Schools and Centres Pages

Research programs

The research activities of the Centre are built around a series of Research Programs headed by a Program Director (or Directors). The Program Director will be responsible for organising research in a particular area. Proposals for new programs are welcome and will be considered by the Executive Committee. Proposals should be directed to the Centre Director.

ARC Discovery project - Australia’s Resilience to Recession

Led by Distinguished Professor Renee Fry-McKibbin, this project aims to study why Australia differs from its OECD peers in that it has not had a recession for 27 years.

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It intends to generate knowledge by using economic models to solve 3 puzzles relating to Australia’s success: (i) why did foreign financial market shocks not spill over to the economy?; (ii) how has the resource curse that affects economies with a booming resource sector been avoided?; and (iii) what makes Australia special? Expected outcomes include the development of theoretical and empirical models that reflect the unique features of the Australian economy. This should provide significant benefits, including guidance to Australian and international policymakers on macroeconomic policies for resource-rich countries. 

Distinguished Professor Renee Fry-McKibbin is one of the chief investigators of the ARC Discovery project, Macroeconomic and Financial Modelling in an Era of Extremes (led by University of Melbourne). This project aims to develop methods to allow workhorse models in economics and finance to better reflect tail events--low probability extreme events, such as the Global Financial Crisis and the COVID-19 pandemic. It intends to address fundamental technical challenges in the estimation of such models, develop a coherent framework for counterfactual analysis of these models and propose methods to apply these models in a big-data environment. Expected outcomes include new insights into the transmission of tail risks in the global economic and financial system. This should provide significant benefits, including guidance to Australian and international policymakers charged with maintaining stability in the face of extreme events. 

Global Excellence in Modelling Climate and Energy Policies

Distinguished Professor Warwick McKibbin participates in the GEOCEP project, which is supported by the European Commission and led by Charles University. The project Global Excellence in Modeling Climate and Energy Policies (GEOCEP) aims at developing innovative economic models to support the transition to a zero-carbon economy.