Welcome to the Matching website for Economics Honours students 2010. The aim is to share information from prospective Honours students such that prospective supervisors can supply topics that are in demand. For any questions or inquiries, please contact the Honours Coordinator, Simon Angus ( mailto:simon.angus@buseco.monash.edu.au ).
Honours topics in Demand
Behavioural
John Afendulis: questioning the rationality assumption
Nikhil Dhar: Speculators in trading markets -- explaining fat tails, bubbles and other financial stylized facts
Computational
Nikhil Dhar: Speculators in trading markets -- explaining fat tails, bubbles and other financial stylized facts
Chris McMullin: Cloud-computing -- economics of internet technology, distributed risk
Development
Ben Hirons: The impact of growth on AIDs -- endogeneity issues
Jonathan Rochwerger: Indigenous health and development
Cheryl Seow: International development and foreign aid
Chris McMullin: Recovering from natural disasters -- foreign aid and prospects for Haiti
Rachel Bui: The impact of financial crisis on developing economies
Environmental
Darcy Hughes: Climate change economics
Robert Leith: Environmental topics, including agricultural/water economics
Chris McMullin: Recovering from natural disasters -- foreign aid and prospects for Haiti
Chris McMullin: US Electricity generation and distribution -- impact of smart metering on the efficiency of the electricity sector
Growth: Education, Health
Ben Hirons: The impact of growth on AIDs -- endogeneity issues
Archana Anathuni: Growth, education and development
Jonathan Rochwerger: Indigenous health and development
Cheryl Seow: International development and foreign aid
Chris McMullin: Recovering from natural disasters -- foreign aid and prospects for Haiti
Law
Patrick Campbell-Dunn: How big is the informal sector in China?, Missing tax receipts in China: the impact of corruption on growth and government services
Patrick Campbell-Dunn: Spillover or theft: Can IP be controlled in China?
Macro/Financial
Matthew Barbanti: International monetary system -- regional currencies and their impacts
Alvin Beh: Japan -- inflation and the naughties, another 'lost decade'?
Nikhil Dhar: Speculators in trading markets -- explaining fat tails, bubbles and other financial stylized facts
Leigh Krafchek: Various macro topics including the determinants and outworkings of the GFC
Cheryl Seow: International development and foreign aid
Jonathan Shafir: Consequences for pensions and superannuation of the baby-boomers
Chris McMullin: US Electricity generation and distribution -- impact of smart metering on the efficiency of the electricity sector
Patrick Campbell-Dunn: How big is the informal sector in China?, Missing tax receipts in China: the impact of corruption on growth and government services
Rachel Bui: The impact of financial crisis on developing economies
Adam Taylor: The effects of allowing ECNs to operate in Australia and the agents that determine the decision
Micro
Michael Hui: Game-theoretic study of some aspect of pricing behaviour
John Afendulis: questioning the rationality assumption
Chris McMullin: Gaming tennis -- predictors of match-fixing in professional tennis
Rachel Bui: Game theory study of the public education sector
Sport
Chris McMullin: Gaming tennis -- predictors of match-fixing in professional tennis
Trade
Abraam Gregoriou: Exploring international trade (what are the long term effects of trade liberalisation) and the Laffer Curve (fact or fiction?)
Cheryl Seow: International development and foreign aid
Rachel Bui: The impact of financial crisis on developing economies (globalisation and developing countries)
Honours topics in Supply
Phillip Adams
- Topics:
- All areas of CGE and general applied policy analysis.
Simon Angus
- Topics:
Artificial adaptive agents: incorporating realistic behaviour into bidding models (download Net-Logo, and Le-Baron's 'Simple Artificial agent model here for starters)
- Health first? What investments explain growth success stories in sub-Saharan Africa?
- Modeling economic networks using artificial adaptive agents
Rebecca Valenzuela
- Topics:
[NEW!] Homelessness in Melbourne: assessing the effectiveness of service providers
- (joint with Simon Angus)
Mita Bhattacharya
- Topics:
- Automotive Industry in Recent Global Crisis
R&D, Innovation and Productivity: Australia's Position amongst OECD Countries
- Is Australia a Knowledge/Information technology economy? Why or Why not?
- Enabling Green Growth: Eco-innovation in Industry
ALSO industry related topics.
Ross Booth
- Topics:
- Is competitive balance important to a team sports league, and if so how can it be increased?
- The A-League: The right model for long term economic success?
- Limited Free Agency in the Australian Football League: What Impact on Competitive Balance?
- The Changing Financial Face of the Australian Football League: An Analysis of Club and League Finances
- The Influence of Governance and Management on the Capacity for Revenue-raising by Sporting Organizations in Australia
- The Economic Effects of Changes to Gate-Sharing Arrangements in the Australian Football League
Wenli Cheng
- Topics:
- Is foreign aid an effective means to assist developing countries to achieve self-sustaining growth?
Stephen Miller
- Topics:
Financial Economics (especially Heavy-Tails, Extreme Events & Crises, but other areas too)
Monetary History & Institutions (Free-Banking vs. Central Banking, Currency Boards and Dollarization)
- Development as Economic History
Yew-Kwang Ng
- Topics:
- Is the public sector under or over-expanded? Relevant evidence and conceptual issues.
Birendra Rai
- Topics:
- Irrationality and unawareness
- Economics of language
Neelu Seetaram
- Topics:
- Tourism Economics and Aviation Economics.
Russell Smyth
- Topics:
- Economics of judicial behaviour
- Economics of Crime
- Chinese economic reforms
- Economics of happiness
Christis Tombazos
- Topics:
- Anything sufficiently interesting in the area of international trade (e.g., the national disgrace of Australian tariffs, the questionable intellectual premise of the anti-globalisation movement, and so on)
Gaming the system (Any sufficiently interesting and adequately sexy topic that explores how incentives drive outcomes - this is, after all, what economics is about. For inspiration see Steven Levitt's "Freakonomics", "Superfreakonomics", or his New York Times blog at http://freakonomics.blogs.nytimes.com/
NOTE: Though 1 is closer to my heart than 2, it does not lend itself to exceptionally interesting honours projects. Hence, I would be much more interested to supervise a project along the lines of "Gaming the system" than "Trade".
Vinod Mishra
- Topics:
- Financial Markets (Stock market efficiency, Structural breaks, Co-integration)
- Applied Industrial organisation
- Survey data analysis
Aaron Nicholas*
- Note: currently a PhD student, but happy to help a student with the following topics
- Topics:
- Social preference models of trust, reciprocity, altruism and inequality/inequity aversion
- Microeconomic models of the family (particularly Becker and parent-child decisions)
Ian Wills
- Topics:
- Environmental topics, in particular:
- Sustainability;
- Economics of pollution; and
- Economics of climate change.
- Environmental topics, in particular: