Teaching
IDEC8025: Empirical Public Finance
College of Asia and the Pacific, Crawford School of Public Policy, ANU
2023, 2022, 2021, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015
Course Description: This course is an introduction to the economic analysis of incentives generated by tax systems and income transfer programs. The emphasis is on understanding how, and the extent to which, individuals and firms react to those policies – the central question addressed in the growing field of empirical public finance. The discussion on key design elements of those policies are expected to foster students’ understanding of important trade-offs involved in implementing government policies. The course will cover the following topics: tax incidence, efficiency and optimal taxation, income taxation and labour supply, taxes on consumption, taxes on savings, taxes on investment and corporate taxation. Examples will be drawn from taxes and income transfer programs implemented in Australia and internationally. Particular attention will be paid to the application of quasi-experimental methods to public finance. By reading articles that apply quasi-experiments for each topic, students are expected to develop a practical understanding of issues involved in taking econometric models to the real world. Students will be exposed to varieties of estimation techniques.
Policy Evaluation
Executive Education Program, Crawford School of Public Policy, ANU
8 May 2019
Course Description: Policy evaluations are important for evidence-based decision-making. Policymakers need an understanding of the policies that worked, and those that haven’t, to make informed decisions. This course will develop your skills to confidently interpret the findings presented in evaluation studies and understand the intuition behind the most common evaluation tools. Attending this course will give participants the knowledge required to read, interpret and critically assess evaluation studies. Participants will learn about the possibilities and limitations of applying evaluation tools to a range of public policy areas.
Behavioral Economics: Concepts, Tools and Applications
Executive Education Program, Crawford School of Public Policy, ANU
8-9 May 2019
2-3 May 2018
Course Description: The course provides participants with the knowledge they require to understand general concepts of behavioural economics and to apply basic statistical tools to trial design, implementation and data analysis. The course combines intuitive explanations with practical examples. It involves basic mathematical and statistical concepts that will be explained as part of the course. The course is suitable for beginners and as a refresher for those with a basic statistics background. The first day of this course gives an introduction to some general concepts of behavioural economics, provide an overview of important statistical concepts and discuss practical challenges related to trial design and implementation. The second day provides an introduction to important econometric tools required to analyse experimental and non-experimental data and discuss examples and applications.
EMDV8102: Research Methods for Environmental Management
College of Asia and the Pacific, Crawford School of Public Policy, ANU.
2016
Course Description: The course introduces students to quantitative, qualitative and mixed research methods used by the social sciences to study environment and development issues and problems. The course will increase students’ knowledge of how scholarly and applied research is designed and implemented, and will enable them to assess the quality of research required as an input into policy making. The course considers questions of epistemology and the philosophy of science, and the implications of theory for the design of research. The course critically engages with the main features and methods for conducting quantitative and qualitative research. Understandings of the ethics conducting and publishing scholarly research will be integrated throughout the course lectures and discussions.
The Economics of Labor Markets
Executive Education Program, Crawford School of Public Policy, ANU
29-30 June 2016
Course Description: Many public policy issues concern the labour market experiences of particular groups of workers or various aspects of the employment relationship between workers and firms. Policymakers need an understanding of the functioning of the labour market to make informed decisions. The first day of this course gives an introduction to concepts of labour economics, explain some key features of labour supply and labour demand and discuss relevant empirical tools of labour economics and labour market policy evaluation. The second day covers human capital and the link between education and wages, explain the causes of wage inequality, provide an overview of the most important issues related to labour mobility and international labour migration, and discuss causes and consequences of labour market discrimination. The course provides participants with the knowledge they require to derive basic conclusions regarding a wide range of issues related to labour economics. The course combines intuitive explanations with practical examples. The course is suitable for beginners and as a refresher for those with an economics background.
ECON2800: Labour Economics
Faculty of Business, Economics and Law, University of Queensland
2014
Course Description: The principal objective of the course is to introduce students to the body of economic theory seeking to explain the workings of labour markets and core aspects of human resource management. The main emphasis is on theoretical and analytical aspects of wage (remuneration) setting behaviour in labour markets. Wherever possible the course also aims to familiarise students with a body of empirical evidence concerning the actual operation of labour markets and the setting of remuneration, especially in Australia. Selective, contemporary policy issues related to these issues will be tackled. In general, the course relates the subject matter of labour economics to mainstream economic theory rather than providing an institutional, descriptive analysis of the labour market. The course is devoted mainly to microeconomic aspects of labour market issues, although certain major macroeconomic, institutional and policy issues will be covered. In particular, the course illustrates the application of microeconomic methods and models to selected topics, including labour supply, labour demand, various behavioural and institutional dimensions of wage structure, the determination of employment and unemployment.
ECON3450: Public Finance
Faculty of Business, Economics and Law, University of Queensland
2014
Course Description: This course aims to provide students with an opportunity to understand when markets fail and government intervention is required. It also aims at providing students with an opportunity to understand the imperfect nature of governments intervention and how it affects the economy, particularly in the areas of resource allocation, income distribution and the incidence of taxation. It covers the following topics: Theory and methodology of public finance; theory of public goods; public finance and public choice; taxation and taxable capacity; criteria for taxation; taxation and social security policy; tax incidence; tax reform; contemporary issues, eg fiscal federalism and HECS.
ECON2900: Development, Poverty and Famine
College of Business and Economics, Research School of Economics, ANU.
2013
Course Description: Why are some countries richer than others? Why have some countries experienced growth miracles while others have experienced stagnation or even growth disasters? Within developing countries, what does it mean to be poor? How to combat poverty? What are the challenges that the poor in developing countries face and what can be done to improve their living standards? This course intends to teach students what we know and what we do not know about these important questions and will focus on teaching students tools in understanding them. The topics covered will include explanations on why countries develop differentially, the effect of geography, institutions, foreign aid, corruption and differential, saving rates on the large disparities across countries. Within countries, we will examine the role of education, health migration and credit markets in the alleviation of poverty. The course will cover both theory and empirical evidence but focusing mainly on how to conduct empirical analysis in understanding these important economic development issues.
EMET2007: Econometrics I: Econometric Methods
College of Business and Economics, Research School of Economics, ANU
2012, 2011, 2010
Course Description: This course provides an introduction to econometric methods and their applications. The main workhorse of applied econometrics is the linear regression model and the course will develop its theory and look at a wide range of applications. The course emphasizes intuitive and conceptual understanding as well as hands on econometric analysis using modern computer software on data sets from economics and business. Students learn how to conduct empirical studies, as well as how to analyze and interpret results from other empirical works. We cover a broad range of topics, including: brief review of basic statistics; ordinary least squares estimation and its properties; choice of functional form; departures from standard OLS assumptions; time series analysis. This is a hands-on course with a focus on applications in economics as well as business. A standard statistical software will be used during computer sessions, no special programming skills are required.
EMET2008: Econometrics II: Econometric Modelling
College of Business and Economics, Research School of Economics, ANU.
2013
Course Description: The course studies important extensions of the linear regression model. Topics include: endogeneity, binary dependent variables, time series regressions and panel data estimation. This is a hand-on course with a focus on applications in economics as well as business. A standard statistical software will be used during computer sessions, no special programming skills are required.
ENGN3211: Investment Decisions and Financial Systems
College of Business and Economics, Research School of Economics, ANU
2012
Course Description: This course is taught in two parts: Part A - Financial Systems over the first seven weeks, and Part B - Economic Systems over the last six weeks of semester. The Part A Financial systems segment focuses on accounting and financial management concepts and principles. This course equips students with methodologies to identify and analyse accounting information for making sound financial decisions in real business settings. The Part B Economic systems segment of the course will provide an introduction to the economic principles which underlie decisions on private and public investment. These principles will be used to analyse relevant issues such as choice of capacity, pollution and public goods, safety standards and patents. Mathematical models will be used to inform the analysis.