Summer Research Scholarship
The UQ Summer Research Scholarship Program offers scholarships to students wishing to undertake a research internship over the summer vacation period.
Research internships provide students with the opportunity to work with a researcher in a formal research environment so that they may experience the research process and discover what research is being undertaken in their field of interest at UQ.
Some students may qualify to receive a scholarship for the duration of their internship.
View scholarship guidelines and how to apply
We do not require you to obtain tentative supervisor approval prior to submitting your application.
Empirical Security-Bid Auctions
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Project duration
10 weeks for 1 student
Expected project commencement: 15 November 2022
Description
Every year, hundreds of public and private organisations around the world sell the rights to control projects (assets) that are worth millions of dollars. For instance, governments allocate the rights to exploit natural resources (e.g., oil, gas, and timber), construct and operate public infrastructure (e.g., ports or highways), and use their national electromagnetic spectrum. Likewise, corporations sell the rights to control companies via take-over operations, and entrepreneurs compete for resources from venture capital firms. In all these examples, sellers can use either standard cash auctions, or auctions in which the payment received is conditioned on the revenue generated by the project once it is implemented. Contingent payments are viable whenever the project to be allocated generates verifiable cash flows over which is possible to contract. When this is the case, sellers can use financial instruments (securities), other than cash, to secure the payment from winning bidders.
Expected outcomes and deliverables
In this project, it is expected that the student gets involved in the collection of data for oil-lease in the US, Australia, and Europe. The aim is to construct a data base that permits to test empirically the incentives of bidding firms to join auctions when securities are utilised. Once the collection of the data is done, it is expected that the student conducts empirical analyses using reduced-form and structural estimation techniques.
Suitable for:
The project is suitable for a student with a background in economics, finance, applied mathematics, or computer science. Preferably (but not necessary), students who have taken intermediate microeconomics as undergraduates The successful candidate must be proficient with Matlab. Ideally, the candidate has also knowledge of R and Python.
Primary supervisor
Determinants of plan choice and responsiveness of consumers to time-varying electricity prices
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Project duration
10 weeks during Summer vacation, 36 hours per week
Remote work feasible
Description
This project will investigate the determinants of retail electricity plan choice and consumption responses to plan choice using electricity meter data from a randomised control trial in the United States, combined with individual survey data on individual preferences and expectations.
Expected outcomes and deliverables
Applicants will gain experience in cleaning data, economic preference measurement, online survey platforms and estimating econometrics models in Stata.
Suitable for:
Students with a background in economics or related data-analysis field, and successful completion of some courses on data analysis and hypothesis testing (e.g. econometrics) is necessary. Experience with the collection and preparation of datasets and use of Stata or R is desirable.
Primary supervisor
Contacting before application is not necessary but for further information contact a.lanauze@uq.edu.au.
The Economics of Regenerative Tourism after COVID 19
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Project duration
10 weeks during Summer vacation, 35 hours per week
Applicant will be required on-site for project but also possible to do work remotely for some tasks.
Description
The project explores how various stakeholders in the tourism sector have coped with COVID 19. This relates to their understanding how COVID has changed tourism perspectives related to sustainable tourism objectives such as safeguarding the natural resources and keeping the environment clean.
There is no need for any prior knowledge on any of the above aspects as you will be closely guided.
Expected outcomes and deliverables
Students will learn how to do a critical literature review and some data analysis based on surveys.
Suitable for:
Any economics student who has done some econometrics.
Primary supervisor
Associate Professor Renuka Mahadevan
Do not make contact with the supervisor to learn more about the project. If you are interested just submit an application.
High-stakes poker hands data collection
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Project duration
10 weeks during Summer vacation, 30 hours per week
Remote or on-site working arrangement allowed.
Description
The game of poker is an ideal setting to study human decision-making, as it involves many similarities to economic choices, such as risks, expected payoffs, and game theory. Just like in the stock market, decisions are made in high-stakes, incentivised environments with real consequences. In addition, there are several elements of behavioural economics related to poker, such as the exploitation or overcoming of psychological biases in making optimal decisions. However, because no public dataset of live poker hands exists, there have been no economics studies on poker players conducted to date.
The main objective of this project is to put together such a dataset, using video footage from TV series of high-stakes poker. The dataset will include variables categorised from poker, such as aggressiveness and risk-taking. The student will be involved in determining which poker sources to use for the data collection, which variables to include (and how to define them), and how to arrange and store each poker hand into the dataset so that it is suitable for statistical analysis. Following this planning, the student’s main task will be to record data from viewing the poker videos.
Expected outcomes and deliverables
The main skills expected from this project are the planning and execution of efficient data collection in preparation for empirical economics research. The student will learn how to best arrange, clean, summarise and store empirical data. Prior to the data collection, a brief literature search and review of existing poker data will be conduction. Following the original data collection, the student and supervisor may develop a pre-analysis plan, together with hypotheses, for analysing the data, and, conditional on time, may begin the main analysis.
Suitable for:
This project is open to students from any background (economics is not a requirement). However, given the nature of the main tasks, it would be especially suitable for students with knowledge of poker and who enjoy watching televised poker. Past experience with primary data collection and/or dataset management is desirable. Knowledge of statistics is desirable, but not essential.
Primary supervisor
If you want further informaiton about this project prior to submitting an application, please contact Dr Smerdon on d.smerdon@uq.edu.au.
Experimenting with Dynamic Auctions
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Project duration
10 weeks during Summer vacation, 20 hours per week
Description
The purpose of this study is to better understand various types of auctions and how people behave in them. The approach will be experimental, and will compare auctions such as first- and second-price sealed-bid auctions, English auctions, and Dutch auctions. The focus of the project over the summer is to complete the coding portion of the experiment, but the student may be expected to do some literature review relating to auction experiments. The project will involve consistent meetings with Dr Breig (and potentially other collaborators).
Expected outcomes and deliverables
It is expected that by the end of summer the student will have produced working experimental code. The student will learn how to code auction experiments in oTree (which is based on Python and HTML).
Suitable for:
This project is ideal for students who have experience both with economics and some coding. Experience with Python and a desire to pursue honours in economics are both preferred, but not required.
Primary supervisor
The impact of monetary policy on inequality in Australia
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Project duration
6-10 weeks during Summer vacation.
The successful applicant is expected to spend 20-36hrs per week on this project. This work can be done either on campus or remotely.
Description
The Reserve Bank of Australia has recently engaged in a succession of interest rate increases which have taken the cash rate from 0.1 percent in April to 1.35 percent in July. These rate hikes are expected to curb inflation and prevent the Australian economy from entering a stagflationary episode as in the 1970’s.
At the same time, a growing body of research has revealed that monetary policy may have unequal economic effects on household income and household earnings. Specifically, contractionary monetary policy has been found to have a larger negative effect on low-income households relative to those at the top of the distribution. The objective of this summer research projects is to determine whether this result also holds for the Australian economy.
The suggested methodological approach is a Structural VAR model in which the monetary policy shock can be identified using sign restrictions. For more details, the applicant can consult the following research paper, will serve as a key reference paper for the project:
Mumtaz, H., & Theophilopoulou, A. (2017). The impact of monetary policy on inequality in the UK. An empirical analysis. European Economic Review, 98, 410-423.
Expected outcomes and deliverables
The successful candidate can expect to enhance their understanding of how monetary policy affects the economy. They will develop their general research abilities, including data collection and analysis, reading and interpreting academic literature, and applying econometric techniques. Additionally, they might publish their findings in an international academic journal.
It is expected that the successful candidate produces a final paper that addresses the research question. They are also expected to be available for weekly meetings (either in person or online) to discuss their progress and present their work after the project's conclusion. Ideally, the project will also be submitted to an international academic journal.
Suitable for:
This project is suitable for applicants with a foundational knowledge of macroeconomics (e.g. ECON1020) and econometrics/statistics (e.g. ECON2300). Knowledge of time series econometrics/statistics (e.g. ECON3350 or ECON6380) and programming skills in one of the following languages MATLAB/Python/Julia/R/EViews will be beneficial but is not essential. Undergraduate students looking to apply for an honours or masters program in economics who are interested in applied macroeconomics/macroeconometrics are especially encouraged to apply.
Primary supervisor
Dr Jamie Cross. For more information, please feel free to make contact via email: jamie.cross@uq.edu.au.