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CONTENTS

1.  INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................ 4 

2.  STAFF MEMBERS .......................................................................................................... 6 

3.  LARRY SJAASTAD (1934-2012) .................................................................................. 17 

4.  EXAMPLES OF RESEARCH ...................................................................................... 18 

5.  PAST RESEARCH ASSISTANTS................................................................................ 20 

6.  SEMINAR SERIES ........................................................................................................ 22 

7.  THE SHANN MEMORIAL LECTURE ...................................................................... 27 

8.  PHD CONFERENCE IN ECONOMICS AND BUSINESS ....................................... 29 

9.  VISITORS ....................................................................................................................... 32 

10.  RESEARCH GRANTS................................................................................................... 35 

11.  TEACHING ..................................................................................................................... 36 

12.  PHD STUDENT TOPICS .............................................................................................. 37 

13.  SUCCESSES OF UWA ECONOMICS PHDS ............................................................ 39 

14.  HONOURS PROGRAM ................................................................................................ 41 

15.  PRIZES AND SCHOLARSHIPS .................................................................................. 42 

16.  PUBLICATIONS ............................................................................................................ 44 

17.  DISCUSSION PAPERS ................................................................................................. 48 

18.  SEMINAR AND CONFERENCE PRESENTATIONS BY STAFF .......................... 50 

19.  OTHER PROFESSIONAL ACTIVITIES ................................................................... 54 

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1. Introduction

2012 was a highly productive year for the Economics Discipline at UWA, a small but vibrant group within the Business School. Excellent levels of performance were achieved in the pursuits of research, teaching and service that together define the activities of the economics community.

Highlights for 2012 included new research ideas taking shape in the form of 23 working papers, a good amount of research grants flowing in, including a very competitive Discovery Early Career Research Award from the Australian Research Council, several high level publications in international journals and books, and the formation of research networks through various national and international seminars and conferences.

Economics staff maintained their trend of publishing in high-level journals of international repute. Papers appeared in journals such as Economic Theory (Peter Robertson), Economic Modelling (Rod Tyers), Journal of Development Studies (Abu Siddique), Applied Economics (Ken Clements, Ishita Chatterjee), Oxford Economic Papers (Anu Rammohan, Peter Robertson), European Economic Review (Ken Clements, Grace Gao), History of Economics Review (Michael McLure) and many more in 2012. The economics research staff were successful in winning several ARC grants. Elisa Birch won a highly competitive Discovery Early Career Research Award for her research on indigenous Australians, Ken Clements secured a New Discovery Grant for his study on global consumption patterns, and several continuing Discovery Grants were awarded to Peter Robertson, Anu Rammohan, Yanrui Wu, Ken Clements and Rod Tyers. Bei Li (with Siew Ying Yew and Yang Li) received a Business School Research Development Award for the paper “Unifying China’s Dual Pension Systems and its Implication on Fertility, Investment, Economic Growth and Welfare” and Leandro Magnusson received the Dean’s Research Fellowship for excellence in research.

New ideas emerged from the working papers submitted in 2012 bringing up the total number of papers up to 757 since the working paper series started in 1980. The 750th working paper was submitted by Ishita Chatterjee titled: “Costly Reporting, Ex-post Monitoring, and Commercial Piracy: A Game Theoretic Analysis” in September of 2012. In the 33 years since 1980, the Economics Discipline has benefited from 325 contributing authors of working papers reflecting the excellent research connections UWA Economics possesses. The Discipline maintains three seminar series – the Wednesday Brown Bag, the Friday Research Seminar and the Growth Zone Seminar Program – which brought in several contemporary and distinguished speakers from all over the world last year to share their research in progress. We also had several guest lecturers throughout 2012 including Prof Curtis Eaton – a renowned applied economics theorist – and Prof Avinash Dixit from Princeton University. Prof Dixit delivered the annual Shann Memorial Lecture. He talked about the Art of Strategy in movies and sports as an application of game theory and drew in a crowd of 300 plus academics, students and industrial representatives.

The Economics Discipline continues to attract quality research students in the BEc (Honours) and PhD streams. PhD student, Grace Gao had her paper ‘World Food Demand’ published in

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the American Journal of Agricultural Economics, which was adjudged to be the best publication in the Social Sciences (Quantitative) discipline group panel. For this work Grace received the Prize for Higher Degree by Research Achievements at UWA in 2012. Jason Collins won the best presenter award for his paper at the Australian Annual PhD Conference in Economics and Business, which was hosted by UWA last year. At the same conference Jason was also deemed as the student with the most potential in economics. UWA Honours Student Tobias Beckmann won the prestigious Stan and Jean Perron Scholarship, and two undergraduate students, Rein Duim and Pierce Van Halewyn, were the State Winners of the CPA Big Break Project 2012 and also participated in the National Final for the CPA Big Break Project.

Last year brought in some changes in the course structure throughout UWA that resulted in shifts in student enrolment numbers across disciplines and schools. The Economics Discipline continued its leading role in attracting undergraduate students with an impressive number of 1444 new enrolments in first year microeconomics and 741 in first year macroeconomics. We had 16 students join the Honours Program and six students complete their PhD degree in 2012. All six obtained suitable professional positions immediately after completing their PhD and followed in the Discipline’s tradition of publishing in high-level international journals.

In 2012, the Discipline saw some changes in the staff composition - Professor Michael McLure took up his duties as the Acting Head of Economics in the second half of 2012 as Ken Clements went on sabbatical leave. Two new Level A (Lecturer) staff members, Susan Pen and Aunchisa Foo, were appointed. Kazi Iqbal from the Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies joined the economics group for one year in 2012 as a Research Associate on an AusAID project. They are welcomed to the Economics Discipline. Ishita Chatterjee was promoted to Level B (Assistant Professor). There were also three departures - Assistant Professor Sam-Ho Lee resigned from UWA to take up a new career with the University of Korea, our post-doctoral research fellow Dr Marie-Claire Robitaille took up an Assistant Professor position with the University of Nottingham in China and Shirin Tafazzoli left her lecturer position though she continues her association as a casual tutor with the Economics Discipline and with the Taylor’s College Foundation Program for UWA Economics.

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2. Staff Members

WINTHROP PROFESSORS

K.W. Clements BEc-Hons MEc (Monash), PhD (Chicago), FASSA

Winthrop Professor Clements is a generalist economist with interests in international finance, monetary economics and applied micro, including index numbers. His research has been supported by a series of grants from the Australian Research Council and he has published recently in journals such as the American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Journal of Business, European Economic Review and Journal of International Money and Finance. In 2009, Cambridge University Press published his book (co-authored with X. Zhao) Economics and Marijuana. In 2009 he received a Citation for Outstanding Contributions to Student Learning from the Australian Learning and Teaching Council. He currently holds a BHP Billiton Research Fellowship.

P. Robertson MEc (UNE), PhD (Simon Fraser), BA Hons 1 (Otago)

Winthrop Professor Robertson joined the Business school in July 2009. Prior to this he was an Associate Professor at the University of New South Wales and an Assistant Director at the Research Division of the former Productivity Commission. He was educated at the University of Otago, the University of New England and Simon Fraser University. His current research is on the interactions between economic growth and international trade, growth in Asia, especially China, Indonesia and India, human capital accumulation, and the impact of international flows of skilled labour. He has published recently in economics journals such as International Economic Review, Oxford Economics Papers, Economic Theory and The Journal of International Economics. Peter is the Associate Dean of Research and Research Training and a member of the University Research Committee.

D.A. Turkington BA (Wellington), MCom (Canterbury), MA PhD (Berkeley), FASSA

Winthrop Professor Turkington specialises in theoretical econometrics. He has published in Journal of Econometrics, Journal of the American Statistical Association and International Economic Review, and is the co-author (with R. Bowden) of the Econometric Society Monograph, Instrumental Variables. Professor Turkington’s current research focuses on the application of matrix calculus to econometric models. He has written a book on this topic: Matrix Calculus and Zero-One Matrices: Statistical and Econometric Applications, published by Cambridge University Press, 2002. His most recent book is Mathematical Tools for Economics, published by Blackwell Publishing, 2007.

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R. Tyers BEng (Melbourne), MEngSci (Melbourne), MS PhD (Harvard)

Winthrop Professor Tyers specialises in applied international economics and has contributed in areas of commodity trade policy, the labour market effects of trade reform, the economic effects of global demographic change and open economy macroeconomics as applied to Chinese economic policy and its international implications. He has published four books, more than 70 refereed journal articles and more than 50 chapters in edited books. Three of his articles have been republished with permission in subsequent books. One, prize-winning, article has been thus republished three times. His research has been supported by six Discovery grants from the Australian Research Council and research grants from the Rural Industries Research and Development Corporation, the Australian Council for International Agricultural Research, the World Bank and the Economic Research Service of the US Department of Agriculture. His teaching has ranged from introductory macroeconomics to advanced microeconomics and international trade theory.

PROFESSORS

N. Groenewold BEc MEc (Tasmania), MA PhD (W. Ontario)

Professor Groenewold teaches in international finance. His research interests include theoretical and applied macroeconomics, regional economics and financial economics. He has published in a number of journals including Journal of Banking and Finance, Journal of Macroeconomics, China Economic Review, Pacific Economic Review, Journal of Empirical Finance, Economics Letters, Economic Inquiry, Regional Studies, and Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance. He is currently working on applications of regional models to issues in China and Australia with a long-time collaborator at Jinan University in China as well as on the contribution of various forms of macroeconomic policy to stabilisation in Australia during the Global Financial Crisis.

M.T. McLure BA (Murd.), Grad DipEd (WAIT), MEc (W. Aust.), PhD (Curtin)

Professor McLure’s research primarily focuses on the history of economic ideas, with special reference to the Lausanne and Cambridge traditions. His current long-term research program is a comparative intellectual history of A. C. Pigou at Cambridge, which investigates Pigou’s contribution to economics between 1900 and 1936. Michael was joint editor of the History of Economics Review between 2007 and 2011, is the author of two books, Pareto, Economics and Society and The Paretian School and Italian Fiscal Sociology, and his research has been published in Australian Economic Papers, the Cambridge Journal of Economics, the European Journal of the

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History of Economic Thought, the Journal of the History of Economic Thought, Pensiero Economico Italiano and the Review of Political Economy. He has also co-edited three multivolume collections in the Critical Assessments of Leading Economists series published by Routledge: Vilfredo Pareto (4 vols); Wassily Leontief (3 vols); and Paul A. Samuelson (3 vols). Prior to joining UWA, Michael prepared policy advice for the State Government as a Treasury officer.

A. Rammohan BA (Bangalore), MA (Simon Fraser), PhD (La Trobe)

Professor Rammohan’s research analyses the intra-household distribution of health and education in developing countries, and its implications for the household’s children and the elderly, with a particular focus on India and China. This research has been funded by competitive grants from the Australian Research Council and AusAID. She also has collaborative research links with international organisations such as IFPRI (USA), ICASEPS (Indonesia), Indian Statistical Institute and TISS (India). Her research has also focused on Australian policy issues relating to child care and female employment choices, and was cited in the media and the Commonwealth Treasury and OECD report on childcare. Papers from her research have been published both in Australian policy journals such as the Australian Economic Papers and Australian Journal of Labour Economics, as well as in international journals such as Health Economics, Education Economics, Oxford Economic Papers, Research in Labour Economics and Oxford Development Studies.

Y. Wu BS (Anhui), MA (Nankai), MA (ANU), PhD (Adel.)

Professor Wu is an economist specializing in development economics, international trade and applied econometrics. His research interests include the Asian economies (particularly, China and India), productivity analysis, economic growth, resource and environmental economics. He has published extensively in these fields. He is the author of several sole-authored books such as Productive Performance in Chinese Enterprises (Macmillan, 1996), China’s Consumer Revolution (Edward Elgar Publishers, 1999), The Macroeconomics of East Asian Growth (Edward Elgar Publishers, 2002), China’s Economic Growth (RoutledgeCurzon, 2004), Productivity, Efficiency and Economic Growth in China (Palgrave Macmillan, 2008) and Understanding Economic Growth in China and India (World Scientific Publishing, 2012). Prof Wu is a member of the editorial board of Journal of Chinese Economic and Business Studies (Routledge, UK), China Agricultural Economic Review (Emerald, UK) and East Asian Policy (National University of Singapore). He is also the General Editor of Advances in Chinese Economic Studies book series published by Edward Elgar Publishers, UK. His teaching interests include international economics, business econometrics and development economics.

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ASSOCIATE PROFESSORS

P. Crompton BBus-Hons (Curtin), PhD (W. Aust.)

Associate Professor Crompton’s research interests include the econometric modelling of commodity markets, the relationship between metals demand and economic activity, and the world iron ore, steel and coal industries. He has published in Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Agricultural and Resources Quarterly, Resources Policy, Journal of Chinese Economic and Business Statistics and Applied Economics Letters. Dr Crompton has edited a book of Shann Memorial Lectures, Australian Macroeconomic Policy Debates: Contributions from the Shann Memorial Lectures 1991-2000 (UWA Press). He is currently the Director of Postgraduate Programs within the UWA Business School.

P.B. McLeod BEc PhD (Adel.)

Associate Professor McLeod teaches in the area of microeconomics, including microeconomic theory, resource economics and public policy economics. His research interests cover various areas of applied microeconomics, including transport, housing, valuation and management of natural resources, production functions and productivity measurement, and competition policy. He has published articles in International Journal of Transport Economics, Transportation Research, Urban Studies, Environment and Planning, Journal of Economic Psychology, People and the Physical Environment, Accounting and Finance, International Journal of Public Sector Management, Annals of Tourism Research, Journal of Environmental Management and Australian Transport Research Forum. Dr McLeod has acted as a consultant to several government departments and private firms, and has served on a number of Government Committees of Inquiry.

M.A.B. Siddique BA-Hons MA MPhil (Rajshahi), DipResMeth (Dhaka), DipResRurDev (Hawaii), PhD (W. Aust.)

Associate Professor Siddique is a development economist. His research activities centre around some of the critical areas in contemporary development economics such as environment, corruption, good governance and international migration, with special focus on the Asia-Pacific region. He has published in international journals such as Journal of Development Studies, Environment International, Mathematics and Computers in Simulation, International Journal of Social Economics, South Asia, The Asia Pacific Economic Journal and Empirical Economics Letters. He has also authored, edited and co-edited numerous books including Evolution of Land Grants and Labour Policy of Government: the Growth of the Tea Industry in Assam 1834-1940 (South Asian Publishers), The Handbook of Corporate Sustainability: Frameworks, Strategies and Tools (Edward Elgar), Globalisation, Agriculture and

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Development: Perspectives from the Asia-Pacific (Edward Elgar) and Tourism and Economic Development (Ashgate). He is also the Postgraduate Coordinator for the Economics Discipline at the University of Western Australia. In addition, he is a member of the Executive Committee of Economic Society of Australia (WA) and is on the Organising Committee of the 2013 Australian Conference of Economists.

S.H.K. Tang BA (Lethbridge), MA (Simon Fraser), PhD (Tasmania)

Associate Professor Tang’s main research interests are empirical growth models and development economics, particularly relating to output volatility, technological progress and financial development in developing countries. His papers have been published in a range of international journals such as China Economic Review, Economic Inquiry, Economics Letters, Journal of Asian Economics, Journal of Economics, Journal of Macroeconomics, and Pacific Economic Review. He also has two book chapters and is the author of the book, The Chinese Stock Market: Efficiency, predictability and profitability (with N. Groenewold, Y. Wu and X. Fan), which was published by Edward Elgar, 2004.

E.J. Weber Lic oec publ (Zurich), MA PhD (Rochester)

Before joining the UWA Business School, Associate Professor Weber taught economics at the University of Zurich, Switzerland, the California State University, Northridge, and the University of Wellington, New Zealand. His research, which deals with macroeconomics and financial history, has been published in Australian and international professional journals and in edited books. His current research focuses on macroeconomics, insurance economics and the link between evolutionary biology and economics.

A. Williams BEc-Hons PhD (W. Aust.)

Associate Professor William’s teaching is focused in the core first-year microeconomic theory course. In 2007 he completed his PhD thesis on the links of the long-run relationship between governance and economic growth, and has had papers published in World Development, the Economics of Governance and the Journal of Development Economics. His current research interests are on the role of transparency in economic development, and the determinants of student academic performance at university (with Dr Elisa Birch).

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ASSISTANT PROFESSORS

E.R. Birch BCom-Hons (Curtin), PhD (W. Aust.)

Assistant Professor Birch joined the Economics Discipline in 2007. Her research has been published in journals such as the Economic Record, Australian Economic Papers, Journal of Higher Education Policy and Management, Australian Journal of Labour Economics and the Journal of Economic Studies. Elisa has also co-authored a book published by Palgrave MacMillian. Her main research interests are labour economics and the economics of education. She completed her PhD, titled The Determinants of Labour Supply and Fertility Behaviour: A Study of Australian Women, in April 2005. In 2011 Elisa was awarded an Australian Research Council’s Discovery Early Career Researcher Award. This fellowship is to study the determinants of earnings and labour supply of Indigenous Australians. 

I. Chatterjee BSc (Calcutta U), MA (JNU), MPhil (IGIDR), PhD (Monash U.)

Assistant Professor Chatterjee joined UWA in 2010 after completing her PhD from Monash University. She is an applied micro economist with special interest in the fields of industrial organisation, game theory and development economics. Her research includes studies on commercial digital piracy, crime and corruption, R&D and innovation, economic development and institutions. Her research has been published in journals such as Applied Economics and Information Economics and Policy. At UWA she teaches first year undergraduate Macroeconomics, second year undergraduate Microeconomics and a postgraduate unit on Economic Management and Strategy.

L. Fiorini BA (Minas Gerais), MA (Sao Paulo), MA (Brown), PhD (Brown)

Assistant Professor Fiorini joined the University of Western Australia in July of 2011, after working at Tulane University (USA) for four years. Her research in Economic Theory focuses on modeling market imperfections and asymmetry of information using a general equilibrium approach. She has published in the Journal of Mathematical Economics.

S.H. Lee BA, MA (SNU), PhD (U. Penn)

Assistant Professor Lee is an applied microeconomic theorist, and his current research topics include cross-country differences in redistribution policies and cross-country differences in university admission standards. Dr Lee has published his works in the International Economic Review and Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization. He started his career at UWA in 2009 after four years of working at the Korea Development Institute.

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L. Magnusson BA MA (Sao Paulo), PhD (Brown)

Assistant Professor Magnusson joined UWA in 2011 from Tulane University. He received his BA and MA in Economics from the University of Sao Paulo and his PhD from Brown University in 2007. His research interests are econometrics and applied econometrics. Leandro’s current research is focused on hypothesis testing for models with instabilities. His research has been published in the Econometrics Journal and Journal of Money, Credit and Banking.

B. Li BA (Nankai), PhD (NUS)

Assistant Professor Li joined the Economics Discipline in September 2011 after graduating from the PhD program in Economics at the National University of Singapore. Her research interests include public policy analysis in endogenous growth model and in deterministic endogenous cycle models. One of her working papers explores the optimal size of government debt in a tractable intergenerational model with endogenous fertility, leisure and human capital externalities. She is currently working on the application of R&D subsidies and other public finance instruments to the deterministic endogenous cycle model and examining the subsequent welfare implications.

LECTURERS

A. Foo LLB/BCom W.Aust, GradDipLegPrac. (ANU)

Ms Foo joined the Economics Department at UWA in February 2012 and teaches first year Microeconomics and Macroeconomics. Prior to this, she worked in Taxation Consulting at PricewaterhouseCoopers. She holds degrees in Commerce and Law, including a Postgraduate Diploma in Legal Practice from the Australian National University.

I. Kristoffersen B.Bus-Hons, M.Bus (Edith Cowan U.)

Ms Kristoffersen commenced her employment at UWA in January 2005. She teaches first-year mathematics as well as a range of other undergraduate units. Inga was awarded an Excellence in Teaching Award in 2008 in the category of Early Career Teacher. Her papers have been published in the International Journal of Business Studies, the Australian Accounting Review, Accounting, Accountability and Performance, and the Economic Record. She is currently exploring the role of happiness research in economics as the basis for a PhD.

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S. Pen BEc-Honours (UWA)

Ms Pen joined the Economics Department in 2012 after completing her Honours degree at UWA. Her honours research focused on the pricing of illicit drugs and the issues surrounding decriminalisation of illicit drug trade and use. Susan teaches a range of undergraduate units across first to final year level.

S. Tafazzoli BSc (University of Tehran), MA (UWA)

Ms Tafazzoli joined the Economics Department at UWA in 2010 after completing her Masters. As part of her Masters she worked on “The likely impact of a carbon emission trading scheme in China”. At UWA she teaches first year Microeconomics and Quantitative Methods for Business and Economics.

RESEARCH FELLOWS

T. S. Cheong BEng-Honours (PolyU), MAF (UWS), MIR (GU), PhD (UWA)

Dr Cheong is interested in the issues of inequality, poverty and development economics. He has published two chapters in edited books. Another three journal articles are under review or preparation. He likes to combine econometric and non-parametric methods in his research. He is now working on a computable general equilibrium model that will be used to analyse the economic and trade relation between China and Australia.

G. Gao BSci (Peking), MSci (Tsinghua), PhD (W.Aust.)

Dr Gao completed her PhD and commenced her postdoctoral research work at UWA in March of 2012. Her major research interests are demand analysis, economic measurement and econometrics. She has published recently in the American Journal of Agricultural Economics and European Economic Review and received the Prize for Higher Degree by Research Achievements at UWA in 2012.

K. Iqbal PhD (UW)

Dr Kazi Iqbal joined the Discipline of Economics in March 2012 as a Research Associate working on an AusAID funded project for Anu Rammohan. He received his PhD from the University of Washington in 2006 under the supervision of Prof Stephen Turnovsky. His research includes the areas of development economics, fiscal policy and financial economics. He was employed with the World Bank (Washington) between 2006-2009 and since mid-2009 he has been employed at the Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies.

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M. Robitaille-Blanchet BA (Universite de Montreal), MA (CERDI), PhD (UO)

Ms Robitaille-Blanchet has a PhD from Otago University (NZ) and has previously studied in France and Canada. Her research interests include applied econometrics, trade, gravity models, and cross country determinants of income and wealth, as well as the microeconomics of family economics. She also teaches international trade.

HONORARY RESEARCH FELLOWS

M.J. Davies BA (Kent), MA (Adel.) OAM

Mr Davies’ major research interests are associated with the history of Australian mining. He has been Secretary/Treasurer of the Australian Mining History Association since 1994, and has served as Secretary of the International Mining History Congress. He has a number of publications that include papers in Australian Economic History Review, Comparative Studies in Society and History, Australian Historical Studies, Cornish Studies, The Great Circle, Journal of Australasian Mining History and the Journal of the Historical Society of South Australia. He has chapters in a number of books and has compiled a bibliography of the Mining History of Australia, New Zealand and Papua New Guinea. For the past 10 years he has been editor of the Journal of Australasian Mining History.

R. Gabbay BSc MA (Tel Aviv), DrPolSc (Geneva)

Dr Gabbay specialises in contemporary Middle Eastern issues, energy and oil (with special emphasis on OPEC), development economics, and the role of culture in international marketing. He has published 18 books and over 76 articles and monographs. Dr Gabbay is now working on his sixth volume of Australia and the Middle East 1945-2000: A socio-economic and political study. Dr Gabbay’s latest co-edited books are International Business and Cross Cultural Marketing: Contemporary research in selected countries, Academic Press International (API), 2004; Gabbay, R. Ogunmokun, G and Janell E, R (eds.) Managing and Marketing Organizations in an Era of Global Complexity, Vol. 3, Academy of World Business, Marketing and Management Development and The Brazilian School of Public Administration (Getulio Vargas Foundation-FGV), Rio de Janerio, 2008; Gabbay, R. Ogunmokun, G and Janell E, R (eds.), Managing and Marketing Organizations in an Era of Global Economic Uncertainly and Environmental Complexity, Vol.4, Academy of World Business, Marketing and Management Development and Martti Ahtisaari Institute of Global Business and Economics, University of Oulu, Finland, 2010.

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R.N. Ghosh MA (Delhi), PhD (Birmingham)

Dr Ghosh retired from the Economics Discipline in 1994, when he was appointed as Senior Honorary Research Fellow. He is a specialist in the history of economic thought. In recent years he has also published on topics relating to a wide range of development issues, such as good governance, corruption, gender issues, the environment, and the role of tourism in initiating development in LDCs. Dr Ghosh is the current chairman of the International Institute of Development Studies Australia. He has recently published with Atlantic Publishers and Distributors, a South Asian edition of Adam Smith’s The Wealth of Nations.

OTHER ACADEMIC STAFF

The Economics Discipline has benefited from the teaching assistance of the following:

Gabriela Aguirre Amy Khuu David Sami Donni Anugrah Andrew Lau Simrith Sidhu Tobias Beckmann Jin Boon Lew Christy Simon Zach Cole Richard Lim-Fat Nagulan Siritharan Jason Collins Andrew Melville Vera Sun Rikard Dahle Philip Metaxas Jeremy Tan Rein Duim Caroline Moser Yashar Tarverdi Patrick Elliott Kristi Ng Michelle Trevenen Parinaz (Tinoosh) Ezzatti Robert Nguyen Matt Vella Jonathan Foo Clayton Philippoz Ganesh Visawanath Natraj Brian Gidney Ilona Quahe Patrick Vu Mark Heath Sabrina Rastam Kevin Zhang Jennifer Hughes Konrad Robertson Ying (Catherine) Zhang Tom Jowett Candyce Ross

In addition, the following individuals acted as Research and/or Administration Assistants to members of staff:

Donni Anugrah Karen Knight Jiawei Si Wayan Arsana Andrew Lau David Silbert Joanna Bloomfield Liang Li Thomas Simpson Vaya Anni Bode Yashar Tarverdi Mamaghani Nagulan Siritharan Joshua Bon Kristi Ng Yi Sun Toby Coulstock Sabrina Rastam Caitlyn Thomas Rebecca Doran-Wu Warren Raymond Fei Yu Parinaz Ezzati Rumayya Rumayya Ying Zhang

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PROFESSIONAL STAFF

The Economics Discipline has also benefited from the assistance of a small, highly professional administrative group:

Team Manager: Danielle Figg

Administration Officer: Isabela Banea Jenny Hu Administrative Assistants: Aya Kelly Ha Le

Anna Wiechecki Relief Administrative Assistant: Holly Elsholz Research Assistant: Rebecca Doran-Wu

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3. Larry Sjaastad (1934-2012)

Professor Larry Sjaastad died on May 2, 2012. He was a professor at the University of Chicago for 42 years, a distinguished scholar in international economics, public finance and economic development, inspiring teacher and great supporter of the University of Western Australia. Larry was part of the group of Chicago economists whose influence contributed to the improvement in economic policy at a global scale in the 1970s and beyond and helped make the world a better place. His commitment to students, teaching and research leaves a legacy of literally hundreds of economists around the world.

A prominent example of Larry’s research was his famous “shift coefficient”, the share of import protection borne by the country’s own exporters. This explained clearly why countries that tax imports tend to have languishing export sectors. In the 1980s, exporters in Latin America and Australia - farmers and miners - were quick to realise the significance of this research for them.

Over a period of about 25 years, Larry visited UWA 18 times (the door-to-door travel time from Chicago to Perth is 30 hours!) to teach, provide advice, carry out research, help recruit staff and help place students. Students and colleagues greatly valued his advice and while at UWA he carried out influential research on commodity prices (including gold), exchange rates and international trade policy.

Larry made a generous donation to the Business School and his name is recorded on the Donor Wall on the ground floor of our new building.

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4. Examples of Research

While the Discipline is relatively small in terms of the number of academic staff, it has nevertheless managed to successfully achieve both specialisation and diversification of research expertise. Areas of speciality possessed by the staff, range widely from microeconomics to macroeconomics, from pure theory to applied economics, and from the history of economic thought to econometrics. To give a sense of the type of research carried out in the Economics Discipline, the following section describes examples of recent projects. Other sections of this report give information on research in the form of publications, grants, thesis topics and the like.

Costly Reporting, Ex-post Monitoring, and Commercial Piracy: A Game Theoretic Analysis (Ishita Chatterjee)

The issue of digital piracy for commercial profit has received a lot of attention in the industrial organisation literature over the last few years. Illegal competition from pirates reduces the revenue of the legal firm and this has been a concern of the digital media and software industry globally. Existing literature on monitoring commercial piracy looks at ex-ante monitoring strategies where the authority, with the objective of maximising ex-ante social welfare, sets and commits to a level of monitoring before the pirate enters the market. In this case, equilibrium level of monitoring would be zero since an increase in monitoring decreases social welfare due to higher price and under-production of the legal product. However, empirical evidences show that authorities do monitor piracy and such monitoring decisions are taken ex-post after the legal firm has reported the pirate to the authority.

This study attempts to bridge this gap in the literature on monitoring commercial piracy by analysing the decision of the regulatory authority to invest in monitoring commercial piracy after the legal firm has reported the presence of the pirate in the market. In my model, following the legal firm’s report of the presence of a pirate in the market the government decides whether or not to invest in monitoring piracy and how much is needed in order to maximise a politically motivated objective function. I find that the threat of ex-post monitoring can credibly deter piracy. The authority will monitor piracy under both price and quantity competitions if the political influence of the legal firm is sufficiently high. I also show that there exists a unique level of product substitutability between the legal firm and the pirate above which monitoring will be higher under quantity competition and below which monitoring will be higher under price competition. That is, if the pirated product is a very close substitute to the product of the legal firm, then the government will be monitoring more intensively under quantity competition than under price competition. Moreover, when the government can credibly commit to monitor piracy, the legal firm’s investment on innovation is higher under quantity competition than under price competition.

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How much government debt is too much? Optimal government debt with endogenous fertility, elastic leisure and human capital externalities (Bei Li and Jie Zhang)

Mounting government debt hurts many industrial nations today. This paper explores optimal government debt in a tractable intergenerational model with endogenous fertility, leisure, and human capital externalities. We derive the social optimum facing a non-convex feasible set. With labor income taxation, government debt raises leisure and reduces education spending but has ambiguous effects on labor. The optimal debt-output ratio is below 12% for plausible parameterizations. A high debt-output ratio at 30% serviced by labour income taxation causes a large welfare loss equivalent to a 9% (14%) reduction in consumption without education subsidization (with a 52% subsidy rate).

Our results may have some useful policy implications. For developing countries under the pressure of high fertility, long working hours, low labour force participation, and low education attainment, our results suggest the use of government debt to partly finance education subsidies to some extent. For developed countries under the pressure of lower-than-replacement fertility and mounting government debt, our results justify the call for government debt reduction.

Sexual Selection, Conspicuous Consumption and Economic Growth (Jason Collins, Boris Baer and E. Juerg Weber)

Males have evolved a range of traits that are advantageous when competing with rival males and that make them more attractive to females. By imposing a cost (a handicap) on the male that cannot be borne by males with limited abilities or resources, secondary sexual characteristics can provide an honest signal of underlying quality. As such signals are honest, females benefit if they prefer males with such signals, and the increase in mating opportunities for the males compensates for the cost of the signal. These secondary sexual characteristics include the propensity to engage in conspicuous consumption. Through its cost, conspicuous consumption can provide an honest signal of quality and give those who engage in conspicuous consumption greater reproductive success.

Our research examines conspicuous consumption as a heritable secondary sexual characteristic in a dynamic framework. We hypothesise that a female’s preference for male conspicuous consumption for mate choice results in males being under strong selection, which increases the prevalence of the genes underlying the behaviour and the level of conspicuous consumption in the population. To fund conspicuous consumption, a male must participate in activities to obtain the resources to consume. This might involve autonomous activities such as developing art or other objects of beauty in traditional societies, or in modern contexts, participating in the labour force. As female choice increases male investment in conspicuous consumption and the level of economic activities to fund it, we propose that sexual selection was a contributing factor to the emergence of modern levels of economic growth.

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5. Past Research Assistants

The Economics Discipline has, for many years, employed a Research Assistant. The role of this position is to assist the academics with any work they may be undertaking, whether it is teaching or research. In addition, he or she must undertake the large task of collating the Annual Report. The post is usually filled by a UWA Economics student, either at undergraduate or postgraduate level. Exposure to economics outside of the classroom has played an instrumental role in shaping the careers of both current and past research assistants. Below is some information from past Research Assistants regarding the economic training gained from the role and how it has helped them in their careers.

Lukas Weber was the Economics Research Assistant in 2003. He is currently working in the Department of Climate Change and Energy Efficiency in Canberra. He said this about his Research Assistant experience:

…[It] gave me insight into the research process and an overview of current research topics in the Economics Discipline, which helped me formulate my own research questions during my thesis year…In my graduate job applications and interviews, I was able to refer to specific tasks such as putting together the annual report when I was asked to give examples to demonstrate skills such as output management and interpersonal communication. Given the extremely competitive nature of graduate job applications in the public service, I am sure that these examples improved my chances of success…After finishing my studies at UWA, I started in a graduate position at Treasury in Canberra in 2006. At Treasury I worked on the federal budget estimates and preparation of the budget documents, as well as policy development in the area of climate change policy, especially the design of Australia’s proposed carbon pricing mechanism. In 2011, I transferred to the Department of Climate Change and Energy Efficiency, where I have spent the last year working on Australia’s national greenhouse gas emissions inventory.

Effie Stjepanovic (nee Giaros) was the Research Assistant in 2004 and 2005. She is currently a Senior Economist at the Department of Treasury and Finance in Victoria, working in Infrastructure and Insurance as part of the Economic and Financial Policy Division. She regards her experience as being highly valuable and says:

My time as a research assistant was looked upon extremely favourably by my future employers and assisted me to gain a position as a graduate at the Department of Treasury and Finance in WA once I completed my degree. After completing my graduate year, I seized the opportunity to move to the Department of Treasury and Finance in Victoria, where I worked in the Macroeconomic, Forecasting and Fiscal Strategy team for four years…Part of my role as a research assistant included collecting and manipulating data and working with spreadsheets, which were highly prized skills in the Macroeconomic team, where forecasting and data analysis are strongly

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spreadsheet based. This is a truly valuable skill when working in any economic or finance role and having experience in this area was a huge advantage for me…As well as learning about a variety of interesting topics along this journey, the skills of sourcing academically relevant material and being able to concisely summarise findings is a skill that directly translates to the policy work I do in my current role, which involves developing sound policy from core economic principles and research…In all, I truly enjoyed my time as the Research Assistant for the Discipline, it taught me valuable skills that helped me through my studies and definitely gave me the edge and the skills when attaining work in that big, scary corporate world!

Rahima Evelina DiIanni Velagic was the departmental Research Assistant during 2008. She also tutored in the Business School and found both experiences highly rewarding. She says of her experience:

The variety of tasks I was assigned clearly paralleled the professional working life challenges. Along with the continual short term projects, one of the ongoing projects was the compilation of the material for the Annual Report…This has been a priceless experience of the time, as it does in many ways mirror the work I currently undertake for some of the world largest shipping companies on Australian bulk commodity export capacities…[The] Research Assistant role also helped open the doors to tutoring in a number of subjects. This also greatly influenced my career path and brought one of my greatest assets in professional working life to light. With tutoring I had the opportunity, with the guidance of the elite academics of the Business School, to hone my public speaking and presentation skills. This was definitely the platform I built on when preparing for numerous conference and corporate client presentations, including the most recent major coal industry conference in Singapore with more than 200 industry professionals in the audience.

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6. Seminar Series

There are two seminar series that are presented throughout the teaching year. The first series features visitors from other universities and UWA staff with presentations delivered on papers and their research. The second series involves UWA PhD students and staff presenting their current research. Both series provide constructive ways of communicating research results and for speakers to obtain valuable criticism and comments on their work.

Research Seminar Series

Date Speaker Title 9 March Curtis Eaton, University

of Calgary A Dynamic Model of Market Structure Featuring Costs of Creating and Maintaining a Market Position and Free Entry and Exit of Firms

16 March Sanna Markkanen, Curtin

University What role does regulation play in determining the size and scope of the private rented sector?

23 March Christopher Spencer,

Loughborough University

Voting on the Policy Rate

30 March Shrabani Saha and

Ghialy Yap, Edith Cowan University

The Impact of Political Stability and Corruption on Tourism Development: A Cross-Country Panel Estimate

20 April Brenda Gannon, Leeds

University Structural Break Analysis in Discrete Choice Models: Applications to Health Data

27 April Maroš Servátka,

University of Canterbury Status Quo Effects in Fairness Games: Acts of Commission vs Acts of Omission

4 May Marit Kragt, UWA

(Agricultural and Resource Economics)

Attribute Non-Attendance in Environmental Choice Experiments

11 May Jeff Sheen, Macquarie

University Monetary Policy Design for a DSGE Model of Australia

18 May Leslie Marx, Duke

University Cartel Versus Merger

27 July George Tauchen, Duke

University Volatility in Equilibrium: Asymmetries and Dynamic Dependencies

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Date Speaker Title 3 August Sam-Ho Lee, Korea

University Income Inequality and the Demand for Redistribution: A Test of Alternative Theories

10 August Richard Heaney, UWA

(Accounting and Finance)

Variation in OPEC and Non-OPEC Crude Oil Production, 1973 to 2010

17 August Asadul Islam, Monash

University

Skilled Immigration, Innovation and Wages of Native-born Americans

31 August Reshad Ahsan, University of Melbourne

Trade Liberalization and Labor’s Slice of the Pie: Evidence from Indian Firms

14 September Hodaka Morita, UNSW Knowledge Transfer and Partial Equity Ownership

21 September David Stern, ANU Energy and Economics Growth: The

Stylized Facts 6 October Bob Breunig, ANU Labour Economics 12 October Stephan Whelan,

University of Sydney Looking after the grandkids: who cares and does it really matter?

19 October Kalvinder Shields,

University of Melbourne The Meta Taylor Rule

26 October Denise Osborne,

University of Manchester Structural Breaks in International Inflation Linkages for OECD Countries

2 November Steve Schilizzi, UWA

(Agriculture and Resource Economics)

Three approaches to a thorny problem: evaluating procurement auctions.

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Brown Bag (Work-in-Progress) Seminars

Date Speaker Title

14 March Andrew Melville, UWA

Rod Tyers, UWA

Commodity and Equity Markets: Are they related?

Demographic Dividends in China and India

21 March Longfeng Ye, UWA On the Existence of a Middle Income Trap

28 March Parinaz Ezzati, UWA Iran’s Financial Integration with the Middle East and with the Rest of the World

4 April Luciana Fiorini, UWA The Cycles Approach in Non-Partitional Models

2 May Leandro Magnusson, UWA

Bootstrap Methods for Inference with Cluster-Sample IV Models

9 May Sirkanta, Chatterjee, Massey University

Economic Boom and Hunger Boom: A Contemporary Indian Quandary

16 May Bei Li, UWA Endogenous Growth, Endogenous Cycles, and Elastic Labour with Applications to Public Finance

23 May Zelda Okatch, UWA

Wei Wei Ren, UWA

Determinants of Inequality in Botswana

Does gender gap in child health exist in rural China?

30 May Fei Yu, UWA A Discrimination Strategy for Fostering Technological Catch-Up: A Game Theory Model

6 June Amy Khuu, UWA How Australian Farmers Deal with Risk

8 August Yashar Tarverdi, UWA Good Governance and the Millennium Development Goals (MDG).

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Date Speaker Title

8 August Donni Anugrah, UWA Regional and Sectoral Effects of Monetary Policy – Case of Indonesia.

15 August Michael McLure, UWA

Karen Knight, UWA

One Hundred Years from Today: A.C. Pigou’s Wealth and Welfare.

Exegesis of Digital Text from the History of Economic Thought: An Exploratory Comparison of A.C. Pigou’s First Chapter in Wealth and Welfare and The Economics of Welfare Using Leximancer Software

5 September Liang Li, UWA An Economic Analysis of Project Evaluation in Resources Sector

10 October Jason Collins, UWA Evolution, Fertility and the Ageing Population

17 October Anu Rammohan, UWA Gender differentials in the timing of

measles vaccination in rural India

Fei Yu, UWA Worldwide patent applications in the

pharmaceutical industry

24 October Donni Anugrah, UWA The Long and Short-Term Determinants of Inflation in Indonesia’s regions

Rumayya Batubara, UWA

Quality of governance in post decentralized

Indonesia

31 October Miriam Teschl, Vienna Theory of Choice Under Internal Conflict

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Growth Zone Seminar Program

The Growth Zone Seminar Program is an initiative of the Business School supported by the Futures Fund. It has attracted a number of high profile economists from within “the Zone” whose research interests relate to the rapidly growing South and East Asian corner of the World Economy. The Growth Zone visitors have presented seminars or lectures relating to their research and economic policy experience to staff and students in the Business School as well as from around the campus. It has been a valuable enrichment program for PhD students in economics in particular and has strengthened important academic networks between UWA and the Asian region.

Growth Zone Seminars

Date Speaker Title 24 April Asep Suryahadi, Director

of SMERU Research Institute

Evaluating Indonesia’s Unconditional Cash Transfer Program, 2005-6

22 August Shandre Thangavelu, Singapore National University

Productivity and Learning‐by‐Exporting: A firm level Analysis of Indian Economic Liberalization

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7. The Shann Memorial Lecture

The annual Shann Memorial Lecture is held in memory of the Foundation Professor of Economics at the University of Western Australia, Edward Owen Giblin Shann (1884-1935). The lecture is organised jointly by the UWA Business School and the West Australian Branch of the Economic Society of Australia and is widely regarded as a premier public economics lecture in Australia. It has earned an enviable reputation for a high standard of scholarship and it has made a substantial contribution to economic debate in Australia.

Shann won several scholarships, graduated with first-class honours in history and political economics from Queens’ College, University of Melbourne and went on for higher studies at the London School of Economics. He returned to Australia from England in 1910 and was lecturer-in-charge of history and economics at the University of Queensland from June 1911 to December 1912. In 1913 he joined UWA as the foundation professor of history and economics. Shann has been regarded as the pioneer of the academic development of economics and traditional Australian economic history and he was a strong advocate of individual intellectual freedom and developing a sense of social responsibilities. He penned several books and essays on the economic history of Australia and was a major influence in formulating financial and fiscal policies in Australia. He died in 1935.

The 2012 Shann Memorial Lecture was given by Professor Avinash Dixit. Professor Dixit is an internationally renowned economic theorist who specializes in applied economics. He began his academic life by completing a bachelor’s degree in mathematics and physics from Bombay University and went on to complete another bachelor’s degree in mathematics from Cambridge University. After earning a doctorate from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dixit taught economics at Princeton between 1981 and 2010. He has since then retired from teaching. His research includes monopolistic competition, microeconomic theory, international trade and growth and game theory.

In his talk on “The Art of Strategy: Game Theory in Movies, Sports and Literature”, Professor Dixit described game theory as a systematic analysis of strategic interactions. Dixit used a multitude of examples from sport and movies, including “The Princess Bride” and “A Beautiful Mind”, to show how game theory can be applied to every-day situations. He emphasised that applying it to real life circumstances can be achieved by combining the art and science of game theory. The science provides the theoretical analysis while the art allows for the adaption of the theory to each unique situation. In particular, successful use of Schelling’s strategic moves, which are those undertaken by a player to gain strategic advantage and increase their payoff, requires art. Some of these include a player’s commitments, threats and promises. The lecture concluded with Dixit explaining, using the movie “Ransom”, how a person can use negotiation to deteriorate the other player’s Best Alternative to a Negotiated Agreement (BATNA), while improving their own, thus manipulating the final outcome of the game.

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Professor Dixit’s lecture was attended by academics, students and industrial representatives. The feedback from the talk was extremely positive, with many commenting on the applicable and interesting examples used.

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8. PhD Conference in Economics and Business

The PhD Conference in Economics and Business is an annual event that brings together students and academics from most Australian universities, as well as some overseas institutions. The conference is co-organised by the Australian National University, the UWA Business School, the School of Economics, University of Queensland and the Faculty of Business and Economics, Monash University. The location of the conference alternates between these four universities.

The 25th PhD Conference was held at the UWA Business School between the 7th and 9th of November 2012 and involved 30 students, from 15 different universities, and 30 discussants, from 11 different universities and government institutions, throughout Australia and New Zealand. The Conference commenced with an open address by Phil Dolan, the Dean of the UWA Business School, and concluded with a dinner on Friday evening at the University Club at which Ken Clements delivered a speech on the 25 years’ history of the Conference. 1

The objective of the conference is to help with the training of promising doctoral students by giving them the opportunity to gain exposure for and feedback on their research. The student papers are circulated prior to the conference to discussants who prepare written comments. The discussants’ reports and the general discussion of the papers contribute significantly to the success of the Conference. The Conference also enables PhD students to meet with their peers and to make contact with senior academics and researchers with similar interests. The papers presented this year dealt with a range of topics, including economic growth, climate change, public goods, migration, FDI, banking activities, credit risk, and asset pricing and volatility. Substantial positive feedback was received after the conference.

Four prizes were determined by a secret ballot of all participants and the winners were:

Best Student Presentation – Economics: Jason Collins (University of Western Australia)

Best Student Presentation – Finance: Jue Wang (University of Sydney)

Best Discussant-Economics: Shared between: Rodney Strachan (Australian National University) Deborah Cobb-Clark (University of Melbourne)

Best Discussant-Finance: Shared between: Susan Thorp (University of Technology, Sydney) Terry Walter (SIRCA)

1For details of the earlier history of the conference, see K. W. Clements, “The PhD Conference in Economics and Business Two Decades On”, Economic Papers, 2012, 29(2): 169-180.

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Two special prizes were awarded to the student with the most potential chosen by Harry Clarke (La Trobe University) and Izan Izan (University of Western Australia). The winners were:

The Student with Most Potential – Economics: Jason Collins (University of Western Australia)

The Student with Most Potential – Finance: Zhangxin (Frank) Liu (University of Queensland)

The table on the next page lists prize-winners at past conferences.

The PhD Conference Hall of Fame was created in November 2007 on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of the Conference to acknowledge people who have made outstanding contributions to the conference over the long term. Ken Clements was inducted in 2009, and at the 25th Conference, a further five members were inducted: Stephen King, Paul Frijters, Paul Kofman, Tom Smith and Izan Izan.

The Conference Convenors were Izan Izan and Ken Clements. Mei Han was the Conference Coordinator and did an outstanding job in dealing with all aspects of the arrangements and ensuring that the conference participants were well catered for. Mei Han was assisted by Siew Hong, and Grace Gao, Liang Li, Tom Simpson and Yuewen Xiao. The conference would not have been possible without the generous financial support of a number of sponsors.

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PRIZES FOR STUDENTS AND DISCUSSANTS, 2004-2012

Prize Winner Affiliation 2012 Best Presentation in Economics Collins, J. University of Western Australia Best Presentation in Finance Wang, J. University of Sydney The Student with Most Potential in Economics Collins, J. University of Western Australia The Student with Most Potential in Finance Liu, F. University of Queensland Best Discussant in Economics (shared) Strachan, R. Australian National University Deborah, C. University of Melbourne Best Discussant in Finance (shared) Thorp, S. University of Technology, Sydney Walter, T. SIRCA 2011 Best Presentation in Economics Wang, B. Macquarie University Best Discussant (shared) Jensen, P. University of Melbourne Sheen, J. Macquarie University 2010 Best Presentation (shared) Fiuza de Raganca, G. Victoria University of Wellington Ng, J. Monash University 2009 Best Presentation in Economics (shared) Evans, S. Australian National University Gao, G. University of Western Australia Verani, S. University of California,

Santa Barbara Best Presentation in Finance Etheridge, D. University of Western Australia Runner up Best Presentation in Finance Levy, A. University of New South Wales Best Discussant Foster, D. Australian National University Runner Up Best Discussant Adams, R. University of Queensland 2008 Best Presentation Rohde, N. University of Queensland Runner up Best Presentation Nowak, S. Australian National University Best Discussant Clements, K. University of Western Australia 2007 Best Presentation (shared) Chan, Y. University of Melbourne Valencia, V. University of Melbourne Best Discussant Dixon, P. Monash University 2006 Best Presentation Roessler, C. University of Melbourne Runner Up Best Presentation Headey, D. University of Queensland Best Discussant Leigh, A. Australian National University Runner Up Discussant Vahid, F. Australian National University 2005 Best Presentation Johnston, D. University of Melbourne Best Presentation in Finance Forrester, D. University of New South Wales Best Presentation in Economic Pacheco, G. University of Auckland Best Discussant Thorp, S. University of Technology, Sydney 2004 Best Presentation Wade, K. La Trobe University Runner Up Best Presentation Schlichting, D. University of Sydney Best Discussant Clements, K. University of Western Australia Runner Up Best Discussant King, S. ACCC Runner Up Best Discussant Dixon, P. Monash University

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9. Visitors

The Economics Discipline was pleased to welcome several official visitors during 2012. During their visits, they presented seminars and collaborated with members of the Discipline on research. Guests included:

B. Curtis Eaton is an applied economics theorist. He received his Bachelor of Arts from the University of Colorado in 1965. He went on to complete his PhD in 1969. He has worked in four Canadian universities: The University of British Columbia, The University of Toronto, Simon Fraser University and the University of Calgary, where he has been since 1999. He has worked in a number of areas including industrial organisation, labour economics, economic geography and organisational theory.

Peter Hartley is the George and Cynthia Mitchell Chair in Sustainable Development and Environmental Economics, Professor of Economics, James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy, Rice University, Texas. He is a 2012 Professor-at-Large at the Institute of Advanced Studies and Visiting Professor at the Business School, University of Western Australia. He is President-Elect of the US Association for Energy Economics (USAEE) and has been a member of the executive council since 2008. Peter has worked for almost 30 years on energy economics issues. He wrote on the reform of the electricity supply industry in Australia throughout the 1980s and advised the government of Victoria when it completed the privatisation and reform of their electricity industry in 1989. Peter has published many academic articles, policy papers and books not only on energy and environmental issues but also on theoretical and applied issues in money and banking, business cycles and international finance. Whilst visiting the Economics Group, Professor Hartley met with staff and advised PhD students on their research. He also presented at a seminar for the School of Agricultural and Resource Economics and the Business School on “Changes in the Operational Efficiency of National Oil Companies”.

Wang Lafang is an Associate Professor in the School of Economics and Trade at Hunan University in Changsha, China. She has a PhD from Hunan University and has spent two years as a post-doctoral fellow at Tsinghua University in Beijing. Her principal research interests are in resource and environmental economics and CGE modelling. She has recently completed projects on the effects of energy saving and emissions reduction in the Chinese steel industry and the effects of energy price changes. She is visiting UWA Economics for 12 months and currently working with Nic Groenewold on a project on the effects of energy-price fluctuations on the CPI and structural adjustment in China using structural path analysis based on a succession of social accounting matrices.

Stéphane Luchini is a CNRS (National Centre of Scientific Research) Senior Research Fellow at the GREQAM in Marseille, France. His area of investigation is the experimental evaluation of public goods using stated preferences methods, especially the contingent valuation method. The fields of his applied experimental research include health economics, environmental economics and distributive justice. During his visit to UWA Stéphane assisted

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with the honours unit ECON4405 Public Economics, was an active contributor to discussions during the economics seminar Discipline (and the PhD Conference) and he presented a seminar on titled Experimental Redistributive Justice: Disentangling Fairness Views and Selfishness. He also presented Oath Experiments; a seminar for the School of Agricultural and Resource Economics.

Xing Shi took up his visiting position in economics in February 2012. He is currently enrolled in the PhD program in the School of Management, University of Science and Technology of China (USTC). The latter is a member of the prestigious C9 universities in China. While visiting UWA, he has been collaborating with Professor Yanrui Wu and met with many economics PhD students and staff members. He attended the 2012 China Update organized by ANU and the Annual Conference of the Chinese Economist Society of Australia (CESA2012). He recently co-authored a paper with Professor Wu. The paper titled “Knowledge Intensive Business Services and Their Impact on Innovation in China” is being refereed by an international journal. They are now working on a second joint paper.

Asep Suryahadi visited in April of 2012 as part of the UWA Economics School’s Growth Zone Visitor Program. Dr Suryahadi is the Director of SMERU Institute Jakarata and a member of the Management Committee for the Revitalizing Indonesia’s Knowledge Sector for Development Policy Program for AusAID in Jakarta. He is also a member of the International Advisory Board for the Bulletin of Indonesian Economic Studies at ANU. Professor Suryahadi has published extensively in journals such as the JDE, Food Policy and World Development. He spent several days in the Economics department and delivered a seminar titled Evaluating Indonesia Cash Transfer Program. His seminar documented the effectiveness of poverty relief programmes that had operated in Indonesia and attracted considerable discussion.

Miriam Teschl visited the UWA Business School in the last quarter of the year. She is an Austrian Science Fund Research Fellow at the Economics Department at the University of Vienna and works in the field of Economics and Philosophy. Miriam’s main area of investigation is individual choice and welfare as well as theories of justice. During her visit to UWA she taught part of the honours unit ECON4405 Public Economics, undertook research on preferences for redistribution and online surveys on questions of justice and presented a seminar on the Theory of Choice Under Internal Conflict. Miriam also presented a seminar to the UWA Philosophy Department.

Shandre Thangavelu, an Associate Professor at Singapore National University and Managing Editor of the Asian Economic Journal, visited the UWA Economics School in August of 2012 as part of the Growth Zone Visitors Program. He delivered a talk titled Productivity and Learning‐by‐Exporting: A firm level Analysis of Indian Economic Liberalization. The seminar was presented in the Economics Research Seminar Series and examined whether firms become productive by learning through exporting, with focus on India.

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2011 Visitors, not previously published

Dorodjatun Kuntjoro-Jakti, from the University of Indonesia is a former Indonesian ambassador to the USA. Professor Kuntjoro-Jakti visited on 14th of September, 2011 and presented a public lecture in the Business School titled Political-Economic Analysis of Reformation in Indonesia: Beyond the Year 2011 as part of the Growth Zone Visitors Program. The seminar considered the Indonesia responses to the 1997 financial crisis, and lessons for the GFC. His presentation was attended by the Indonesian Consul.

Sugata Marjit is the Director and The Reserve Bank of India Professor of Industrial Economics at the Centre for Studies in Social Sciences, Kolkata. Professor Marjit visited from 20-23 October 2011 as part of the Growth Zone Visitor Program. Professor Marjit delivered a seminar in the Economics Research seminar series titled Firm Heterogeneity, Informal Wage and Good Governance.

Chetan Ghate is the Reserve Bank of India Chair Professor of Macroeconomics, ICRIER. Professor Ghate visited the Business School from 20-27 November 2011 as part of the Growth Zone Visitor Program. He met with many staff and students during his visit and presented a book launch for his edited collection: The Oxford Handbook of the Indian Economy. Professor Ghate held discussions with academic staff in Economics and discussed research methods with several PhD students. He also participated in a joint research programme that was co-sponsored by the Australia-India Institute.

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10. Research Grants

The following is information on research grants won by staff in Economics.

Recipient Project Title Amount (p.a.)

Australian Research Council: Discovery Early Career Researcher Awards

E. Birch New Household Economics & the Earnings & Labour Supply of Indigenous Australians

$125,000

Australian Research Council: New Discovery Grants

K. W. Clements Analysing Global Consumption Patterns with a Large Number of Goods

$87,734

Australian Research Council: Continuing Discovery Grants

K. W. Clements and R. Tyers

Commodity Booms & Busts - Implications for the Australian Economy

$90,000

A. Rammohan Institutions for Food Security - Global Lessons from Rural

India $63,750

P. Robertson and P.C. Athukorala

Sustaining India’s Economic Transformation - Challenges Prospects & Implications for Australia & the Pacific Region

$60,000

Y. Wu and D.V. Marinova

Energy efficiency, economic growth and the environment in China

$125,000

Other Research Grants

A. Rammohan Impact of Decentralization on Public Goods Provision,

Participation and Development in Indonesia (AusAID) $124,894

P. McLeod Governance, social and economic sustainability of WA's

lobster and finfish industries (Fisheries Research & Development Corporation)

$86,334

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11. Teaching

A list of units offered by the Discipline in 2012, together with course coordinators and enrolments, follows.

Unit Code Unit Name Semester Coordinator(s) Enrolments ECON1101 Microec: Prices & Markets 1,2 A. Williams

S. Tafazzoli I. Kristoffersen

1444

ECON1102 Macroec: Money & Finance 1,2 B. Li I. Chatterjee

741

L. Fiorini ECON1105 Rise of the Global Economy 1 P. Crompton 141 ECON1111 Quant Mth for Bus & Econ 1,2 L. Magnusson

L. Fiorini 159

I. Kristoffersen ECON1141 Australian Economic History 2 M. McLure

M. Davies 41

ECON2203 Asia in the World Economy 1 A. Siddique 224 ECON2204 Finance and Econ for Mins and Energy 2 T. Walter 107 ECON2210 Monetary Economics 1 K. Clements 305 ECON2233 Microecon: Policy & Applic 1 B. Li 358 ECON2234 Macroeconomics: Policy & Applic 2 S. Tang 391 ECON2235 International Trade 2 P. Robertson 216 ECON2236 International Finance 1 N. Groenewold 426 ECON2245 Business Economics 2 M. McLure

B. Lei 242

ECON2271 Business Econometrics 1,2 Y. Wu L. Magnusson

509

ECON2272 Intermediate Mathematics for Econ. 2 J. Weber 130 ECON3302 Applied Microeconomic Theory 2 P. McLeod

A. Rammohan 100

ECON3303 ECON3310

Applied Macroeconomic Theory History of Economic Ideas

1 1

R. Tyers M. McLure

127 25

ECON3350 Money, Banking and Financial Mkts 2 R. Tyers 187 ECON3371 Econometrics 2 L. Magnusson 27 ECON3372 Advanced Mathematics for Economists 1 D. Turkington 33 ECON4402 Microeconomic Theory 1 P. McLeod 12 ECON4405 Public Economics 2 P. McLeod 22 ECON4408 Advanced Development Economics 2 A. Siddique 14 ECON4413 Applied Advanced Econometrics 1 L. Magnusson 7 ECON4418 Macroeconomic Theory 2 J. Weber 13 ECON4450 Advanced International Trade 1 Y. Wu 26 ECON4503 Advanced Economic Analysis 2 P. Robertson 19 ECON4507 History of Economic Thought 1 M. McLure 13 ECON7491 Microeconomic Theory & Applic 1 P. McLeod

A. Rammohan 15

ECON7492 Macroeconomic Theory and Applic 2 R. Tyers 12 ECON8503 Economic Management and Strategy 1 I. Chatterjee

P. Crompton A. Rammohan

26

ECON8513 Applied Advanced Econometrics 1 L. Magnusson 3 ECON8540 Economic Analysis and Policy 2 S. Tang 17

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12. PhD Student Topics

During 2012, the Economics Discipline had 19 students enrolled in the PhD program. Details on the students, their topics and arrangements for supervision are as follows.

Student Supervisor(s) Thesis Title Anugrah, Donni Fajar

Rammohan, Anu Tang, Sam

The Differential Regional Impact of Monetary Policy: Indonesia as a Case Study

Arsana, Wayan Wu, Yanrui Efficiency, Technical Change and Productivity Growth in Indonesian Regions

Azwar, Prayudhi Tyers, Rod Robertson, Peter

External Shocks and Indonesian Macroeconomic Policy

Collins, Jason Weber, Juerg Baer, Boris

Essays on Human Evolution and Economic Growth

Douglas, Elena

McLure, Michael Flatau, Paul

Eavesdropping on a Virtuous Circle: Richard Whately and the Oriel Noetics

English, William

Fogarty, James McLure, Michael

Foreign Private Research and Development Outputs in Australian Agriculture: Flows and Impacts on Productivity Measurement

Ezzati, Parinaz Groenewold, Nic

Financial Markets Integration and Volatility: Monetary Policy Implications

Jefferys, P. Tyers, Rod Robertson, Peter

Long Term Modelling of Relative Commodity Prices, and Implications for Australian Economic Policy

Knight, Karen McLure, Michael Ghosh, Robin

A Cambridge Thought Collective: The Philosophical Traditions of Marshallian Economics

Kristoffersen, Ingebjorg

Robertson, Peter Butler, David Gerrans, Paul

Economic Analysis of Happiness and Satisfaction: Selected methodological issues and applications

Li, Liang Clements, Ken Understanding Resources Investment

Manihuruk, J. Siddique, Abu Williams, Andrew

Fiscal Decentralisation and Corruption: A cross country analysis and special reference to Indonesia

Okatch, Zelda Achieng

Siddique, Abu Rammohan,

The Impact of Taxes and Social Safety Nets on Poverty and Inequality in Botswana

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Anu

Student Supervisor(s) Thesis Title Priyati, Rini Robertson,

Peter Tyers, Rod

Demand for Palm Oil and Indonesian Poverty and Forestry

Rumayya, Rumayya

Rammohan, Anu Tang, Sam

Decentralisation and Quality of Governance in Indonesia

Sun, Yi Vera Robertson, Peter

Human Capital Formation & Economic Growth in China: Skills Shortage Issues

Tarverdi, Yashar Rammohan, Anu Tang, Sam

The Relationship Between the MDG and Good Governance Policy

Ye, Longfeng Robertson, Peter

Middle Income Trap and Implications for China

Yu, Fei Wu, Yanrui The Economics of Patents: Examination, Discrimination and Knowledge Transfer

Zhang, Y. Tyers, Rod Real Exchange Rate Realignment

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13. Successes of UWA Economics PhDs

The Economics Discipline in the UWA Business School has long had a strong group of PhD

students working on a range of areas including commodity markets, consumer behaviour,

international trade and finance, history of thought, public finance, productivity, China and

Indonesia. The group is vibrant and cosmopolitan, with students coming from Australia, Asia

and Africa.

In recent months six former students have successfully completed their PhDs. The details of

these graduates and their publications are given in the table below. For a group the size of

UWA Economics, this is an outstanding achievement that reflects well on the students,

supervisors and the School.

All six graduates have obtained professional positions that use skills they learnt during their

PhD studies. Three have been hired by the Business School – James Cheong and Grace Gao

are Post-doctoral Fellows and Mei-Hsiu Chen is a Lecturer. Two of the other three - Heru

Wibowo and Syaifullah - have returned to Indonesia, where they work for the Ministry of

Finance. The sixth graduate, Dahai Fu, is Assistant Professor at the Central University of

Finance and Economics, Beijing. The market for economists is strong and the UWA

Economics Discipline is seeking to attract more good students wishing to undertake PhDs.

Economics PhD Completions, 2012

1. Mei-Hsiu Chen Supervisor: Kenneth W. Clements

Thesis title: The Economics of World Metals Prices

Current position: Lecturer, UWA Business School

2. Tsun Se (James) Cheong Supervisor: Yanrui Wu

Thesis title: Trends, Determinants and Consequences of Regional Inequality in China: New Evidence

Current position: Post-doctoral Fellow, UWA Business School

3. Dahai Fu Supervisor: Yanrui Wu

Thesis title: Understanding Chinese Exporting Firms: Microeconometric Evidence

Current position: Assistant Professor, Central University of Finance and Economics, Beijing, China

40

4. Xing (Grace) Gao Supervisor: Kenneth W. Clements

Thesis title: The Economic Behaviour of Seven Billion Consumers: Food, Functional Form and Quality

Current position: Post-doctoral Fellow, UWA Business School

5. Syaifullah Syaifullah Supervisors: Yanrui Wu and Nicolaas Groenewold

Thesis title: Predicting Indonesian Currency Crises Using Early Warning System Models

Current position: Ministry of Finance, Government of Indonesia

6. Heru Wibowo Supervisors: Abu Siddique and Yanrui Wu

Thesis title: Inequality and Fiscal Decentralization in Indonesia: Evidence from the Household Expenditure Data

Current position: Ministry of Finance, Government of Indonesia

Publications:

Chen, M., 2010, ‘Understanding World Metals Prices - Returns, Volatility and Diversification’, Resources Policy, 35, pp. 127-140.

*Cheong, T.S. and Wu, Y., 2012, ‘Intra-Provincial Inequality in China: An Analysis of County-

Level Data’, in McKay, H. and Song, L. (eds) Rebalancing and Sustaining Growth in China, Canberra: ANU E Press & China: Social Sciences Academic Press, Chapter 8, pp. 175-206.

Cheong, T.S., forthcoming, ‘New Evidence of Regional Inequality’, in Wu, Y. (ed) Regional

Development and Economic Growth in China, World Scientific Publishing, Singapore. Fu, D., Wu, Y., and Y. Tang, 2011, ‘The Effects of Ownership Structure and Industry

Characteristics on Export Performance: Evidence from Chinese Manufacturing Firms’, in Chan, F., Marinova, D. and Anderssen, R.S. (eds) The 19th International Congress on Modelling and Simulation, Modelling and Simulation Society of Australia and New Zealand, pp. 1666-1672.

Fu, D. and Wu, Y., forthcoming, ‘Export Wage Premium in China's Manufacturing Sector: A

Firm Level Analysis’, China Economic Review. *Fu, D., Wu, Y. and Tang, Y., 2012, ‘Does Innovation Matter for Chinese High-tech Exports? A

Firm-level Analysis’, Frontiers of Economics in China, 7(2), pp. 218-245. Fu, D., forthcoming, ‘Agglomeration and Export Performance of Manufacturing Firms’, in Wu,

Y. (ed) Regional Development and Economic Growth in China, World Scientific Publishing, Singapore.

Gao, G., 2012, ‘World Food Demand’, American Journal of Agricultural Economics, 94, pp. 25-

51. *Clements, K.W. and Gao, G., 2012, ‘Quality, quantity, spending and prices’, European

Economic Review, 56(7), pp. 1376 – 1391.

* This publication is also listed in the staff publications section of the Annual Report under the staff member’s name.

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14. Honours Program

The Economics Discipline had 16 students enrolled in the Honours program in 2012. Details on the students, their dissertation titles and arrangements for supervision are as follows:

Atkins, E. Legalising Marijuana and Optimal Taxation, supervised by Ken Clements.

Backhouse, T. An Investigation into Knowledge, Behaviour and the Likelihood of Being Tested for HIV/AIDS in Kenya, supervised by Anu Rammohan.

Beckmann, T. Theorising Social Enterprise, supervised by Andrew Williams and Paul Flatau.

Brennan, M. A Hedonic Price Model of the Perth Urban Housing Market: An Application to Social Exclusion, supervised by Paul McLeod, Brett Smith and Doina Olaru.

Legendre, N. Social and Economic Barriers to Reducing Maternal Morality in Indonesia, supervised by Andrew Williams and Lyn Parker.

Lin, Z. The Thunder of History: A Schumpeterian Approach to Sovereign Debt Crisis, supervised by Michael McLure.

Maher, G. Demand for China’s Exports: Performance and Prospects, supervised by Rod Tyers.

Metaxas, P. Capital Inflows and the Real Exchange Rate: The Dependent Economy Model, supervised by Juerg Weber.

Ng S. H. Female Labour Force Participation in Australia: Are dependent children an important barrier?, supervised by Anu Rammohan.

Owi Idoko, V. Changing Emissions Intensity in the World: A Decomposition Analysis, supervised by Yanrui Wu.

Sin, A. The International Pricing of Military Expenditure, supervised by Peter Robertson.

Toleman, D. Full Speed Ahead: The Two-Speed Economy may be Overstated and the Claims of the Boom’s Demise Premature, supervised by Rod Tyers and Paul Crompton.

Viswanath Natraj, G. The Science of Monetary Policy: An Optimal Control Approach, supervised by Ken Clements.

Walker, A. Australia’s ‘Two-Speed’ Economy: A Quantitative Analysis of the Resource Boom and Changes to Resource Rent Taxation, supervised by Rod Tyers.

Wang, Y. The True Rate of Inflation: Theory and Measurement, supervised by Ken Clements.

Wong, A. Debt Burdens and the Sustainability of Fiscal Policy, supervised by Paul Crompton.

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15. Prizes and Scholarships

Prizes

There are a number of prizes awarded to students in Economics and the Discipline is very grateful to the donors. The following is a list of prizes awarded in 2012.

Prize Awarded to Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Western Australia Prize for the final 48 points of the Bachelor of Economics Student who achieves highest average mark in their final year of BEc

Miss Raisa Mastilovic

Convocation, the UWA Graduates Association Prize in Economics – Second Year Student who achieves highest aggregate mark in their second year of BEc

Mr Nicholas Lang

Convocation, the UWA Graduates Association Prize in Economics – Third Year Student who achieves highest aggregate mark in their third year of BEc

Miss Raisa Mastilovic

Economic Society of Australia (WA Branch) Prize BEc or BCom student with highest marks in ECON1101 Microeconomics: Prices and Markets and ECON1102 Macroeconomics: Money and Finance

Miss Jessica Smith Mr Max Riley

Economic Society of Australia Honours Prize Student with highest average mark having completed BEc-Hons

Mr Aaron Walker

W.E.G. Salter Prize in Economics Student who achieves highest average mark in their final year of BEc

Miss Raisa Mastilovic

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Vargovic Memorial Fund

Mr Christopher A. Vargovic left a generous bequest to the University to support research students in economics when he died in 1987. The interest earnings from the estate have been used over much of the past decade to financially assist honours, masters and PhD students to complete their research by providing them bursaries ranging from $2,000 to $8,000. The Economics Discipline, as well as the students involved, greatly values the generosity and foresight shown by Mr Vargovic in establishing this fund, which has had the effect of substantially boosting the Discipline’s ability to attract and nurture promising young researchers in economics.

The Vargovic Fund financed bursaries to the following students from 2010 to 2012:

2012 2011 2010 Michael Brennan Jason Holman Colleen Bartels Daniel Toleman Adriarne Gatty John Pawley Ganesh Viswanath Andrew Melville Aubrey Poon Yongsheng Clement Wang Caroline Moser Soo Ling Teo Alan Wong Andrew Lau Emma Stefansson

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16. Publications

During 2012, staff of the Economics Discipline published work in a substantial number of books, journals, and as contributors to books. A list of these publications is presented below.

Chapters and books

Awofeso, N. and Rammohan, A., 2012, ‘Three decades of integrated child development services in India: progress and problems’, in Krzysztof Śmigórski (eds), Health management: different approaches and solutions, Rijeka: In-Tech Publishers, Chapter 13, pp. 243-258.

Cheong, T. S. and Wu, Y., 2012, ‘Intra-Provincial Inequality in China: An Analysis of County-Level Data’, in McKay, H. and Song, L. (eds) Rebalancing and Sustaining Growth in China, Canberra: ANU E Press & China: Social Sciences Academic Press, Chapter 8, pp. 175-206.

McLure, M., 2012, ‘Pareto’s Manuscript on Money and the Real Economy’, Vilfredo Pareto: Beyond Disciplinary Boundries, eds. J. V. Femia and A. J. Marshall, Farnham: Ashgate, pp. 177-197.

Ogunmokun, G., Gabbay, R. and Rose, J. (eds), 2012, Conference Proceedings, 5th Biennial Conference of the Academy of World Business, Marketing and Management Development, Perth: Academy of World Business, Marketing and Management Development.

Siddique, M.A.B., 2012, ‘Western Australia-Japan Mining Co-operation: An Historical Overview’, An Enduring Friendship: Western Australia and Japan – Past, Present and Future (in Japanese), eds. D. Black and S. Sone, World Edition, Tokyo: Hyoronsha, pp. 209-227.

Tyers, R., 2012, ‘Looking inward for growth’, in McKay, H. and Song, L. (eds) Rebalancing and Sustaining Growth in China, Canberra: ANU E Press & China: Social Sciences Academic Press, Chapter 3, pp. 19-44.

Tyers, R. and Shi, Q., 2012, ‘Global demographic change, labour force growth and economic performance’, in Ianchovichina, E. and Walmsley,T., Dynamic Modeling and Applications in Global Economic Analysis, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, Chapter 13, pp 342-375.

Wu, Y., 2012, Understanding Economic Growth in China and India, Singapore: World Scientific Publishing, pp.161, xii.

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Journal articles

Arora, V. and Tyers, R., 2012, ‘Asset arbitrage and the price of oil’, Economic Modelling, 29, pp. 142-150.

Awofeso, N.O., Rammohan, A. and Asmaripa, A., 2012, 'Exploring Indonesia’s “low hospital bed utilization-low bed occupancy-high disease burden” paradox', Journal of Hospital Administration, 2(1), pp. 49-58.

Awofeso, N. and Rammohan, A., 2012, 'Reducing Under-Five Mortality in India - A Review of Major Encumbrances and Suggestions for Progress', Journal of Community Medicine & Health Education, 2(1), pp. 1-7.

Chatterjee, I. and Ray, R., 2012, ‘Does the Evidence on Corruption Depend on How it is Measured? Results from a Cross Country Study on Micro Data Sets’, Applied Economics, 44(25), pp. 3215-3227.

Chen, Y. and Wu, Y., 2012, ‘Regional Economic Growth and Spillover Effects: An Analysis of China’s Pan Pearl River Delta Area’, China & World Economy, 20(2), pp. 80-97.

Clements, K.W. and Izan, H.Y., 2012, ‘The Pay Parity Matrix: A tool of analysing the structure of pay’, Applied Economics, 44(34), pp. 4515 – 4525.

Clements, K.W. and Gao, G., 2012, ‘Quality, quantity, spending and prices’, European Economic Review, 56(7), pp. 1376 – 1391.

Clements, K.W., Lan, Y. and Seah, S.P., 2012, ‘The Big Mac Index Two Decades On: An Evaluation of Burgernomics’, International Journal of Finance and Economics, 17, pp. 31–60.

Fan, J., Guo, X., Marinova, D., Wu, Y. and Zhao, D., 2012, ‘Embedded Carbon Footprint of Chinese Urban Households: Structure and Changes’, Journal of Cleaner Production, 33, pp. 50-59.

Fu, D., Tang, Y. and Wu, Y., 2012, ‘Does Innovation Matter for Chinese High-tech Exports? A Firm-level Analysis’, Frontiers of Economics in China, 7(2), pp. 218-245.

Ghosh, A. and Robertson, P. 2012, ‘Trade and Expropriation’, Economic Theory, 50, pp. 169 – 191.

Golley, J. and Tyers, R., 2012, ‘Population pessimism and economic optimism in China and India’, The World Economy, 35(11), pp. 1387-1416.

Golley, J. and Tyers, R., 2012, ‘Demographic dividends, dependencies and economic growth in China and India’, Asian Economic Papers, 11(3), pp. 1-26.

McLure, M., 2012, ‘Pigou’s Wealth and Welfare’, History of Economics Review, 56, pp. 101 – 116.

McLure, M., 2012, ‘Book Review: Antonio Serra’s A Short Treatise on the Wealth and Poverty of Nations (1613), edited by Sophus A. Reinert and translated by Jonathan Hunt’, History of Economics Review, 56, pp.126-129.

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Rammohan, A., 2012, ‘The trade-off between child labour and schooling in India’, Education Economics, pp. 1-27.

Rammohan, A., Awofeso, N. and Fernandez, RC, 2012, ‘Paternal education status significantly influences infants’ measles vaccination uptake, independent of maternal education status’, BMC Public Health, 12, pp. 336-342.

Rammohan, A., Awofeso, N. and Robitaille, MC., 2012, ‘Addressing Female Iron-Deficiency Anaemia in India: Is Vegetarianism the Major Obstacle, ISRN Public Health, pp. 1-8.

Rammohan, A. and Magnani, E., 2012, ‘Modelling the influence of elderly care-giving on migration decisions: Estimates and evidence from Indonesia’, Bulletin of Indonesian Economic Studies, 48( 3), pp. 399-420.

Rammohan, A. and Robertson, P., 2012, ‘Do Kinship Norms Affect Female Education? Evidence from Indonesia’, Oxford Development Studies, 40(3), pp. 283-304.

Rammohan, A. and Robertson, P., 2012, ‘Human Capital Investments, Kinship and Gender Inequality’, Oxford Economic Papers, 64(3), pp. 417-438.

Robertson, P., 2012, ‘Deciphering the Hindu Growth Epic’, Indian Review of Development and Growth, 5(1), pp. 55-69.

Siddique, M.A.B., Selvanathan, E.A. and Selvanathan, S., 2012, ‘Remittances and Economic Growth: Empirical Evidence from Bangladesh, India and Sri Lanka’, Journal of Development Studies, Volume, 48(8), pp. 1045-1062.

Tyers, R., 2012, ‘Japan’s economic stagnation: causes and global implications”, The Economic Record, 88(283), pp. 459-607.

Tyers, R. and Corbett, J., 2012, ‘Japan’s Economic Slowdown and its Global Implications: A Review of the Economic Modelling’, Asian-Pacific Economic Literature, 26(2), pp. 1-28.

Williams, A., Birch, E. and Hancock, P., 2012, ‘The Impact of Online Lecture Recordings on Student Performance’, Australian Journal of Education Technology, 28(2), pp. 199-213.

Wu, Y., 2012, ‘Energy intensity and its determinants in China’s regional economies’, Energy Policy, 41, pp. 703-711.

Wu, Y., 2012, ‘Trends and Prospects in China's Research and Development Sector’, The Australian Economic Review, 45(4), pp. 467-474.

Zhan, J., Wu, Y., Zhang X. and Zhou, Z., 2012, ‘Why Do Farmers Quit from Grain Production in China: Causes and Implications’, China Agricultural Economic Review, 4(3), pp. 342-362.

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Online Publications

Cheong, T. S. and Wu, Y., 2012, ‘Intra-provincial inequality in China’, Blog Post: East Asia Forum, http://www.eastasiaforum.org/2012/12/15/intra-provincial-inequality-in-china/.

Maitra, P. and Rammohan, A., 2012, ‘Child malnutrition in India and what can be done about it’, Blog Post: Ideas for India, http://www.ideasforindia.in/article.aspx?article_id=64.

Robertson, P., 2012, ‘Shame or Sham?’ Assessing poverty in Australia’, Blog Post: The Conversation, http://theconversation.edu.au/shame-or-sham-assessing-poverty-in-australia-10149/.

Robertson, P., 2012, ‘Gloomy productivity report hides some fatal flaws’, Blog Post: The Conversation, http://theconversation.edu.au/gloomy-productivity-report-hides-some-fatal-flaws-8621/.

Tyers, R., 2012, ‘Looking for internal growth in China’, Blog Post: East Asia Forum, http://www.eastasiaforum.org/2012/09/19/looking‐for‐internal‐growth‐in‐china/.

Weber, E.J., 2012, ‘Greece on the precipice’, Letter to the editor: The Economist, http://www.economist.com/node/21555875/; republished as: ‘Economist's Haiku for Europe’, http://johnhcochrane.blogspot.com.au/2012/06/economists-haiku-for-europe.html.

Collins, J., Baer, B. and Weber, E.J., 2012, ‘Sexual Selection, Conspicuous Consumption and Economic Growth’, available at SSRN: http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2111740.

Khuu, A. and Weber, E.J., 2012, ‘How Australian Farmers Deal with Risk’, available at SSRN: http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2049705.

Weber, E.J., 2012, ‘Macroeconomic Effects of the 2012-13 Australian Federal Budget’, available at SSRN: http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2079375.

Wu, Y., 2012, ‘Balance of Economic Power Shifts’, China Daily, http://europe.chinadaily.com.cn/epaper/2012-08/24/content_15702578.htm.

Publications, not previously mentioned

Mills, J.S., 2011, Principles of Political Economy, Atlantic Publishers and Distributors Ltd, India. Introduction by Ghosh, R.N., pp. xxiii-liii.

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17. Discussion Papers

The Economics Discipline publishes a Discussion Paper series that includes working papers by staff members and visitors. The editor is E. Juerg Weber. Discussion Papers as far back as 2001 can be downloaded from RePEc at: http://ideas.repec.org/s/uwa/wpaper.html

No. Author(s) Title 12.01 Ken Clements

Grace Gao Thomas Simpson

Disparities in Incomes and Prices Internationally

12.02 Rod Tyers The Rise and Robustness of Economic Freedom in China

12.03 Jane Golley Rod Tyers

Demographic Dividends, Dependencies and Economic Growth in China and India

12.04 Rod Tyers Looking Inward for Growth

12.05 Karen Knight Michael McLure

The Elusive Arthur Pigou

12.06 Michael McLure One Hundred Years From Today: A.C. Pigou’s Wealth and Welfare

12.07 Amy Khuu Ernst Juerg Weber

How Australian Farmers Deal With Risk

12.08 Mei-Hsiu Chen Ken Clements

Patterns in World Metals Prices

12.09 Ken Clements UWA Economics Honours

12.10 Jane Golley Rod Tyers

China’s Gender Imbalance and its Economic Performance

12.11 Ernst Juerg Weber Australian Fiscal Policy in the Aftermath of the Global Financial Crisis

12.12 Peter R Hartley Kenneth B. Medlock III

Changes in the Operational Efficiency of National Oil Companies

12.13 Liang Li How Much Are Resource Projects Worth? A Capital Market Perspective

12.14 Anping Chen Nicolaas Groenewold

The Regional Economic Effects of a Reduction in Carbon Emissions and An Evaluation of Offsetting Policies in China

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No. Author(s) Title12.15 Jason Collins

Boris Baer Ernst Juerg Weber

Sexual Selection, Conspicuous Consumption and Economic Growth

12.16 Yanrui Wu Trends and Prospects in China’s R&D Sector

12.17 Tsun Se Cheong Yanrui Wu

Intra-Provincial Inequality in China: An Analysis of County-Level Data

12.18 Tsun Se Cheong The Patterns of Regional Inequality in China

12.19 Yanrui Wu Electricity Market Integration Global Trends and Implications for the EAS Region

12.20 Karen Knight Exegesis of Digital Text from the History of Economic Thought: A Comparative Exploratory Test

12.21 Ishita Chatterjee Costly Reporting, Ex-post Monitoring, and Commercial Piracy: A Game Theoretic Analysis

12.22 Susan Pen Quality-Constant Illicit Drug Prices

12.23 Tsun Se Cheong Yanrui Wu

Regional Disparity, Transitional Dynamics and Convergence in China

12.24 Parinaz Ezzati Financial Markets Integration of Iran within the Middle East and with the rest of the World

12.25 Fung Kwan Yanrui Wu Shuaihe Zhuo

Re-examination of the Surplus Agricultural Labour in China

12.26 Yanrui Wu R&D Behaviour in Chinese Firms 12.27 Sam Tang

Linda Yung Maids or Mentors? The Effects of Live-in Foreign Domestic Workers on School Children’s Educational Achievement in Hong Kong

12.28 Nicolaas Groenewold Australia and the GFC: Saved by Astute Fiscal Policy?

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18. Seminar and Conference Presentations by Staff

Staff of the Economics Discipline made numerous presentations of their research during 2012. Below are details of these presentations.

Presenter Seminar/Conference Location Topic Ishita Chatterjee Australian Conference

of Economists 2012 Victoria University, July

“Regulating Digital Commercial Piracy: An ex-post analysis”

Society for the Advancement of Economic Theory (SAET) Conference on Current Trends in Economics 2012

University of Queensland, June-July

“Costly reporting, ex-post monitoring, and commercial piracy: A game theoretic analysis”

Ishita Chatterjee Cheyne Buckley

Australian Conference of Economists 2012

Victoria University, July

“A Quantitative Analysis of Australian Product Innovation”

Ken Clements Jiawei Si

Ambassadorial Council, WA Regional Chapter

UWA, February “The Investment Pipeline for Resource Projects”

Ken Clements Grace Gao

School of Agricultural and Resource Economics Seminar

UWA, March “Quality, Quantity, Spending and Prices”

Ken Clements Milton Friedman 100th Anniversary Celebration, Mannkal Economic Foundation and ECOMS Society Seminar

UWA, August “Milton Friedman, One of the Greats”

Statistics Seminar UWA, September

“Measuring Economic Cycles”

Larry Sjaastad Memorial Service

Department of Economics, The University of Chicago, October

“Larry Sjaastad”

PhD Conference in Economics and Business

UWA, November

“1987 was a Good Year”

Circle Breakfast, UWA Business School

UWA, December

“The Pricing of Gold, Iron Ore and Everything in Between”

51

Presenter Seminar/Conference Location TopicKen Clements M.-H. Chen Grace Gao

Conference on “Commodity Price Volatility, Past and Present”

Centre for Economic History and Centre for Applied Macroeconomic Analysis, ANU, November

“Three Facts About World Metal Prices”

Michael McLure Circle Breakfast, UWA Business School

UWA, April “Michael McLure: an Historian of Economic Thought”

(American) History of Economics Society Conference 2012

Brock University, St Catharine, June

“One Hundred Years From Today: A.C. Pigou’s Wealth and Welfare”

History of Economic Thought Society of Australia Conference 2012

Royal Society of Victoria Building, Melbourne, July

“One Hundred Years From Today: A.C. Pigou’s Wealth and Welfare”

Anu Rammohan (Awofesso, N. and Iqbal, K.)

Workshop on Emerging Economies

UNSW, August “Neonatal mortality and in rural India: the role of health infrastructure”

Growth and Development Conference 

Indian Statistical Institute, Delhi 

“Neonatal mortality and in rural India: the role of health infrastructure”

Anu Rammohan (Chowdhury, S.)

Development and Capabilities Conference

Jakarta “Inquality and Crime: Evidence from rural Indonesia”

Anu Rammohan (Pritchard, B and Sekher, M)

Asian Econometric Society Meetings

Delhi, December

“The determinants of food security in rural India”

Australasian Development Economics Workshop 

Monash University, June 

“The determinants of food security in rural India”

Globalisation and Social Transformation: The Indian Experience 

Tata Institute of Social Sciences, February

“The determinants of food security in rural India”

Peter Robertson ANU-Woodside, China Update Conference

ANU, Canberra, July

“China’s Growth Prospects”, Panel Discussant

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Presenter Seminar/Conference Location TopicPeter Robertson Longfeng Ye

Chinese Economics Society Australia (CESA) Conference

ANU, Canberra, July

“On The Existence of A Middle Income Trap”

Peter Robertson 8th Australian Development Economics Workshop ADEW

Monash University, June

“Growth and the Bright City Lights: Convergence and Divergence Across Indian Districts”

8th Annual Conference on Economic Growth and Development

Indian Statistical Institute, Delhi, December

“Growth and the Bright City Lights: Convergence and Divergence Across Indian Districts”

Abu Siddique 5th Global and Social Science Research Conference

Beijing, June “Australian and Malaysian Bilateral Trade: Recent Trends”

Foundations of University Teaching and Learning

Centre for the Advancement of Teaching and Learning, UWA, July

“The Essence of Good Teaching”

Postgraduate Supervision Workshop

Graduate Research School, UWA, August

“Supervisors’ view: approaches to supervision”

Sam Tang Economics Department, Jinan University, China, March

“Scientific Research and Output Volatility”

7th Biennial Conference of Hong Kong Economic Association

Lingnan University, Hong Kong, December

“Maids or Mentors? The Effects of Live-in Foreign Domestic Workers on School Children’s Educational Achievement in Hong Kong”

Rod Tyers UWA Business School Seminar

UWA, March “Demographic dividends in China and India”

APJAE Symposium on Advances in Studies of the Chinese Economy

City University of Hong Kong, June

“Looking inward for transformative growth in China”

Chinese Economics Society Australia (CESA)

Canberra, July “Economic implications of the rising sex ratio at birth”

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Presenter Seminar/Conference Location TopicRod Tyers China Update

Conference ANU, Canberra, July

“Looking inward for growth”

Freedom to Choose Conference

University of Notre Dame, July

“Microeconomic reforms: the risk of reversal due to revenue rights”

UWA Institute of Advanced Studies Inquiring Minds Lecture Series

UWA Institute of Advanced Studies, October

“Growth headwinds in China and Japan: Implications for the Australian Economy”

Juerg Weber Amy Khuu

International Agricultural Risk, Finance and Insurance Conference

Central University of Finance and Economics, Beijing, June

“How Australian Farmers Deal with Risk”

16th International Congress on Insurance Mathematics and Economics,

University of Hong Kong, 29-30 June

“How Australian Farmers Deal with Risk”

Juerg Weber Jason Collins

Consilience Conference: Evolution in Biology

University of Missouri-St. Louis, 26-28 April

“Sexual Selection, Conspicuous Consumption and Economic Growth”

Yanrui Wu  EAI seminar series National University of Singapore, February

“Gas market integration in East Asia” 

  Chinese Economics Society Australia (CESA) 24th Annual Conference

ANU, Canberra, July 

“Regional disparities, transitional dynamics and convergence” 

  China Update 2012 ANU, Canberra, July 

“Provincial Inequality in China” 

  APPC 2012  Bangkok, July “Productivity, Technology Gap and Structural Change in China’s Manufacturing sector” 

  Asia Economic Panel Tokyo, October “Foreign Entry and Profitability of Domestic Firms: Evidence from China” 

  ISAS 8th Annual International Conference 

National University of Singapore, November 

“Economic Links between the Asian Giants: Trends and Outlook” 

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19. Other Professional Activities

Staff members of the Economics Discipline have been very active in taking part in various additional professional activities. A selection of these activities follows.

Ishita Chatterjee is a council member of the Economic Society of Australia (WA) and a member of the Economics Design Network (University of Melbourne). She has acted as a referee for Applied Economics, Australasian Accounting Business and Finance Journal, Economics of Governance, and Journal of Economics and Management Strategy.

Ken Clements is a member of the Editorial Boards for Economics Papers, the International Economics and Finance Journal, the Australian Journal of Economics Education and Resources Policy. He was a member of the Review Panel, Centre of Policy Studies, Monash University, 2012.

Paul Crompton is the Director of Postgraduate Programs within the UWA Business School.

Mel Davies is responsible for producing a quarterly newsletter and organising Annual Association Conferences. He is the editor of the Journal of Australian Mining History. In the international sphere, he was a member of both the Program and Organising Committees for the 7th International Mining History Congress at Bhubaneswar, India, as well as serving as Secretary and coordinator of the 9th Congress, held in Redruth.

Luciana Fiorini is a member of the Econometric Society.

Robin Ghosh is on the Editorial Board of two journals, the International Journal of Development Issues published from Sydney University, and the Atlantic Journal of World Affairs published by Atlantic Publishers & Distributors. Robin Ghosh is also the current chairman of the Institute of Development Studies (Australia). Currently, Ghosh is editing (jointly with Abu Siddique) a volume of papers on “Good Governance, Corruption and Economic Growth” from the proceedings of two international conferences held at UWA Perth in June, 2009 and then followed by another in Kolkata (India) in December, 2009.

Nic Groenewold was a referee for the Regional Studies, the Australian Economic Review, the Economic Record, Emerging Markets, Finance and Trade, Papers in Regional Science, Journal of Regional Science and China Economic Review. He was also a member of the editorial board for the Economic Record.

Inga Kristoffersen is a PhD candidate at UWA, researching well-being, satisfaction and happiness, and economics. She is a member of the Australian Centre on Quality of Life (ACQOL), and has acted as a referee for the Economic Record.

Bei Li acted as a referee for the 2011 Western Australia Chinese Scientists Association (WACSA) Conference for the WACSA’s Best Student Paper Awards.

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Paul McLeod acted as a referee for the Australian Journal of Agriculture and Resource Economics and as an assessor for research grant project outcomes for the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research Membership of Node 4.5 (Socioeconomics) of the Western Australian Marine Sciences Institute. Dr McLeod was also a member of the Economics Panel of the Economic Regulation Authority. He participated as a member of the expert research panel in the FRDC’s Delphi study to determine future research funding priorities.

Michael McLure served as the Vice President of the Western Australian Branch of the Economic Society of Australia until September 2011. In 2012, he was a referee for the European Journal of the History of Economic Thought, the History of Economics Review and Public Policy. He is also a member of the Board for the Centre for Labour Market Research. Within the UWA Business School, Michael was the Deputy Head of Economics in the first half of the year and Acting Head of Economics in the second half of the year.

Leandro Magnusson is a member of the Econometric Society.

Anu Rammohan is a member on the Panel of Expert Referees for UK’s NHS R&D, Health Technology Assessment Programme. She is also a member of the AusAID-sponsored Australian Development Economics Secretariat. In addition, she was invited to be an expert referee for the Productivity Commission’s Early Childhood Education Report. She was also invited by the Australian Treasury to make a submission to Ken Henry’s review of “Australia in the Asian Century”. She was a moderator at the Australian-International Institute’s one-day Workshop on India at the West Australian Parliament. She has refereed manuscripts for Journal of Development Studies, European Journal of Health Economics, Economic Record, Australian Journal of Labour Economics, Applied Economics, Education Economics, Routledge books and AusAID’s Australian Development Research Awards.

Peter Robertson has served as a Consultant for the Department of Innovation, Industry Science and Research and the Productivity Commission. He was a member of the Review Panel, Department of Economics, Otago University, 2012 and an external examiner for the Monash University, ANU and Sydney University. He is a member of the Scientific Committee for the Australian International Trade Workshop, the Executive for the Australian Development Economics Workshop, and an INTReader for the ARC.

Abu Siddique is a member of AusAID’s Joint Selection Team (JST) for its ADS and APS postgraduate scholarships. He is a member of the editorial board of the International Journal of Business Studies as well as the Association of the Study of Australasia in Asia (ASAA). He is also an elected member of the Faculty Board of the UWA Business School.

Sam Tang has acted as an anonymous referee for several journals; Asian Economic Journal, Australian Economic Paper and Economic Record.

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Rod Tyers holds the following honorary appointments: GTAP Research Fellow of the Centre for Global Trade Analysis, Purdue University, and Research Associate of the Centre for Applied Macroeconomic Analysis (CAMA), ANU. This year he also taught a short course in Modelling the Open Economy for the Macroeconomic Modelling and Development Unit, Australian Treasury, intensive over 5 days in March.

Juerg Weber is a member of several societies, including the Economic Society of Australia, the American Economic Association, the Swiss-Australian Academic Network (SAAN), the Swiss-Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (SACCI) and serves as the Honorary Consul for Switzerland in Western Australia.

Andrew Williams is a member of the Business School Planning Budget and Resources Committee.

Yanrui Wu has acted as an anonymous referee for several international journals; China: An International Journal, China Economic Review, China Agricultural Economic Review, Review of Income and Wealth, Journal of Productivity Analysis, Applied Energy, Energy Economics and Energy Policy. He was a reader for the ARC Discovery Grant applications.