RESEARCH STRENGTHS
APPLIED AND THEORETICAL ECONOMICS AT UQ
Pushing the Boundaries
of Economic Theory
and Applications
UQ Applied and Theoretical Economics research has established
an enviable international reputation across a range of fields
including economic theory, econometrics and applied economics
(including environmental economics): our researchers are among
Australia’s most sought-after sources of economic commentary
and analysis. The Excellence for Research in Australia (ERA)
exercise ranked UQ Economics among the best in Australia in
terms of achieving above world standard research outcomes.
UQ Economics pushes the boundaries of economic theory to
extend our understanding and application of the discipline, with
wide-ranging impacts on government policy, industry decisions
and public debate in Australia and internationally.
Applied economics at UQ boasts four researchers who are
consistently in the top 15 Economists in Australia in the Research
Papers in Economics (RePec) rankings, making it the single
strongest group of economists in the country. Our researchers are
weekly in the national media and interact with policy makers at all
levels, particularly on the issue of climate change. Recently, a UQ
project to model the economic impacts of climate change on the
agricultural sector was central to the Garnaut Review’s estimates
of climate change effects on agricultural output and prices: this
was identified as the most significant single economic impact
projected to arise from climate change.
Our researchers are proud recipients of prestigious awards and
accolades, and include six Fellows of the Academy of Social
Sciences of Australia, three Fellows of the Econometric Society,
the nation’s only Australian Research Council (ARC) Laureate
Fellow in Economics (Professor John Quiggin), as well as other
highly sought after national fellowships.
UQ economics researchers work with a wide network of partners:
international collaborations include renowned groups from
Chicago, Harvard, University of California (UCLA and UC Davis),
Princeton, Oxford, Cambridge, New York University, the Wharton
School, University of Groningen, and the National Bureau of
Economic Research.
ECONOMICS in brief
•More than 50 full-time equivalent researchers
•30 PhD and MPhil students in 2013
•More than 500 publications since 2008
•More than $17.9 million in research funding since
2008
•Economics & Econometrics research ranked 35 in
the world in QS World University Rankings by Subject
2013
th
•Economic Theory research rated at the highest level –
‘well above world standard’ – in the 2012 Excellence
in Research for Australia exercise.
Research in Economics is concentrated in the
School of Economics with collaboration from
researchers in:
Faculty of Business, Economics and Law
Global Change Institute
Institute for Social Science Research
UQ has particular expertise in the areas of:
Economic Theory
Applied Economics
Econometrics
RESEARCH STRENGTHS
APPLIED AND THEORETICAL ECONOMICS AT UQ
Highlights of UQ ECONOMICS
Economic Theory
Economic Theory studies the foundations of strategic behaviour
(game theory), individual behaviour under uncertainty (decision
theory), the analysis of economy-wide production, distribution and
welfare (general equilibrium theory), and the study of individual
markets (mechanisms of design and auction theory).
•Game theory research has contributed to an increased
understanding of the complexity of computation of equilibria in
two-person games by improving underlying theorems. These
games can be applied to issues in economic geography such as
endogenous residential segregation.
•In decision theory, researchers have developed decision-making
tools for complex environments. A central goal is to integrate
rules, for example the precautionary principle, with the more
formal approach adopted in cost-benefit analysis.
•In general equilibrium theory, UQ research has introduced new
concepts for understanding perfectly competitive economies.
The focus is on describing how prices deal with information when
there are many more consumers and producers than markets:
this work goes some way to giving a coherent understanding of
financial crises and the role of government.
•Market design research examines markets that have not
traditionally been used for allocating resources and distributing
production. These include the allocation of the electromagnetic
spectrum for mobile telecommunication, assigning exploration
rights for natural resources (such as timber or oil/gas) and
government procurement of goods and services.
Applied Economics
Applied economics at UQ boasts some of Australia’s leading
economists who interact regularly with national media and policy
makers on key economic matters of national and international
significance.
DES-1251 1K SEPT13 CRICOS Provider Number 00025B
•Applied economics research has made significant contributions
to our understanding of the environment, electoral processes,
happiness and health, developing economies, labour markets,
experimental, public and macro economics.
•The Energy Economics and Management Group (EEMG) is a
well-established national centre with extensive collaboration with
industry and has been centrally involved in two major CSIRO
Clusters: iGRID and Future Grid. EEMG advises policymakers
through projects funded by the Commonwealth Department of
Climate Change, the Bureau of Resource and Energy Economics
(BREE), and ARENA.
•The Risk and Sustainable Management Group researches the
problems of sustainably managing environmental resources,
climate change adaption and mitigation, and the role of risk and
uncertainty. Of particular note is the key role played by the Group
in assessing the impact of climate change on the Murray-Darling
Basin, which contributed to the development of policy for its
sustainable management.
•The Development Economics Group focuses on understanding
and providing policy relevant research to improve the economies
of developing countries. The Group has engaged in projects
aiming to understand the determinants, motives and channels
of remittances of Pacific Island workers in Australia and to
provide inputs into policy debates on Australian and international
migration.
Econometrics
Econometrics researchers routinely provide advice on economic
measurement to international organisations such as the Food and
Agriculture Organization (FAO) and International Labour Organization
(ILO) of the United Nations, the World Bank, Eurostat, the Asian
Development Bank and Australian State and Commonwealth
departments, including the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS),
Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics (ABARE),
Treasury and the Productivity Commission.
Current research highlights include:
•
Centre for Efficiency and Productivity Analysis (CEPA): CEPA has
an international reputation and is the only centre of its kind in the
world. Its pioneering work helps develop measures of productivity,
providing economic insights into performance of firms or other
producer entities. This research has led to techniques used in the
analysis of agricultural data for the US, Denmark, Finland, and the
OECD.
•Developing an econometric methodology to construct consistent
panels of purchasing power parities and real incomes covering
180 countries from 1970 to 2010. Researchers provide advice on
international comparisons to the World Bank, the OECD and the
Asian and African Development Banks.
•Bayesian and semiparametric approaches to stochastic frontiers
and productivity measurement; and panel methods for missing
data and analysis of bilateral trade.
•Contributing to the development of econometric methodologies
to study and model the unique features of health economics
and health care. Applications of these methods relate to the
interrelationships between health insurance and different types of
health care use such as hospital and ambulatory care, emergency
room visits, and prescription drug use.
•Developing new econometric methods for the construction of
housing price indices and their components, land and structure,
providing estimates of the effect of flooding risk on property values.
•Developing an econometric framework to improve policy advice
and macroeconomic forecasts for unobservable or difficult to
measure factors such as technology.
ENGAGE WITH UQ
UQ RESEARCH AND INNOVATION
Email: [email protected]
Phone: +61 7 3365 3560
Web: www.uq.edu.au/research