Economics Discipline, University of Western Australia

Economics has been taught at UWA since the University’s inception in 1913. It was originally part of the Faculty of Arts and the Founding Professor of Economics and History was Edward Shann. In 1954 Economics became the Faculty of Economics and in 1961 it became part the Faculty of Economics and Commerce. In 2007 the Faculty of Economics and Commerce and UWA’s Graduate School of Management merged to form the UWA Business School of which Economics is a part of. The Economics Discipline offers a number of programs including the Bachelor degree, Honours, the Master of Economics, the Graduate Diploma in Economics and the PhD.

Currently, the Economics Discipline employs a vibrant group of around 23 academics from across the world. Our academics have been trained at many prominent international universities including Harvard University, the University of Chicago, London School of Economics and Political Sciences, Simon Fraser University, Brown University, Penn State University, the University of Western Ontario, Michigan State University, University of Memphis, the University of Nottingham and the National University of Singapore as well as many highly regarded Australian institutions including the University of Western Australia, the University of Tasmania, the University of Adelaide, La Trobe University, Curtin University and Monash University.

The research interests of our staff include applied and theoretical microeconomics and macroeconomics, international finance, monetary economics, energy economics, international trade, theoretical econometrics, financial economics, history of economic thought, development economics, health economics, labour economics, wage determination, commodity markets, quantitative easing, governance, economics of education, decision theory, hypothesis testing, public economics and the economics of happiness. Our research has been published in prestigious journals including Journal of Political Economy, Econometrica, Journal of Human Resources, Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, European Economic Review, International Economic Review, the World Economy, Journal of Banking and Finance, Cambridge Journal of Economics, Health Economics, World Development, Economic Record, Applied Economic Letters and the Journal of Development Economics. We have also published books with leading publishing companies including Cambridge University Press, Routledge and Palgrave MacMillan. A number of our staff hold grants and research fellowships with the Australian Research Council and AusAID.

Many of the Discipline’s graduating Alumni have forged successful careers in the public, private and not-for-profit sectors such as the Reserve Bank of Australia, the Federal and State Treasury, the Productivity Commission, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, Merrill Lynch, Citibank, Ernst and Young, Deloitte Australia, Price Waterhouse Coopers Australia, BHP Billiton, Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade and KPMG. Our recent graduates have gone on to post-graduate studies at Princeton University, Harvard University and New York University.

Some of our most notable graduates include:
• Robert ‘Bob’ Hawke: Prime Minister of Australia from 1983 to 1991.
• Professor Dr Boediono: Vice-President of the Republic of Indonesia from 2009 to 2014.
• Colin Barnett: Current Premier of Western Australia.
• Geoff Gallop: Former Premier of Western Australia.
• Maxwell Newton: Founding editor of the Australian Newspaper and the Financial Editor for the New York Post Newspaper.
• H.C. ‘Nugget’ Coombs: First Governor to the Reserve Bank of Australia.
• Austin Holmes: A leading central banker at the Reserve Bank of Australia in the in the 1970s who spearheaded the floating of the Australian dollar and market determined interest rates.
• John Nevile: President of the Economics Society of Australia from 1980 to 1984 and distinguished academic at the University of New South Wales since 1965.
• Keith Frearson: an influential academic at the University of Melbourne and Monash University from the 1950s to 1980s.
• Reginald Appleyard: former Professor of Economic History at the University of Western Australia.
• Tracey Horton: Inaugural Dean of the UWA Business School from 2005 to 2011.
• John Stone: Secretary to the Federal Treasury from 1979 to 1984.
• Sir Arthur Tange: Reformed the organisation of the administration of the Australian Department of Defence in the 1970s and laid the foundations of the modern Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT).
• Timothy Lefroy: Winner of the 2014 Western Australian of the Year Awards for the category of Youth.

Over the past 35 years, the Economics Discipline has had over 475 honours students. These students have completed dissertations on a wide range of economic topics. Some students have gone on to publish their honours research into leading journals such as The Economic Record, World Consumption Economics, Applied Economics, Australian Economic Review, Australian Journal of Labour Economics, European Economic Review, Economic Letters, International Journal of Economics and Finance, Applied Economic Letters, and the Bulletin of Money, Banking and Finance.