Research at a glance

Research areas

We focus our research around three areas:

• Economics
• Finance
• Econometrics

Economics

Within this area, we run research programs in:

• Behavioural economics
• Environmental economics
• Applied economics

It also includes two research groups:

• Queensland Behavioural Economics Group (QuBE)
• Economics of Environmental Performance Group

Finance

Within this area, we run research programs in:

• Corporate finance
• Applied finance

Econometrics

We are proud to be home to the National Centre for Econometric Research, which runs programs in:

• Econometrics of energy and the environment
• Financial econometrics
• Sportometrics

Econometrics research programs

Expertise and achievements

Several of our high-profile research leaders have received international recognition for the quality and impact of their work, and have generated significant research income:

• Uwe Dulleck is the recipient of three ARC grants, which see him research Heart rate variability and Honesty and efficiency in the provision of expert services.
• Stan Hurn is Director of the National Centre for Econometric Research and a council member of the Society for Financial Econometrics (SoFiE). He and QUT colleagues Adam Clements, and University of Glasgow's Honorary Senior Research Fellow and QUT's Adjunct Professor Ken Lindsay, among others, were awarded an ARC Discovery Grant for the project, Novel econometric techniques for dealing with point processes in high frequency financial data with applications for financial risk management.
• Lionel Page is the beneficiary of the Discovery Early Career Researcher Award (DECRA) for research on The behavioural birthdate effect: the impact of relative position within cohorts on risk aversion, self-confidence and aspiration levels. Lionel has also been awarded a Queensland SMART Future Fellowship which continues the theme of the behavioural birth-date effect in the context of the recent change of school cut-off dates in Queensland.
• Benno Torgler was ranked in the top 20 German-speaking economists in the world. He is the recipient of the prestigious ARC Future Fellowship to investigate The role of moral sentiments and emotions in human nature. In addition, Benno Torgler, Clevo Wilson and others are currently completing their investigation into Urban water conservation and management strategies through an ARC grant.

Several of our researchers have published works in top journals:

• American Economic Review
• Economic Inquiry
• The Economic Journal
• Journal of the American Statistical Association
• Journal of Banking and Finance
• Journal of Comparative Economics
• Journal of Development Economics
• Journal of Economic Behaviour and Organization
• Journal of Economic Literature
• Journal of Econometrics
• Journal of Environmental Economics and Management
• Journal of Public Economics
• Management Science
• Public Choice
• Southern Economic Journal.

Recent research appointments

Over the past few years, we have been strategic in our efforts to enhance our research profile and outcomes. The recent addition of six new Postdoctoral Fellows significantly boosts our strengths and capacities in this area.

These appointments include:

• Dr Yin Liao, who joined from Australian National University, in the area of financial econometrics.
• Dr Min Zhu, who completed her PhD at the University of Sydney, in the area of financial econometrics/finance. Min Zhu was subsequently appointed as a Vice-Chancellor’s Postdoctoral Fellow as of 1 January 2013.
• Oscar Pavlov, who is completing a PhD from University of Adelaide, in the area of macroeconomics, business cycles.
• Syed Reza, who completed his PhD at Vanderbilt University, in the area of corporate finance.

Visitors

We have a well-established record of attracting locally and internationally renowned visitors on a regular basis to support our research activities. We have hosted many international visitors, with several of these coming from the world's top universities. We have also been involved in hosting:

• major international conferences, including the Western Economic Association International, the Econometric Society Australasian Meeting, and the Society for Financial Econometrics
• many workshops and symposiums
• free public lectures, two of which were delivered by Nobel Laureates, Robert F Engle and the late Sir Clive Granger.

Our visitors for 2013 include:

Research culture

Our research culture is strengthened by activities designed to facilitate intensity, quality and concentration in research. These include:

• an active weekly staff seminar
• a brown-bag seminar and economics discussion group for work-in-progress
• an economics reading group which talks about topical pieces of published works
• rigorous research workshops with contributions from high-profile national and international visitors.

We also maintain two online working paper series:

• the School of Economics and Finance Discussion Papers and Working Paper Series
• the NCER Working Paper Series.

Research students

Our PhD graduate destinations range from the private sector in Sydney, London and New York, to academic positions in top universities such as the University of Manchester. Our students are highly engaged in our research culture, and have participated in co-authoring many of our research outputs.

We have a particularly strong honours program. Two stand-out achievers are Tim Christensen and Nemanja Antic, two former honours students, who were awarded full PhD scholarships to Yale and Princeton respectively.

PhDs and research degrees at QUT Business School