Environmental Economics and Natural Resource Management

1

Possible

postgraduate projects

201
3
-
14


We have expertise in Agribusiness, Bio
-
economic Modelling, Environmental Economics, Non

M
arket
Valuation, Wine Economics and much more.
T
he
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

(with the
Centre of
Excellence for
Environmental
Decisions)

The economics of biodiversity
conservation

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 stu
dies 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.

Honours,
PhD

Dr.
Fiona
Gibson

and
W/Prof
David
Pannell

(with the
Centre of
Excellence for
Environmental
Decisions)

Economic analysis of strategies to reduce the impacts of bushfires: near
versus far

Research on the Black Saturday fires in VIC found that reducing fuel loads
close to buildings
was more effective

in reducing

fire damage,
than

large
-
scale 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 t
heir researchers.

Honours,
PhD

Ass/Prof
Steven
Schilizzi

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 exi
sting models (e.g. BRAVO model)

Honours,
Masters

School of Agricultural & Resource
Economics


Possibl
e student research projects 2013
-
2014

2

Ass/Prof
Steven
Schilizzi

Equity
-
efficiency tradeoffs in environmental policy
.

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”

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Masters,
PhD

Dr.
Abbie
Rogers

and
Prof
Michael
Burton

(with NERP
Marine)

Economics of marine biodiversity

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 environment
al 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.

Honours,
Masters,
PhD

Asst/Prof
Marit Krag
t

(with the
Centre of
Excellence for
Environmental
Deciscions)

The use of modelling tools for NRM decision support

A lot of research time and money is spent on developing sophisticated
computer models to inform natural resource management (NRM) decisions.
B
ut are such ‘decision support tools’ actually used by NRM policy makers?
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Honours,
Masters,
PhD

Ass/Prof Ram
Pandit and Dr

Maksym
Polyakov

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 h
elp local
councils

to design or implement
more efficient programs.

Potential projects within this topic include:



Western suburbs greening plan and residents’ attitude towards
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

Public attitude towards urban trees a
nd supporting urban forest
programs



Valuin
g shades of green in Perth Metropolitan Area



Tree management guidelines as public policy tools among city
councils in Perth



Valuing
trees and
green space
s

in a regional town

Honours
,
Masters

School of Agricultural & Resource
Economics


Possibl
e student research projects 2013
-
2014

3

Asst/Prof
Ram
Pandit

and
Dr.
Maksym
Polyakov

Recent trend in plantation estate and forest products trade in WA

Forest
plantations
on

farm land
s

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 trend
s

in plantation
estate

and forest product trade in WA. You will use case studies, interviews,
and literature reviews
to answer these questions.

Honours

Ass/Prof Ram
Pandit and

Dr
Maksym
Polyakov

Understanding the effect of environmental attributes on property value: a
real estate agent’s perspective

Property value depends on many factors including environmental attributes in
its vicinity
.

The val
ue 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 environ
mental 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.

Honours,
Masters

Dr.

Morteza
Chalak

Optimal strategies for biodiversity
conservation.

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 f
or 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

PhD

Dr.
Morteza
Chala
k

Management of invasive species.

This is a suitable topic for both PhD or Honour projects. The students can
choose what invasive species they would like to study

–

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Honours,
Masters,
PhD

Assoc/Prof
Atakelty Hailu

Recreation f
isheries and marine resources management
.

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 choic
e
and economic welfare. Such work would provide useful information on trade
-
offs among multiple economic and environmental outcomes

Honours,
Masters,
PhD

School of Agricultural & Resource
Economics


Possibl
e student research projects 2013
-
2014

4

Dr. Morteza
Chalak

Optimal land
-
use change to increase water quality, quantity and
biodiversity outcomes.

This research will investigate

strategic land
-
use changes to attain future water
quality, quantity and biodiversity.
H
ydrologic data are available
to show

land
use chan
ge
(e.g. reforestation)
can affect water quality and quantity in
different parts of the catchment. Land use change
s

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
.

PhD



Economics of Non
-
Renewable Resources and Energy

Supervisor

Topic

Level

Dr Maksym
Polyakov

and
Ass/Prof Ram
Pandit

A Hedonic
Analysis of Wind

Farm

Wind power is

one of the
fastest growing

renewable
source
s
for electricity
generation
.

While
it has a number of
advantages
over
fossil fuel
s 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.

Honours,
Masters

Asst/Prof
James
Fogarty

Royalties for Regions: The buck stops where?

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.

Honours,
Masters

Asst/Prof
James Fogarty

Demand for landfill in Western Australia.

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 investig
ate the effectiveness of current State government
policy regarding land fill charges and support for recycling.

Honours,
Masters

Prof
Ben
White

The economics of the new Department of Mines and Petroleum Fidelity
Fund.

DMP is planning to introduce an envi
ronmental 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.

Honours,
Masters,
PhD

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
.

Masters,
PhD

School of Agricultural & Resource
Economics


Possibl
e student research projects 2013
-
2014

5

Ass/Prof
Steven
Schilizzi

Understanding human behaviour with respect to energy use and
conservation
.

Th
is 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 ener
gy sources, for different pricing or subsidy/tax systems,
for different conservation objectives, etc

Honours,
Masters,
PhD

Ass/Prof
Steven
Schilizzi

Economics of renewable energies.

This c
an 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

Asst/Prof
Chunbo Ma

and Prof
Michael
Burton

Should We Have More Underground Power Lines?

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
.
S
ome
people

also
prefer underground lines for aesthetic reasons.
However, the costs of
building underground lines
are

much higher
, and the

duration

of an average o
utage is longer due to longer repair time
. The project
examine
s

consumer preference
s

for
different
power systems.

Honours

Asst/Prof
Chunbo Ma

and Asst/Prof
James Fogarty

Modeling Petro Prices in Perth.

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

Asst/Prof
Chunbo Ma

and Prof
Michael
Burton

Show and Yell: the Conspicuous Conservation for Solar Panels.

People sometimes go out of their way to
show their engagement

in “green”
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Honours

Asst/Prof
Chunbo Ma

and Asst/Prof
Ram Pandit

Solar Home Price Premium in the Australian Market

T
he 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
interesti
ng to see how solar panels are capitalized in Australia.
This project will
use
hedonic pricing
to find out.

Honours

School of Agricultural & Resource
Economics


Possibl
e student research projects 2013
-
2014

6

Asst/Prof
Chunbo Ma

and Prof
Michael
Burton

Leafy Trees or Consistent Power Supply?

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, i
ts 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
-
ma牫整 v慬a慴aon.

Honours

Asst/Prof
Chunbo Ma

Efficiency/Produ
ctivity Analysis.

The project
will

examine
the
performance of power plants or any other
industries where data is available.


Honours

Asst/Prof
James Fogarty

and Prof
Ben
White

(with the CRC
Water
Sensitive
Cities)

Economics of water
-
sensitive cities.

Many

n
ew "water
-
sensitive" systems
are being used or explored
in
Australian
cities. These
include new technologies for water recycling, use of wetlands for
filtering waste water, use of rainwater tanks,
etc
. Some of these practices
have other spin
-
of
f 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

water
-
sensitive practices, and
non
-
market valuation of

the intangibl
e benefits they
generate.

PhD

(possibly
Honours)



Food Systems and Agribusiness

Supervisor

Topic

Level

Assoc/Prof
Atakelty Hailu

Productivity and efficiency analysis
.

This project will compare the performance of different decision units (firms,
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. Environ
mental effects can also be
incorporated in this analysis.

Honours,
Masters,
PhD

Asst/Prof
James Fogarty

Weather and Fine Wine: Cabernet Sauvignon for the Yarra Valley and
Margaret River.

This project seeks to explain observed wine quality through analysis

of
weather variables during the grape growing season.

Honours

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 discuss
ing the existing literature, and
then undertaking a quantitative analysis of the existing literature.

Honours,
Masters

School of Agricultural & Resource
Economics


Possibl
e student research projects 2013
-
2014

7

Asst/Prof
James Fogarty

Growers Markets: What do they sell, and who benefits?

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.

Honours

Asst/Prof
James Fogarty

Alcohol taxation.

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.

Honours,
Masters

Asst/Prof
James

Fogarty

Understanding the Alcohol market.

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 theorie
s on the way the
alcohol market operates.

Honours,
Masters

Asst/Prof
James Fogarty

Wine quality and price: a quantitative survey of the literature.

A number of papers have been published that investigate the price
-
quality
trade
-
off in the wine market. Th
is project involves discussing the existing
literature, and then undertaking a quantitative analysis of the existing
literature.

Honours,
Masters

Prof
Ross
Kingwell

(with
DAFFWA)

An economic assessment of the Harrington Seed Destructor.

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.

Honours,
Masters

Asst/Prof
Marit Kragt


(with CSIRO’s
Roger Lawes)

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 t
h
at control
weeds and diseases, but generate less profit.

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.

Hon
ours,
Masters

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
prod
uction,
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
.

Honours,
Masters,
PhD

School of Agricultural & Resource
Economics


Possibl
e student research projects 2013
-
2014

8


Agricultural Economics and Policies

Supervisor

Topic

Level

Asst/Prof
Marit Kragt

(with the
CSIRO)

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 meta
-
analysis of the carbon storage potential of different farming activities (e.g.
forestry, native scrub
s, 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

Prof
Ben
White

(with the CRC
Plant
Biodiversity)

Returns to cereal breeding for pest resistance.

Is pre
-
emptive cereal breeding (in anticipation of the arrival of Russian Wheat
aphid and the like) a good investment?

Honours,
Masters,
PhD

Prof
Ross
Kingwell

(with
DAFFWA)

A flow
-
of
-
funds model for WA broadacre agriculture.

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 f
arm 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.

Honours

Prof
Ross
Kingwell

(with
DAFFWA)

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?

Honours,
Masters

Prof
Ross
Kingwell

(with
DAFFWA)

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 differe
nt shire rankings than those suggested by yield
comparisons.

Honours

School of Agricultural & Resource
Economics


Possibl
e student research projects 2013
-
2014

9

Asst/Prof
Amin

Mugera

(with
the
Liebe
Growers
Group
)

Adoption of variation management in the Northern agricultural region of
WA

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,
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Honours,
Masters

Asst/Prof
Amin

Mugera

(with
the
Liebe
Growers
Group
)

Adoption of soil management strategies in the Northern agricultural region
of WA

Soil management strategies are proactive manage
ment practices to address
deficiency in physical, chemical and biological properties of soil.
This is one of
two projects with a growers’ group,
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Honours,
Masters

Assoc/Prof
Atakelty
Hailu

Agent
-
based modelling of land use policy effects
.

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.

PhD



Non Market Valuation

Supervisor

Topic

Level

Dr Fiona
Gibson,
W/Prof David
Pannell, Prof
Michael
Burton and
Dr Trent
Penman
(with
University of
Wollongong)

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
dete
rmine 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.

Honours

School of Agricultural & Resource
Economics


Possibl
e student research projects 2013
-
2014

10

Dr.
Fiona
Gibson

and
Dr.
Abbie
Rogers

Turfed out: community preference
s for using synthetic versus natural turf at
recreational facilities in W
A

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.
T
hese values
will
provide information to local
Councils on the viability of
using
synthetic turf.

Honours

Asst/Prof
Marit Kragt

(with DEC)

Environmental valuation of WA threatened species.

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 inform
ation 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.

Honours,
Masters,
PhD

Asst/Prof
Marit Kragt

and Prof
Mich
a
el
Burton

(with the
National
Trust)

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 proje
ct 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



Other

Supervisor

Topic

Level




Asst/Prof
James
Fogarty

The price of love: implicit prices for diamond attributes

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.

Honours

Asst/Prof
Chunbo Ma

and Prof
Michael
Burton

Environmental Conservation in Hotels.

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. Th
is 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 ask
s travellers in
different ways (e.g. conserving energy vs. conserving environment).

Honours

School of Agricultural & Resource
Economics


Possibl
e student research projects 2013
-
2014

11

Prof
Michael
Burton

Do normal people think about complex systems

in the same way as
scientists?

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.

Honours

Prof
Michael
Burton

Happiness
research for the environment.

There has been an explosion of research in what has become known as
‘happiness’ studies. This is centred around

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Honours,
Masters,
PhD

Asst/Prof
Marit Kragt

Interdisciplinary research by environmental economists

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

Assoc/Prof
Atakelty
Hailu

Auction design

Auctions are now widely used in environmental management. This project will
focus on the design of flexible auctions
–

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Honours,
Masters,
PhD

Ass/Prof
Steven
Schilizzi

Understanding human behaviour with respect to climate change policies
.

This refers to survey
-
based and/or simple economic experiments investigating,
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.

Honours,
Masters,
PhD

School of Agricultural & Resource
Economics


Possibl
e student research projects 2013
-
2014

12

Asst/Prof
Ram Pandit

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

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PhD