance of a small, highly professional administrative group: Team Manager: Maryann Evetts Administrative Officers: Isabela Banea Jenny Hu Administrative Assistants: Aya Kelly Ha Le Anna Wiechecki Relief Administrative Assistant: Tundi Jeges 8 ACADEMIC STAFF PROFILES E.R.Birch Joined: 2007 S. Chang Joined: 2015 Honours Coordinator, Economics BA MA NCCU Taiwan, PhD MSU BCom-Hons Curtin, PhD W. Aust. Prior to joining UWA, Dr Chang Senior Lecturer Birch first joined was Associate Professor at the the Economics Discipline under Central University of Finance and an ARC grant in 2004. Her Economics in Beijing. He is also research has been published in a Research Fellow at the Institute journals including Economic for the Study of Labour (IZA) in Record, Australian Economic Germany. His research