December 2008 Update from Head, School of Economics and Finance

Research students

• Two PhD candidates in SEF have submitted their thesis for examination in November.
• Nasser El Kanj, Thesis Title: ' A Treatise on the Economics and Politics of Conflicts with special reference to the Middle East' - PS: Partha Gangopadhyay, Co-Supervisor Kevin Daly.
• Selim Akhter, Thesis Title: ' Financial Soundness and Economic Development: A Multi-Country Analysis employing Panel Data' - PS: Kevin Daly, Co-Supervisor Craig Ellis.
• One of our 2007 PhD students - Sayma Rahman (with Girija Mallik and P.N. Junankar) – has a paper entitled "Do Poor People Benefit from Micro credit Program? Evidence from Bangladesh" accepted for publication in the International Journal of Applied Business and Economic Research (IJABER) and it will be published in June 2009.
• One of our current PhD students (who is about to submit) already has a publication - Elafif M, 2008, The Nature of Intra-Arab Trade and their Economic Integration, The Middle East Business and Economic Review, vol 20, no. 2, pp 97-120
• Another of our current students, Gazi M. Hassan, has received a scholarship for a conference and postgraduate summer school, Asia-Pacific Week 2009, to be held from Tuesday January 27 to Friday 30 January 2009 at the Australian National University. An expected 200 honours students and postgraduate researchers will join prominent academics to undertake a week-long program designed to promote excellence in postgraduate research and facilitate networking. Participants will present papers, and gain practical advice on enhancing research skills from senior scholars in the fields of Asian and Pacific Studies.

Grant Applications

• UWS Research Grant Application, October 24, ‘Environmental, Economic and Social Sustainability Issues in Urban and Peri-urban Agriculture in the Greater Western Sydney: Challenges and Prospects’. Partha Gangopadhyay, Maria Estela Varua, Fernanda Duarte, Felicitas Evangelista
  It might be opportune to note recent publications by the first two investigators:
  • Gangopadhyay, P & R ‘Flexible Reservation Prices and Price Inflexibility’ Economic Modelling, Elsevier, Vol. 25, No. 3, pp. 499-511, March 2008. – ‘A’ ranked journal.
  • Gangopadhyay, P. ‘Liberalisation, Democratisation and Distribution of Urban Public Goods: An Historical Snapshot of the Indian Experience’, Chapter 4, in B. M. Jain and M. Chatterji (eds), Conflict and Peace in South Asia, Elsevier, pp. 61-78, 2008.
  • Gangopadhyay, P. and Chatterji. (2009). Economic Models of Conflict and Peace Sciences, Elsevier, Forthcoming in 2009.
  • Elkanj, N. and P. Gangopadhyay. (2010). Economics and Politics of Conflicts with a Special Emphasis on the Middle East, World Scientific, Forthcoming 2010.
  • Partha gave the Keynote Address on “Endogenously-driven dynamics of rural-urban migration” to the 39th Annual Conference of the Regional Science Association, Indian Chapter, N. B. University, Darjeeling, 26 January. He has been invited to present a paper at the 8th Pacific Rim Conference of the Western Economic Association, International to be held at Kyoto in March 2009.
  • Mallik, G and Varua, M.E. 2008. ASEAN Inflation Convergence . (accepted, being revised)
  • Scarff, A.M and Varua, M.E. 2008. Web Access and Student Performance, (International Journal of Teaching and Learning - forthcoming)
  • Research Grant Application: Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute. 25th September. ‘The Impact of policy changes on the relationship between house prices and rents’. Raja Junankar and Roger Ham.
    Roger Ham is currently working on two applied econometrics research projects. The first is an empirical analysis of superannuation and performance and fund flows in Australia funded by the Australian Institute of Superannuation Trustees and Industry Super Funds. The second is a probability analysis of housing tenure and migrant status in Australia. His recent publications include:
    Ham R. and M. Rafferty (in press), Transition and government size, in M Olsson, M. Rafferty and M. Lönnborg, Unplanned, Essays on the Transformation of States and Financial Markets, Huddinge Sweden, Södertörns högskola.
    Bryan. D., R. Ham and M. Rafferty, (in press), The Performance of Superannuation Funds in Australia, Report Australian Institute of Superannuation Trustees (AIST), Melbourne
    Rafferty, M., D. Bryan and R. Ham, (2008), The Governance of the Superannuation Industry in Australia: an Issues and Research Design Paper, Report Australian Institute of Superannuation Trustees (AIST), Melbourne

Symposium

• Several of our staff are involved in a high quality symposium involving local and international researchers from the University of Karlsruhe, Germany, University of Tokyo and the International Monetary Fund. The “Time-Varying Correlation and Volatility Symposium” is hosted by School of Banking and Finance, Australian School of Business, University of New South Wales, on Friday 28th November. The Keynote Address is given by Professor Ron Bewley, Chief Investment Officer, Private Client Services, Commonwealth Bank. It is followed by “Energy Price Uncertainty, Energy Intensity and Firm-Level Investment” presented by Professor Ronald A. Ratti (University of Western Sydney), Kyung Hwan Yoon (University of Missouri) and later in the program is “No News Is Not Good News: Evidence from the Intraday Return Volatility - Volume Relationship in Shanghai Stock Exchange” by Chandrasekhar Krishnamurtia (Auckland University of Technology), Gary Tian (University of Wollongong), Mingyuan Guo (University of Western Sydney) and Craig Ellis (University of Western Sydney).

Publications

Craig Ellis

Batten, J., Ellis, C. and Fetherston, T. 2008. Sample Period Selection and Long-Term Dependence: New Evidence from the Dow Jones. Chaos Solitons and Fractals. 36(5) 1126-1140.
Sundmacher, M. and Ellis, C. Economic Capital, Loan Pricing and ‘Ratings Arbitrage’ presented at the 13th Finsia – Melbourne Centre for Financial Studies, Banking and Finance Conference. Melbourne, Australia. September 29-30, 2008.

Ron Ratti

“Bank Concentration and Financial Constraints on Firm-level Investment in Europe” (with S. Lee and Y. Seol), forthcoming Journal of Banking and Finance. - A*
“Oil Price Shocks and Stock Markets in the U.S. and 13 European Countries” (with J. W. Park), Energy Economics 30, Issue 5, September 2008, 2587-2608. - A
"Conservative Central Banks and Nominal Growth, Exchange Rate, and Inflation Targets" (with S. K. Bae), Economica 75, Issue 299, August 2008, 549-568. - A

Other Research Outcomes

Groenewegen P. & Lodewijks J. 2008, ‘Dave Clark (1946-2008): Economist, Larrikin, 'Critical Drinker' and Friend’, Agenda, vol 15, no. 3, pp 101-104
Chowdhury Anis, Vidyattama Y, 2008, Macroeconomic Policies for Growth in Small Pacific Island Economies, Pacific Economic Bulletin, vol 23, no. 2, pp 124-144; Chowdhury A, 2008, Labor Market Policies as Instruments of Industry Policy, American Journal of Economics and Sociology, vol 67, no. 4, pp 661-681; and Mahmud W, Chowdhury A, 2008, Introduction: South Asian Economic Development: Impressive Achievements but Continuing Challenges in Handbook on the South Asian Economies, Anis Chowdhury and Wahiduddin Mahmud, Cheltenham, UK; Northampton, pp 1-24

Rod O’Donnell’s 2008 conference activity

1. Western Economic Association International (WEAI) annual conference, Honolulu, June 29-July 3 - 'Recent Monetary and Fiscal Policy in Australia'.
2. History of Economic Thought Society of Australia (HETSA) annual conference, UWS, 9-11 July.
3. Australasian Teaching Economics Conference (ATEC), UWS, 28 September. 'Some Issues Relating to the Teaching of Opportunity Cost'.
4. Peer Assisted Study Sessions (PASS) conference, Univ of Sydney, 30 September.
5. Australian Conference of Economists (ACE08), Gold Coast, 30 Sept-4 October. Two papers presented: 'Why Aren't Economics Departments Providing Graduates with desired Skill Sets?' and ' Monetary and Fiscal Policy Inconsistency in Australia and its Wider Implications'.
6. Society of Heterodox Economists (SHE) annual conference, UNSW, 8-9 December. 'Sowing the Seeds of Creativity and Innovation'.

Student learning and teaching outcomes

HOS presentation, Inaugural UWS Learning & Teaching Week, 7 November, Blacktown

• SEF, with CCR & SSS has organized STEP 2008 - Science, Technology and Economic Progress – a National Doctoral Program: 30 November to 5 December. STEP is an annual, multi-disciplinary, national program to assist higher degree research students to think about their own topics in a wider way, by 'looking over the fence' into what other disciplines have to offer. Hosting of STEP has been shared between universities around Australia over the past 17 years. Academic Speakers include Dr Zoë Sofoulis, Professor Stuart B. Hill, Professor Jeffrey Shaw, Emeritus Professor Stephen Hill, Professor David Ellsworth, Professor Tim Turpin and Professor Don Lamberton. There are 20 PhD students from UWS, Curtin, Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, University of Sydney, University of Western Australia, University of Newcastle, Victoria University, University of Tasmania, University of Melbourne, University of South Australia, Australian National University, Adelaide University, University of Queensland, Queensland University of Technology and University of New South Wales.
• A new School Manager, Greg Williams, commenced duties on 17 November. He was the first choice for the School manager position at other UWS Schools but turned them down to work for us. He comes to us from a position as Senior Project Officer, Business Analysis, Australian Federal Police. He was previously Executive Director and Director, Corporate Services, Australian Institute of Police Management; Head, Secretariat, Australian Securities and Investment Commission; and Cabinet Officer, NSW Premiers Department. He has a Grad Dip and a Master of Commerce (both from UWS).

Engagement focus

• Ingrid Schraner, Secretary, Cumberland Business Chamber, is involved with boundless energy in a wide variety of engagement activities.
• At the 8Th Australian Sustainability Awards, December 8th, organized by Ethical Investor, the guest speaker is Steve Keen on ‘Reshaping corporate responsibility in the face of a global recession’ and Graeme Newell has been nominated for ‘special award for sustainability research’.
• Speaking of property engagements: The API presents the Peter Barrington award each year to the best research project on property done in an Australian university. It is gold medal and $1000 and the API's major award. On November 3rd we heard that it has been awarded in 2008 to HSU WEN PENG – one of our PhD students who graduated in September. It will be presented at PRRES Conference in January. This is the 6th time that one of Graeme Newell’s research students has won this national award. One of our second year Bachelor of Business (Property) students, Andrew MacFarlane, was awarded the Goodman scholarship. Two Year 2 property students received Stockland scholarships - each worth around $40,000 and job with Stockland at end.
• Both the PCA and Stockland will receive UWS Partnership Awards on December 5th
• Graeme Newell presented the keynote paper on "Property Investment Dynamics in Asia" to the Hong Kong Institute of Facilities Management Conference in Shanghai over Nov 6-7 and received a grant from Landcom for $10,000 on "Assessment of the Residential Real Estate Investment Trust Sector". He is organizing the 15th Pacific Rim Real Estate Society Conference to be held over 18-21 January in Sydney, jointly with UTS. Over 140 papers to be presented. PRRES is the main academic group to represent property academics in the region and UWS has always had a strong leadership role in PRRES.
• Kevin Daly has received the VC’s nomination as UWS representative on Penrith City Council’s Economic Development Entity – Education Training and Learning Sector. In June 2007 he was appointed as UWS representative to the Penrith Valley Economic Development Corporation (PVEDC). Later he was appointed by the Board to the Project Control Group of the New Economic Entity Working Party. In addition to Boards activities he also represents UWS on the Penrith Valleys Special Visits Network. He also found some spare time to publish:
• Daly, K. (2008). ‘Financial volatility: Issues and measuring techniques.’ Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Vol. 387, Pages 2377 - 2393. Elsevier. ABDC Journal List Ranking: A. Impact Factor 1.311.
• Daly K, and X. V. Vo, (2008). Idiosyncratic risk in the Dow Jones Eurostoxx50 Index', Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Vol.387, Pages 4261 – 4271. Elsevier. ABDC Journal List Ranking: A. Impact Factor 1.311.
• Vo, X. V. and K. Daly (2008). ‘Volatility amongst firms in the Dow Jones Eurostoxx50 Index’, Applied Financial Economics, Vol. 18, Pages 569 – 582. ABDC Journal List Ranking: C

An engagement report would not be complete without a mention of Steve Keen. We have finally received a comprehensive report covering his media coverage from approximately 27 August 2008 to 19 November 2008 that covers the 1270 media items - summaries and articles - from this period.

Associate Professor Steve Keen Media Analysis 27 August to 19 November 2008

John Lodewijks
28 November, 2008