Possible postgraduate projects 2013-14
We have expertise in Agribusiness, Bio-economic Modelling, Environmental Economics, Non Market
Valuation, Wine Economics and much more. The projects below are ordered by:






Environmental Economics and Natural Resource Management
Economics of Non-Renewable Resources and Energy
Food Systems and Agribusiness
Agricultural Economics and Policies
Non Market Valuation
Other topics
Some projects with external organisations have scholarships or extra research funding available. Please
contact the associated supervisor for more information.
Environmental Economics and Natural Resource Management
Supervisor
Topic
Level
W/Prof David
Pannell
The economics of biodiversity conservation
Honours,
PhD
(with the
Centre of
Excellence for
Environmental
Decisions)
Dr. Fiona
Gibson and
W/Prof David
Pannell
(with the
Centre of
Excellence for
Environmental
Decisions)
Ass/Prof
Steven
Schilizzi
The south-west of WA is an internationally recognised biodiversity hotspot. A
new research centre is focusing on improving decision making about how
biodiversity should be managed and protected. There are many potential
projects, including studies of the prioritisation of biodiversity projects, design
of effective policies, public attitudes and valuation of biodiversity, and
evaluation of projects, for example, for threatened species.
Economic analysis of strategies to reduce the impacts of bushfires: near
versus far
Honours,
PhD
Research on the Black Saturday fires in VIC found that reducing fuel loads
close to buildings was more effective in reducing fire damage, than largescale prescribed burning further away. However, fire management close to
buildings may be more expensive per hectare (e.g. due to the need for
greater care to prevent escapes), so there is a potential trade-off between the
two strategies. This project would build an economic model to weigh up the
benefits and costs of strategies implemented at different distances from
towns. It would draw on existing research conducted by the Bushfire CRC, and
involve consultation with their researchers.
The economics of aquaculture.
This project can either involve the development of a bio-economic model, or
an empirical analysis of the economics of aquaculture. Students can focus on
an aquaculture of their interest, be it in Australia or elsewhere. Multispecies
aquaculture could also be investigated. An honours project would build on
pre-existing work and use existing models (e.g. BRAVO model)
1
Honours,
Masters
School of Agricultural & Resource Economics
Possible student research projects 2013-2014
Ass/Prof
Steven
Schilizzi
Equity-efficiency tradeoffs in environmental policy.
Dr. Abbie
Rogers and
Prof Michael
Burton
Economics of marine biodiversity
(with NERP
Marine)
Asst/Prof
Marit Kragt
(with the
Centre of
Excellence for
Environmental
Deciscions)
Ass/Prof Ram
Pandit and Dr
Maksym
Polyakov
Management decisions about natural resource use, environmental policies,
funding of projects, prioritization of funding, etc. often focus on economic
efficiency objectives. Such a focus on “the biggest bang for the buck” often
conflicts with equity or fairness concerns. There are Masters of PhD projects
that could investigate equity concerns in different contexts, such as water
restrictions, biodiversity funding, or others, using survey and/or experimental
techniques.
Australia has a wealth of marine biodiversity, and a wealth of marine
biodiversity problems. A new research hub is investigating a wide variety of
these problems, including work on their economic aspects. Economic studies
are looking at valuing environmental impacts, prioritising investments, and
the design of effective policies. We welcome students for discussions about
the research options to identify a project that will be inspiring and useful.
Masters,
PhD
Honours,
Masters,
PhD
The use of modelling tools for NRM decision support
Honours,
Masters,
A lot of research time and money is spent on developing sophisticated
PhD
computer models to inform natural resource management (NRM) decisions.
But are such ‘decision support tools’ actually used by NRM policy makers?
This project will involve an analysis of the modelling tools that are used by
NRM decision makers at State and local level (based on information gained
through qualitative interviews).
Urban forestry
Trees in urban areas provide a wide range of benefits to residents, including
aesthetic beauty, wildlife habitat, air quality, shade, etc. Most of local councils
have developed and adopted tree management guidelines. But it is unclear
how costly it is to manage mature trees in public places (e.g. streets or parks).
Understanding how people value green space and public support towards
urban forestry programs could help local councils to design or implement
more efficient programs.
Potential projects within this topic include:





Western suburbs greening plan and residents’ attitude towards
maintaining trees in residential property
Public attitude towards urban trees and supporting urban forest
programs
Valuing shades of green in Perth Metropolitan Area
Tree management guidelines as public policy tools among city
councils in Perth
Valuing trees and green spaces in a regional town
2
Honours,
Masters
School of Agricultural & Resource Economics
Possible student research projects 2013-2014
Asst/Prof Ram
Pandit and Dr.
Maksym
Polyakov
Recent trend in plantation estate and forest products trade in WA
Ass/Prof Ram
Pandit and Dr
Maksym
Polyakov
Understanding the effect of environmental attributes on property value: a
real estate agent’s perspective
Dr. Morteza
Chalak
Optimal strategies for biodiversity conservation.
Dr. Morteza
Chalak
Management of invasive species.
Assoc/Prof
Atakelty Hailu
Recreation fisheries and marine resources management.
Honours
Forest plantations on farm lands provide environmental and economic
benefits to farmers and local communities. Some of the economic products
from plantations are pulp logs, woodchips, or swan lumber, for export
markets in China and Japan. This project will explore trends in plantation
estate and forest product trade in WA. You will use case studies, interviews,
and literature reviews to answer these questions.
Honours,
Masters
Property value depends on many factors including environmental attributes in
its vicinity. The value of these attributes can be inferred using hedonic pricing
method indirectly, but how these values are aligned with the way real estate
agents consider these attributes in their property valuation is unclear. This
project will investigate the key environmental attributes used in property
valuation by real estate agents and the magnitude of the influence of these
attributes on property value in the context of Perth Metropolitan area.
PhD
You will identify priority areas in Australia for two alternative biodiversity
conservation actions: buying land and renting land. Government can buy or
rent a land to enhance biodiversity and the question is which strategy is more
suitable for particular circumstances. The PhD thesis will show how to be
efficient in achieving conservation goals by clearly specifying our conservation
objective and parameterising the problem with economic data that reflects
this objective
This is a suitable topic for both PhD or Honour projects. The students can
choose what invasive species they would like to study – for example
controlling pest plants or animals. Standard frameworks are available to
address these issues efficiently.
In this project, you will use or develop a random utility model (RUM) of
recreational site choice, to evaluate how different management strategies
could affect fish stocks and economic welfare. By combining the research
with marine environmental models, one would be able to evaluate the impact
of strategies on ecological outcomes and how these affect recreational choice
and economic welfare. Such work would provide useful information on tradeoffs among multiple economic and environmental outcomes
3
Honours,
Masters,
PhD
Honours,
Masters,
PhD
School of Agricultural & Resource Economics
Dr. Morteza
Chalak
Possible student research projects 2013-2014
Optimal land-use change to increase water quality, quantity and PhD
biodiversity outcomes.
This research will investigate strategic land-use changes to attain future water
quality, quantity and biodiversity. Hydrologic data are available to show land
use change (e.g. reforestation) can affect water quality and quantity in
different parts of the catchment. Land use changes also affects biodiversity,
and have different costs depending on the land value and geographic
location. This project will assess the least cost land use change options that
can enhance water quality, quantity and biodiversity in the Warren
catchment in WA.
Economics of Non-Renewable Resources and Energy
Supervisor
Topic
Level
Dr Maksym
Polyakov and
Ass/Prof Ram
Pandit
A Hedonic Analysis of Wind Farm
Honours,
Masters
Asst/Prof
James Fogarty
Royalties for Regions: The buck stops where?
Asst/Prof
James Fogarty
Demand for landfill in Western Australia.
Prof Ben
White
The economics of the new Department of Mines and Petroleum Fidelity
Fund.
Wind power is one of the fastest growing renewable sources for electricity
generation. While it has a number of advantages over fossil fuels energy
sources, there remain significant obstacles to the large-scale development of
wind power generation facilities, including resistance of local residents. This
project will investigate whether development of wind farm in Waubra, VIC
impacted local residents resulting in loss of property values.
The Royalties for Regions funding program represents a radical change in
government funding in Western Australia. This project will review the nature
and results of the program.
The land fill levy was recently raised substantially. In theory, this should have
encouraged greater recycling of material so that it does not end up in land fill.
This project will investigate the effectiveness of current State government
policy regarding land fill charges and support for recycling.
DMP is planning to introduce an environmental charge on mines to cover
rehabilitation costs. This will replace bonds, but it is unclear how it will affect
different sectors. Project relates to level of charges and their incentive effect.
Ass/Prof
Steven
Schilizzi
Using economic experiments for studying resource use or environmental
policies.
A study focused on using economic lab and/or field experiments to investigate
problems of natural resource use, allocations, restrictions, or pricing, as well
as the impacts on the efficiency of resource use or conservation of different
equity principles. An Honours project can be devised by building on previous
work.
4
Honours,
Masters
Honours,
Masters
Honours,
Masters,
PhD
Masters,
PhD
School of Agricultural & Resource Economics
Possible student research projects 2013-2014
Ass/Prof
Steven
Schilizzi
Understanding human behaviour with respect to energy use and
conservation.
Ass/Prof
Steven
Schilizzi
Economics of renewable energies.
Asst/Prof
Chunbo Ma
and Prof
Michael
Burton
Should We Have More Underground Power Lines?
Asst/Prof
Chunbo Ma
and Asst/Prof
James Fogarty
Modeling Petro Prices in Perth.
Asst/Prof
Chunbo Ma
and Prof
Michael
Burton
Show and Yell: the Conspicuous Conservation for Solar Panels.
Asst/Prof
Chunbo Ma
and Asst/Prof
Ram Pandit
Solar Home Price Premium in the Australian Market
This refers to survey-based and/or simple economic experiments investigating,
for a given level (household, local, national or international) such issues as:
how do preferences vary, across people and situations, for different energy
uses, for different energy sources, for different pricing or subsidy/tax systems,
for different conservation objectives, etc
This can be a survey-based or modelling based study regarding any of the
economic viability of, or policies on, renewable energy sources. Students could
investigate the effect of taxes, buyback rates, cost-sharing and subsidies. In
particular, comparisons between renewable and non-renewable options can
be examined.
Honours,
Masters,
PhD
Honours,
Masters
Honours
In 2012, a mini-tornado and violent storms hit Perth, which left many homes
without electricity. Underground power lines have been proposed to improve
the reliability of current power systems and cope with extreme weather
events. Some people also prefer underground lines for aesthetic reasons.
However, the costs of building underground lines are much higher, and the
duration of an average outage is longer due to longer repair time. The project
examines consumer preferences for different power systems.
Honours
Since 2001, retail petrol prices are set 24 hours in advance and remain fixed
for that period. Lowest prices at service stations by area and postcode are
publicly available on the internet through fuelwatch.com.au. There is now a
very rich data set available of daily petrol prices, by petrol station, for all of
WA. This project involves an econometric analysis of retail petrol prices (they
may exhibit cycling behavior, spatial competition, brand differentiation, etc)
combined with GIS modelling.
Honours
People sometimes go out of their way to show their engagement in “green”
activities. Consumers may buy an expensive Toyota Prius, just to signal their
type as environmentally friendly. While there are studies looking at the “Prius
Effect”; little work has been done for solar panels. Homeowners sometimes
install solar panels on the shaded sides of their house, just to ensure that their
costly investments are visible from the street. This project aims to investigate
this using surveys and econometric analysis.
The residential solar home market continues to grow, but there is little
information about how much more value solar panels add to your property
(the market capitalization effect). A recent study found that solar panels are
capitalized at roughly a 3.5% premium in the California market. It would be
interesting to see how solar panels are capitalized in Australia. This project will
use hedonic pricing to find out.
5
Honours
School of Agricultural & Resource Economics
Possible student research projects 2013-2014
Asst/Prof
Chunbo Ma
and Prof
Michael
Burton
Leafy Trees or Consistent Power Supply?
Asst/Prof
Chunbo Ma
Efficiency/Productivity Analysis.
Asst/Prof
James Fogarty
and Prof Ben
White
Economics of water-sensitive cities.
(with the CRC
Water
Sensitive
Cities)
Honours
If trees are regularly pruned, then there would be less risk of trees knocking
down power lines under extreme weather conditions. More frequent pruning
may reduce the risk but would mean a higher council rate and less leafy
suburbs. The project will look at the costs of tree pruning, its impact on power
supply risks, and the trade-offs with local aesthetics. This project could be
jointly performed with the Project “Underground Power Lines vs. Overhead
Power Lines” using non-market valuation.
Honours
The project will examine the performance of power plants or any other
industries where data is available.
PhD
Many new "water-sensitive" systems are being used or explored in Australian (possibly
cities. These include new technologies for water recycling, use of wetlands for Honours)
filtering waste water, use of rainwater tanks, etc. Some of these practices
have other spin-off benefits for urban liveability (e.g. wetlands provide
aesthetic benefits). There are different projects possible around the
economics of water-sensitive cities, including cost-benefit analyses of watersensitive practices, and non-market valuation of the intangible benefits they
generate.
Food Systems and Agribusiness
Supervisor
Topic
Level
Assoc/Prof
Atakelty Hailu
Productivity and efficiency analysis.
Asst/Prof
James Fogarty
Weather and Fine Wine: Cabernet Sauvignon for the Yarra Valley and
Margaret River.
Honours,
Masters,
This project will compare the performance of different decision units (firms, PhD
farms, etc.) across space and/or over time, to get information about the
impact of management and policies. The focus industry could be utilities (e.g.
water), agriculture, manufacturing or service industries. The analysis could be
at a local or aggregate level (State or National). You will use non-parametric
methods such as data envelopment analysis (DEA), stochastic frontier analysis
(SFA), or multi-output multi-input parametric methods such as radial (input or
output) and directional distance functions. Environmental effects can also be
incorporated in this analysis.
Honours
This project seeks to explain observed wine quality through analysis of
weather variables during the grape growing season.
Asst/Prof
James Fogarty
The Demand for Meat: a meta-analysis approach.
The consumer response to price changes in the market for meat has been
studied extensively. This project involves discussing the existing literature, and
then undertaking a quantitative analysis of the existing literature.
6
Honours,
Masters
School of Agricultural & Resource Economics
Possible student research projects 2013-2014
Asst/Prof
James Fogarty
Growers Markets: What do they sell, and who benefits?
Asst/Prof
James Fogarty
Alcohol taxation.
Asst/Prof
James Fogarty
Understanding the Alcohol market.
Asst/Prof
James Fogarty
Wine quality and price: a quantitative survey of the literature.
Prof Ross
Kingwell
An economic assessment of the Harrington Seed Destructor.
(with
DAFFWA)
Asst/Prof
Marit Kragt
(with CSIRO’s
Roger Lawes)
Honours
This project will document the history of growers markets in metropolitan
Western Australia; detail the produce is sold and the price of produce relative
to other outlets; and investigate consumer motivations.
This project will explore the implications of different approaches to taxing
alcoholic beverages. A particular focus will be trying to balance the benefits of
a tax in terms of lower externality costs against the welfare losses taxes
impose on non-abusive consumption.
Opinion is divided regarding the appropriate theoretical framework to use for
consumer research in the alcohol market. The project involves data collection
and analysis to test the predictions of different theories on the way the
alcohol market operates.
A number of papers have been published that investigate the price-quality
trade-off in the wine market. This project involves discussing the existing
literature, and then undertaking a quantitative analysis of the existing
literature.
The Harrington Seed Destructor (HSD) is a machine that takes the offload from
a grain harvester and mechanically injures weed seeds imbedded in this
harvested material, thereby making the seeds infertile. So the HSD is useful for
reducing weed problems, especially where weeds are resistant to key
herbicides. Your task, under guidance, is to assess the economic worth of the
HSD.
Farming – it’s not all risky business
Modern farming systems are inherently risky and farmers must often trade off
risk with reward. For example, the most profitable crop sequences may also
require the most inputs and generate substantial disease or weed problems.
Alternatively, the farmer can explore less risky crop sequences that control
weeds and diseases, but generate less profit.
Honours,
Masters
Honours,
Masters
Honours,
Masters
Honours,
Masters
Honours,
Masters
In this project you would use the Land Use Sequence Optimiser to explore risk
and uncertainty of different crop options for Western Australian farmers given
variable seasons and variable prices.
Asst/Prof
Marit Kragt
(with CSIRO’s
Roger Lawes)
Farmer’s adoption of new technologies
New farm technologies that use advanced software and integrated decision
support tools can deliver substantial gains to the farmer. Other farm decisions
(e.g. a new variety) may deliver relatively easy but small incremental gains.
This project will use a choice experiment survey to investigate what farmers
would be prepared to pay to get a small but almost guaranteed increase in
production, versus a technology that may assist with decision making but has
uncertain payoffs, versus a technology that could generate long term gains to
the industry but has high risks of failure.
7
Honours,
Masters,
PhD
School of Agricultural & Resource Economics
Possible student research projects 2013-2014
Agricultural Economics and Policies
Supervisor
Asst/Prof
Marit Kragt
(with the
CSIRO)
Prof Ben
White
(with the CRC
Plant
Biodiversity)
Prof Ross
Kingwell
(with
DAFFWA)
Prof Ross
Kingwell
(with
DAFFWA)
Prof Ross
Kingwell
(with
DAFFWA)
Topic
Level
Meta-analysis of carbon sequestration in agriculture.
With the introduction of the Carbon Farming Initiative (CFI), rural landholders
can get paid for climate change mitigation. This study will involve a metaanalysis of the carbon storage potential of different farming activities (e.g.
forestry, native scrubs, biochar etc). Such work is important to enable an
evaluation of how effective different mitigation policies are. There is an
opportunity to use CSIRO’s APSIM model to generate your own data of carbon
sequestration potential for different agri-regions in Australia.
Honours,
Masters
Returns to cereal breeding for pest resistance.
Honours,
Masters,
Is pre-emptive cereal breeding (in anticipation of the arrival of Russian Wheat
PhD
aphid and the like) a good investment?
A flow-of-funds model for WA broadacre agriculture.
Honours
Drawing on a longitudinal and spatial set of farm data develop a flow-of-funds
model for WA broadacre farming. This model shows how monies flow to and
from farm businesses. Your task will be to construct, under guidance, the
model for different time periods to show financial and structural change in the
broadacre sector and to discuss the implications for farm management and
key stakeholders in WA agriculture.
The logistics and value of spatial diversification for broadacre farming.
Drawing on a longitudinal and spatial set of farm data develop farm business
models that explore how logistics advantages and disadvantages, when
combined with spatial diversification, can make farming more or less
financially attractive. Your task will be to construct, under guidance, various
models of financial diversification to show the advantages and disadvantages
of various types of spatial diversification. Is such ‘spreading your risk’
necessarily always useful?
Grain profitability maps for WA shires.
Each year as the Department of Agriculture and Food produces maps for WA
that rank shires’ grain yields to show how sound or poor a season is relative to
previous seasons. Your task will be to use historical cost and price data to
convert maps into profitability maps and show how price and cost effects can
lead to very different shire rankings than those suggested by yield
comparisons.
8
Honours,
Masters
Honours
School of Agricultural & Resource Economics
Possible student research projects 2013-2014
Asst/Prof
Amin Mugera
Adoption of variation management in the Northern agricultural region of
WA
(with the
Liebe
Growers
Group)
Variation management a strategy is the use of map based information and
input-control technologies to efficiently match agronomy with paddock
variability. This is one of two projects with a growers’ group, to measure the
adoption levels of farm practices around soil health and variation
management. Three years of survey data, 2009 to 2011, for 61 farms is
available for economic and statistical analysis. You will use binary logit
regression models to determine the impact of land area, proportion of crop
sown, rainfall and farming experience on adoption decisions.
Asst/Prof
Amin Mugera
Adoption of soil management strategies in the Northern agricultural region
of WA
(with the
Liebe
Growers
Group)
Soil management strategies are proactive management practices to address
deficiency in physical, chemical and biological properties of soil. This is one of
two projects with a growers’ group, to measure the adoption levels of farm
practices around soil health and variation management. Three years of survey
data, 2009 to 2011, for 61 farms is available for economic and statistical
analysis. You will use binary logit regression models to determine the impact
of land area, proportion of crop sown, rainfall and farming experience on
adoption decisions.
Assoc/Prof
Atakelty
Hailu
Agent-based modelling of land use policy effects.
Honours,
Masters
Honours,
Masters
PhD
In this project, you will combine whole-farm economic modelling and
hydrologic models (e.g. SWAT) to evaluate land use change policies in an
integrated way. This allows assessments of both economic and environmental
outcomes. You will need to collect data for a study catchment; calibrate
economic and hydrological models; and identify a set of regulatory and/or
incentive-based policy instruments for land use change. Policies evaluated
could be aiming at water quality, dryland salinity, carbon sequestration, etc.
Non Market Valuation
Supervisor
Dr Fiona
Gibson,
W/Prof David
Pannell, Prof
Michael
Burton and
Dr Trent
Penman
(with
University of
Wollongong)
Topic
Level
Preparing private property for wildfire – what are residents willing to pay?
Wildfires present a significant risk to people and property. While land
managers attempt to minimise the risk of fires reaching property, they cannot
remove this risk. Residents living in fire prone areas are encouraged to
prepare their property to reduce the risk of loss from wildfires. However this
comes at both a time and a financial cost.
The aim of this project is to determine the community’s willingness to pay to
prepare private property for wildfire. The student will need to determine the
costs of preparation, and will conduct a non-market valuation survey to
determine how much time and money residents are willing to spend annually
to prepare their house for wildfire. The case study can be conducted in either
metropolitan WA, or in NSW.
9
Honours
School of Agricultural & Resource Economics
Possible student research projects 2013-2014
Dr. Fiona
Gibson and
Dr. Abbie
Rogers
Turfed out: community preferences for using synthetic versus natural turf at
recreational facilities in WA
Asst/Prof
Marit Kragt
Environmental valuation of WA threatened species.
(with DEC)
Asst/Prof
Marit Kragt
and Prof
Michael
Burton
(with the
National
Trust)
Honours
Lush green turf all year round is an important requirement for many
community sporting activities. To decrease water usage, local Councils can use
synthetic turn on sporting fields and road verges. What are the economic
implications from replacing natural turf with synthetic turf? In this project you
will use non-market valuation to estimate the social costs and benefits of
switching to synthetic turf. These values will provide information to local
Councils on the viability of using synthetic turf.
The WA Department of Environment and Conservation is keen to get more
information about the intangible values that Western Australians place on
threatened species: Red-tailed Black Cockatoo; Western Ringtail Possum;
Southern Brown Bandicoot. They need this information to devise (for
example) the right amounts of biodiversity offsets in mining. This research will
involve a non-market valuation study and discrete choice surveys.
Are people prepared to pay to preserve heritage buildings?
People like living in suburbs with attractive buildings, but one of the most
contentious things a local council can do is put restrictions on how people can
modify their houses. This project will use non-market valuation techniques to
see how much people are prepared to pay to protect the architectural
heritage of Perth, and what types of heritage they are prepared to pay to
protect.
Honours,
Masters,
PhD
Honours,
Masters
Other
Supervisor
Topic
Level
Asst/Prof
James
Fogarty
The price of love: implicit prices for diamond attributes
Asst/Prof
Chunbo Ma
and Prof
Michael
Burton
Environmental Conservation in Hotels.
Honours
This project will discuss the market for diamonds, from production to retail
sale, and determine the factors that determine the final retail price of
diamonds.
More and more hotels use environmental programs that urge travellers to
reuse their towels. Different social norms can be used to motivate
conservation behavior in hotels. This project will look at: (1) how travellers’
behaviour varies in different levels of hotels (e.g. stars levels); (2) how
behaviour differs for trips with different purposes (e.g. business trip vs.
tourism trip); (3) how behaviour differs when the hotel asks travellers in
different ways (e.g. conserving energy vs. conserving environment).
10
Honours
School of Agricultural & Resource Economics
Prof Michael
Burton
Possible student research projects 2013-2014
Do normal people think about complex systems in the same way as
scientists?
Honours
This project would involve conducting a survey of students, and then
replicating it with FNAS academics, to test if previous published results that
investigate how people think about complex systems are robust.
Prof Michael
Burton
Happiness research for the environment.
Honours,
Masters,
There has been an explosion of research in what has become known as
PhD
‘happiness’ studies. This is centred around the idea that you can get useful
estimates of peoples wellbeing (utility/happiness) from direct questions. This
project would look at ways that this approach can be applied to the valuation
of the environment.
Asst/Prof
Marit Kragt
Interdisciplinary research by environmental economists
Assoc/Prof
Atakelty
Hailu
Auction design
Ass/Prof
Steven
Schilizzi
Understanding human behaviour with respect to climate change policies.
Honours
Inspired by a recent paper I read about interdisciplinary research, I thought
this could be a neat Honours topic. Interdisciplinary research is fundamental
to support useful applied economic research (like environmental economics).
This study would involve a survey of (publishing) environmental economists
into their interdisciplinary work and their views on how well interdisciplinary
efforts are rewarded within the academic system.
Honours,
Masters,
Auctions are now widely used in environmental management. This project will PhD
focus on the design of flexible auctions – such as multi-unit or combinatorial
auctions. The research aims to evaluate different pricing mechanisms and how
these would work for different levels of competition, bidder heterogeneity,
etc. You will use agent-based to simulate auction performance. The target
application could be water entitlements, conservation services or other assets.
Honours,
Masters,
This refers to survey-based and/or simple economic experiments investigating,
PhD
for a given level (local, national or international) such issues as: how do
preferences vary, across people and situations, for different allocation rules,
for different allocation processes, for different distributional outcomes, for
inter-temporal tradeoffs, etc.
11
School of Agricultural & Resource Economics
Asst/Prof
Ram Pandit
Possible student research projects 2013-2014
Environmental Economics projects in developing countries.
Several research projects are possible with a focus on South or East Asian
countries. You may need to visit selected country for field work. Example
topics include:
* Livelihood impacts of ‘Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Forest
Degradation’ mechanism in developing country context (either Indonesia or
Vietnam or Nepal)
* Economic feasibility of adopting 'carbon focused forest management within
community-based forest management in developing countries (either
Indonesia or Vietnam or Nepal)
* Payment for ecosystem services between up-stream and down-steam
communities in forested watersheds in Nepal
12
PhD