Andrew Leigh

The ANU Commonwealth Bank has a billboard outside, advertising ‘Student options is heaps good’. Should I be worried?

In today’s Oz, Philip Clarke and Nicholas Graves write about the ‘academenomics’ of forms. A snippet:

since the internet reduces the cost of collecting information to almost nothing, administrators often collect much more than they need, even if it imposes costs on others. This is what economists would term a negative externality associated with the production of forms.

What can be done to turn the bureaucratic tide?

One solution would be to create an internal market for the collection of information within universities. This would require those filling out forms to be paid a small fee to compensate them for the time taken. … those creating forms would need to equate the value of the information collected with its true cost, thereby reducing the incentive for ever more paperwork.

An alternative solution could be for academics at the receiving end of forms to respond with their own forms. They would do this by sending a stock reply to administrators acknowledging the importance of the form received but pleading limited time and seeking vital information.

In ten days’ time, my academic unit will cease to exist. The Economics Program at the Research School of Social Sciences (the original economics group at ANU) is merging with the School of Economics and the Centre for Applied Macroeconomic Research to create a new ANU ‘Research School of Economics’. The merger will make the RSE one of the largest (if not the largest) group of economists in Australia.

The move ought to be good for economics research and teaching, since the groups are neatly complementary. The School of Economics and CAMA have traditional strengths in theory and macro, while Economics RSSS has a reputation for applied micro. The groups will be co-located (Economics RSSS is moving into the Copland building in early-2010), and the casual coffee interactions that brings should hopefully lead to a spate of interesting new projects. We’re merging our seminar series, so we’ll have a micro seminar from 12-1 on Monday, a macro seminar from 12-1 on Wednesday, and a general seminar from 3.30-5 on Friday (all on the first floor of the Arndt building, and of course all open to the public).

Economics at ANU has had a reputation for being too fragmented. In decades gone by, when resources were flush, it was easy to justify this. In leaner times, it becomes harder. The other big merger that will affect ANU economics is that the Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies (RSPAS) is merging with the Crawford School (ANU’s policy school). So the five biggest groups of economists on campus are becoming two. These mergers will naturally have their teething problems (my colleagues at Melbourne who recently called off a merger between the Economics Faculty and the Melbourne Business School will know all about that!), but I reckon that in the medium-run, they’ll work out pretty well.

Of course, shifting economics out of the Research School of Social Sciences comes with some sadness. RSSS is a unique institution in Australia, and over the years I’ve really enjoyed sharing a building and a tearoom with a bunch of razor-sharp philosophers, political scientists, sociologists and historians. The interdisciplinary nature of RSSS is something that I’ve aspired to embody in my own work, and I’m sorry to be leaving it. Moreover, the legacy of economics in RSSS features names like Trevor Swan, Fred Gruen, Bob Gregory and Bruce Chapman, and I hope we won’t lose their ability to do work that is both rigorous and relevant. I’ve recently been re-reading Selwyn Cornish’s lovely paper on the appointment of ANU’s first economics professor, Trevor Swan (the search spanned 1948-50), and have been feeling a sense of pre-nostalgia for the funny old Coombs building. Our group is also losing Deborah Cobb-Clark, who is heading off to run the Melbourne Institute. She will do great things there, but we’ll miss her.

ANU’s new Research School of Economics will be run by Warwick McKibbin, who somehow manages to juggle a significant research agenda, a bevvy of PhD students, a Brookings affiliation, the RBA Board, a consulting business, media inquiries, and substantial university administration. His two deputies will be Martin Richardson (Deputy Director – Education), and yours truly as ‘Deputy Director – Research’. Here’s the ANU press release.

An exciting feature about the Research School of Economics is that the university has committed new resources for hiring research-intensive academics at all levels. The ad should be out shortly, but in the meantime, any economists who are interested should feel free to touch base informally with Warwick, Martin, or myself. We’re also keen to attract visitors – both internationals and domestics. So if you’d like an office for a few weeks to finish off a project, or for several months for a sabbatical, please don’t hesitate to get in touch.

The first round of 200 Future Fellowships has been announced (full list here), for funding starting in 2009. One thing that struck me was the paucity of economists, with just two making the cut (congratulations to health economist Anthony Scott and Bayesian econometrician Gael Martin).* Here are the stats by discipline (more breakdowns here):

While the overall acceptance rate was 20.5%, the rate in economics was just 10%. The best theory I can come up with is that the FF salaries look differentially attractive depending on your discipline. For example, Step 3 researchers are expected to have 10-15 years’ research experience, be recognised internationally, and make outstanding contributions to research. Yet at $135k, the FF amount is below the bottom rung of professorial salaries at many universities. Thus the fellowships look most attractive to disciplines where promotion rates are slow, because outside options are poor (eg. philosophy, anthropology), and less attractive in disciplines where the promotion rates are more rapid (eg. accounting, finance).

Still, this theory doesn’t explain why medicine did so well… so perhaps I need some alternatives. Any suggestions?

xposted @ CoreEconomics

* In case you’re thinking sour grapes, I was ineligible to apply for the FFs, since you needed to have received a PhD between 1993 and 2003.

Departmental rankings are notoriously volatile. Still, I can’t resist noting that according to the March 2009 rankings in RePEc (Research Papers in Economics), my group – the economics program in the Research School of Social Sciences at ANU – is currently the top economics program in Australia.

My academic home, the Research School of Social Sciences, is offering some new PhD stipend scholarships. Details over the fold.

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My group – the Research School of Social Sciences at ANU – has a handful of PhD scholarships on offer. Details below.

The Research School of Social Science has a number of PhD scholarships available which must be taken up by the end of August 2008. The scholarships are available to Australian citizens, Australian permanent residents and New Zealand citizens. The value of the stipend is $20,00 per annum for 3 years, subject to satisfactory progress.

Scholarships are offered in the areas: -

Economics
History
Political Science
Philosophy
Sociology

Interested economics applicants should contact Alison Booth. For the other four disciplines, applicants should send a CV and a two page outline of their research to Professor David Marsh, Director, RSSS, CASS

My economics group (the Economics Program in the Research School of Social Sciences at the ANU) has a story up on the website this week, on the share of professors who are women. The good news is that the answer is 3/7 (43%), which is higher than any other economics group in Australia. The bad news is that even the most feminised economics group in the country has more men than women.

(Note: I don’t have a stable URL for this, so the story will probably be gone by early-May.)

I just finished putting together my 2007 publications for our departmental administrator (as part of DEST’s grand cataloguing process, all universities report publications annually). I predicted in March that I’d get 6-7 published articles in 2007. In the end, I managed 8, plus 2 book chapters, a handful of non-reviewed articles (mostly in the Melbourne Review), and a bunch of opeds. But some of the articles were in better journals than my 2005 and 2006 publications (eg. Economic Journal, Journal of Health Economics, B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy-Contributions), so I’m pleased enough with the year. Nonetheless, I’d rather like to make it into double-figures in 2008…

My group (Economics RSSS) have just completed a hiring round, in which we’ve picked up four terrific senior academics: Xin Meng, Bob Breunig, Tim Hatton, and 60% of Richard Cornes. As it turns out, all are moving to us from another part of the Australian National University, so expect more hiring to take place in ANU economics over the next year.

And speaking of ANU economics, the ANU Economics Showcase is on Wednesday and Thursday of this week. If you’re in the Canberra area, admission is free and open to the public.

A friend of mine who lives in Sydney is looking to do postgraduate studies in economics. Does anyone have advice for him? Here’s his dilemma.

I was hoping that you may be able to give me some advice on options for part-time post graduate study (or point me to someone else who would be good to talk to). I am keen to do a postgrad coursework masters w/ some basic economics and public policy. However most of the eco masters I have looked at require econometrics as a prerequisite (which I don’t have, having completed a humble credit average arts/industrial relations degree), and conversely the public policy masters at most institutions I have looked at don’t have much economics (apart from international development economics). The only exception is the masters that your faculty offers, which while it looks good, isn’t accessible for Sydney-siders.

My college at ANU has started a thing called “Controversy Corner”. The first contribution made some rather unflattering comments about the Research School of Social Sciences, in which I’m located. I’m rather proud of RSSS, so it seemed a good chance to write a few paragraphs on what makes it such a terrific place. My spiel is over the fold.

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I just received a copy of the report from the Australian Davos Connection’s 2007 Future Summit. As well as serious-looking photos of prominent Australian bloggers, it contained a neat quote from an Australian expatriate - Harvard Business School Professor Jonathan West.

When you enrol at Harvard College as an undergraduate… the advice you get is twofold – do something that’s (a) completely useless, and (b) very difficult. I feel that in Australia we give students the opposite advice – find the easiest thing you can do that is the most useful in terms of your job prospects.

The National Institute of Labour Studies at Flinders University is looking for an associate or full professor. I’ve pasted the ad over the fold.

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Matthew Taylor, one of our entrepreneurial research assistants, has set up scholarships for ANU economics honours students to write policy-relevant theses. In an interview with the ANU magazine, he describes the genesis of the idea:

“I received a scholarship from the Ronald Henderson Research Foundation, and one of the requirements was that the research project be conducted within a community organisation,” said Mr Taylor, who will take up a position in the research unit of DEWR this month.

“It was really my first opportunity to apply the theory I’d learned as an undergrad to a policy issue, and all that textbook stuff suddenly took on some relevance. It showed an area of economics I wasn’t really exposed to when I was studying.”

The scholarships will target high-achieving students who wish to focus on an applied research opportunity, rather than a more theoretical project.

“Being an economist, of course I think the best way to encourage people into this area is to provide an incentive,” Mr Taylor said.

The RSSS scholarship will be named the R. G. Gregory Scholarship for ANU labour economist Professor Emeritus Bob Gregory. The other scholarship will be named the DEWR Labour Economics Scholarship.

My father – a political science professor at Melbourne University – has spent most of the past two years working on an AusAID-funded project to set up a research and training institute in Aceh (we lived there in the late-1970s). There’s now an opportunity for ANU faculty and PhD student to work up there. Details here.

For anyone starting university, I can highly recommend reading this comments thread, with Marginal Revolution readers answering Tyler Cowen’s question: Your kid is going away to college for the first time. What advice do you offer her?

The Department of Economics at Monash University is hiring two junior faculty, with preference given to people who do macro, international economics or experimental economics. Full job ad over the fold.

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I’ve been thinking a bit about sociology lately, partly because I’ve always thought it’s a fascinating discipline (Tally’s Corner, Rituals of Blood and No Shame in My Game are three of my favourite non-fiction books ever), and partly prompted by Mark Bahnisch’s revelation that QUT plans to stop teaching it, on the basis that they think sociology is one of the ‘old humanities’.

So I got to wondering about something. Is there a consensus as to who are the best sociologists in Australia? When it comes to economists, we have a pretty high level of agreement over what constitutes high-quality output, and so can readily put together ranking tables (eg. this one). But who would Australian sociologists typically name as the stars in the field?

The Woodrow Wilson Center is offering a $5000/month stipend to host Australian scholars for 2-4 months in their Washington DC offices. Here’s who they’re looking for:

This competition is open to men and women currently residing in Australia, or of Australian citizenship. Applications will be accepted from individuals in academia, business, journalism, government, law, and related professions. Candidates must be currently pursuing research on key public policy issues facing Australia, including U.S.-Australian relations and East Asian political, security, and economic issues.

Applicants must have the terminal degree in their field (for academics, this generally means a Ph.D., but other professions have different terminal degrees), and at least eight years of professional or research experience. Preferences will be given to applicants who have published scholarly books or substantial articles in academic or policy-related journals or newspapers.

More details on their website. [HT: Dan Andrews]

Andrew Norton and Paul Frijters have offered contrasting views on the radical reforms to Melbourne University being spearheaded by its Vice-Chancellor, Glyn Davis. Like Andrew, I’m optimistic that the Melbourne Model will succeed, but I think it’s more important to recognise that Australian universities don’t exactly suffer from an excess of innovation. As Andrew points out, “One thing to note is that this is a rare case of a public university introducing major reforms without being forced to do so by external circumstances”. Across Australia’s 40 or so universities, homogeneity has been the order of the day. So here’s hoping that this particular experiment pays off. One reason for optimism is the bloke who’s running it. Glyn Davis has a rare mix of a brilliant mind and superb interpersonal skills. As someone who’s worked with him once remarked to me “if Glyn decided to run a spanner company, I’d be tempted to quit my job and work for him”.

On March 28, ANU will give an honorary doctorate to former Singaporean PM Lee Kuan Yew. I have rather mixed feelings about this. True, he presided over significant growth from 1959-90 (Singapore is now richer than New Zealand). But his regime was a pretty autocratic one, described by the Polity democracy-raters in the following terms:

Political Participation: Restricted Competition (2)
There are more than 20 registered parties in Singapore but they are all overshadowed by the PAP. With the exception of a brief period of competitive politics between 1963 and 1965, the political landscape has been characterized by PAP hegemony. In addition to the marginalization of opposition political parties in Singapore, public dissent against PAP dominance has been minimal. The weakness of civil society combined with PAP control of the media and intimidation of opposition viewpoints has produced a classic illiberal democracy. Opposition parities and interest groups are tolerated so long as they do not threaten the position and role of the ruling regime. The PPP Government has long used the country’s liable laws to economically punish those individuals who dare to speak out against the county’s political leadership. While Prime Minister Goh initially promised a greater degree of pluralism than permitted by his predecessor, very little has changed in the past decade. Just as under Lee, Goh tolerates opposition so long as it is constructive and non-combative. In early 2001 the first opposition rally outside an election period was held in Singapore for the first time in the country’s history. Over 2,000 people turned out to raise funds for veteran opposition leader JB Jeyaretnam. Mr. Jeyaretnam was facing bankruptcy which, if declared, would automatically lead to him losing his seat in the National Assembly.

Lee Kuan Yew also abolished trial by jury, and incarcerated one opposition MP for 32 years. Singapore certainly isn’t as bad as China on the democracy front, but I hope the ceremony doesn’t gloss over his political record when talking about the many good things he’s done for his country’s standard of living.

Update, 22/3: More from Tim at Road to Surfdom, Andrew Walker at New Mandala, and today’s Canberra Times.