UNSW Economics Dept

🚨Call for Papers 🚨
Macroeconomic Policy Workshop
19 September 2025
In partnership with e61 Institute

Focus: Policy-relevant macroeconomics (empirical & theoretical)
Deadline: 27 Aug 2025
📧: UNSW.macroeconomics@gmail.com

Do you want to read more about our research but are intimidated by the maths in our papers?
businessthink.unsw.edu.xn--aus-so0a research spotlights feature easy-to-read explainers of some of our most insightful research, together with policy and current event analysis by our researchers.

Here an explainer featuring @grattonecon.bsky.social's insights into the roots of anti-technocratic populism. t.co/YsgwPmvfF6

Some example? Here is Nalini Prasad's recent research on the effect of interest rates on mortgage repayments and consumption.
businessthink.unsw.edu.au/articles/aus...

Do you want to read more about our research but are intimidated by the maths in our papers?
businessthink.unsw.edu.xn--aus-so0a research spotlights feature easy-to-read explainers of some of our most insightful research, together with policy and current event analysis by our researchers.

Check this out: we’ve got a new look!

From our PhD seminar series this week: Yaxin Liu presented her work using tennis matches data to explore gender differences in a particular form of loss aversion: the fear of losing status.

Terrific talk today by Lukas Wellner (Monash) on a sadly timely topic, using rich data from WWI and interwar Germany: how war losses in human capital affect postwar economic structural changes.

It was great to host our research partners from e61 Institute today. Looking forward to seeing our joint research projects contribute to academic research and enable positive societal change!

We love it 😍

We have a logo! 💪

We are proud to have our very own @economeager.bsky.social as part of the first ever human MCMC chain traversing the space of all possible names and genders. We feel sincere congratulations are in order to Rafe, Rachel Leah and all other Bayesians involved.

Incredible new work from our wonderful colleague Masyhur Hilmy and illustrious coauthors in REStud!

"State schools aimed to secularize Indonesia, but religious schools adapted, competing for students and strengthening Islamic identity instead."

Recently accepted to #REStud, from Bazzi, Hilmy and Marx:

www.restud.com/religion-edu...

#econsky

GDP-B: Accounting for the Value of New and Free Goods (Forthcoming Article) - The welfare contributions of new goods and free goods are not well-measured in our current national accounts. We derive explicit terms for the contributions of these goods and ...

AEA members can read a preview of the article here www.aeaweb.org/articles?id=...

Opinion | AI’s Overlooked $97 Billion Contribution to the Economy The AI ‘dividend’ may not be evident yet in estimates of gross domestic product but it’s making life better and more productive.

Fantastic write-up in the WSJ of new research on AI, including a paper forthcoming in AEJ: Macro from a stellar cast of coauthors including our own Kevin J Fox

www.wsj.com/opinion/ais-...

this was such a cool paper, & we were so excited to be the first audience Paola presented it to. Look out for it (“The Trade-Distorting Effects of Brexit: A Firm-Level Analysis”) when it's up!

What a pleasure to host Paola Conconi (@oxfordecondept.bsky.social‬) presenting her brand new analysis finding that the complex rules of origin in the post-Brexit UK-EU free trade agreement distorted French firms' sourcing decisions and reduced French exports of final goods to the UK.

Last Thursday's Econ seminar featured Thibault Fally (@ucberkeleyofficial.bsky.social‬) talking to us about how to estimate consumer demand with cross-price effects.

more information here:

bsky.app/profile/unsw...

We don't hate to recommend it! There's still a few days to apply to us for your PhD www.unsw.edu.au/business/stu...

We study 4.7 mil tweets in 57 online public debates surrounding U.S. mass shooting events (2016-2022).

We:

1. Document when and how politicians intervene in debates;

2. Identify the polarizing effect of political interventions.

Once a fortnight in The Australian Financial Review my "Economics Explained" column does a deep dive on an important economic idea which isn't driven by the news cycle. Last week was on the "Marketplace for Ideas."

Competition would help keep kids safe in childcare Under the government’s vision of a single-payer system, we are headed for a very expensive failure to protect our children and provide choice for families.

We can and should strengthen regulation of childcare centers. I offer 4 ideas in my latest AFR column. But ultimately it is more supply, competition, and choice for families that is necessary for high-quality, affordable childcare. www.afr.com/policy/econo...

coogee beach with its turqoise blue waters

sydney harbour with the bridge at sunrise (i think)

7/7 You won't have to choose between a great lifestyle and a rewarding PhD. Here are some pictures of our neighbourhood, proving once and for all that the beach is an important part of the life of the mind. Join us in Sydney next year!

6/7 We have a vibrant seminar series with speakers from all over the world and regularly host national and international conferences. Most recently we had the Australasian Development Economics workshop with special guest and keynote @seema.bsky.social !

Home | Resilient Democracy Lab | UNSW Sydney The Resilient Democracy Lab at UNSW promotes and supports theoretical and empirical research on the robustness of democratic institutions. We study how economic, political, and cultural factors affect...

5/7 Some of our PhD students can access further research funding from our labs, hubs and centres, eg, Resilient Democracy Lab, which we think could hardly be more timely and important, featuring our fearless @grattonecon.bsky.social and many other incredible colleagues www.resilientdemocracylab.org

4/7 Our recent PhD graduates have taken postdoc and tenure-track positions at some of the best universities worldwide, including Bologna, ETH Zurich, Melbourne, Monash, NUS, Oxford, Toronto, Toulouse, and Sydney.

3/7 Some further publications highlights not yet on the website include forthcoming work from @economeager.bsky.social, @dmckenzie.bsky.social and @leoiacovone.bsky.social (World Bank) in Econometrica: www.econometricsociety.org/publications...

Selected publications | Economics - UNSW Sydney Discover selected publications from the School of Economics at UNSW Sydney

2/7 We are one of the top econ research departments in the southern emisphere (global top 40 according to QS rankings) and easily the coolest 😎

Our researchers regularly publish in Econ Top-5 journals across all fields of theoretical and applied econ👇

www.unsw.edu.au/business/our...