Winter Research Scholarship

Project title: 

Hours of engagement & delivery mode

30 hrs per week for 4 weeks (30 June – 25 July 2026).

The core of the project can be completed remotely. Meetings could be in-person or online.

Description:

The scholar will join an existing research project that studies the use of financial securities for the public financing of electoral campaigns. In many democracies, electoral authorities provide funding to political parties based on their electoral performance. This project develops a formal economic model to study such financing schemes. Political parties compete in an election by exerting costly campaign effort, and effort translates into votes according to a Tullock contest success function. The electoral authority commits to a vote-contingent transfer rule, which determines how public funds are allocated as a function of electoral performance.

The project analyzes how different types of securities—such as equity-like, debt-like, and option-like contracts written on vote shares—affect parties’ incentives to enter the election, exert effort, and compete. The research characterizes equilibrium behavior and studies the implications of alternative financing schemes for political participation, campaign effort, and fiscal cost.

This is a theoretical project grounded in microeconomic theory, political economy, and game theory. Depending on their preparation, the student may assist with literature review, formal derivations, numerical illustrations, and preparation of research notes

Expected learning outcomes and deliverables:

Expected learning outcomes include: 

• Understanding how political competition can be modeled using contest theory 
• Learning how tools from finance and contract theory can be applied to political economy 
• Developing skills in equilibrium analysis, optimization, and comparative statics 
• Understanding how economic theory can inform public policy design

Expected deliverables may include:

• A literature review on political campaign finance and contest theory 
• A technical research report summarizing the model and its equilibrium implications 
• Analytical derivations and supporting calculations 
• Optional numerical simulations illustrating equilibrium outcomes

Suitable for:

This project is open to applications from advanced undergraduate (3rd–4th year Honours) students and Masters students in Economics. The project is theoretical and requires strong analytical skills. Suitable applicants should preferably have completed courses in: 

• Advanced Microeconomics · Game Theory or Political Economy 
• Mathematical Economics or Optimization 
• Calculus and Differential Equations

Students interested in economic theory and political economy are especially encouraged to apply.

Primary Supervisor:

Further info:

Project title: 

Hours of engagement & delivery mode

30 hrs per week for 4 weeks (29 June – 24 July 2026).

The core of the project can be completed remotely. Meetings could be in-person or online.

Description:

This project explores how large language models (LLMs) can be used to support academic research workflows in economics and related social sciences. The Winter Scholar will work with the supervisor to help design and prototype an AI-assisted research infrastructure that can support tasks across the research pipeline, from early-stage idea development through to manuscript drafting and review.

A central focus of the project is the design of a multi-model workflow, where different LLMs (for example, models with complementary strengths in coding, reasoning, and writing) are assigned specialised roles and coordinated as a "team". Possible components include structured peer review loops for academic papers, automated revision workflows, research question generation from a rich panel dataset, literature review support, and sub-agent pipelines for data cleaning, analysis scripting, and manuscript structuring. The project may also involve testing methods for quality control, reproducibility, and documentation in AI-assisted research. Depending on the student’s background and the stage of development during the placement, tasks may include Python-based workflow prototyping, prompt and evaluation design, benchmarking outputs across models, integrating tools for document processing and OCR, and documenting best-practice procedures for future research assistants and collaborators. The project is intentionally broad and can be adapted to suit the scholar’s interests and skills, while contributing to a longer-term research program on AI-enabled academic productivity.

Expected learning outcomes and deliverables:

Learning outcomes

• Understand the design and management of multi-model LLM workflows for research tasks
• Gain experience in Python-based prototyping, automation, and workflow documentation
• Develop skills in evaluating AI outputs for quality, reliability, and reproducibility
• Learn how AI tools can support stages of academic research in economics and social science

Indicative deliverables

• A documented prototype workflow (or set of workflows) for one or more research tasks
• A short methods note summarising architecture, tests, and recommended next steps
• Reusable prompts/templates and basic usage documentation
• A brief end-of-placement presentation or demo

Suitable for:

This placement will suit a student who is comfortable working in an exploratory environment and interested in the intersection of economics research, AI tools, and research methods. It is especially suited to students in computer science, software engineering, data science, business analytics, economics, or related fields.

Experience with AI-assisted coding tools or multi-model workflows (for example, Claude Code, Codex, or similar tools, especially using CLI) is essential. Experience with Python is desirable. Prior exposure to empirical research workflows is helpful but not essential. Experience with OCR or document digitisation workflows is a bonus. Interest in chess or decision sciences is welcome, but not required.

Primary Supervisor:

Further info:

Project title: 

Hours of engagement & delivery mode

30 hrs per week for 4 weeks (30 June – 25 July 2026).

The core of the project will be completed remotely. Meetings will be online.

Description:

This project examines the economic impact of consumers delegating purchasing decisions to autonomous artificial intelligence (AI) agents. As digital markets evolve, it is critical to evaluate whether these agents enhance market efficiency by improving the quality of consumer choices, or if they create new inefficiencies. The student will contribute to the development of a standardized benchmarking index for commercial AI tools, evaluating their performance across various market structures.

References:

Allouah, Amine and Besbes, Omar and Figueroa, Josué and Kanoria, Yash and Kumar, Akshit, What Is Your AI Agent Buying? Evaluation, Implications, and Emerging Questions for Agentic E-Commerce, Columbia Business School Research Paper No. 381574, https://arxiv.org/abs/2508.02630 McKinsey & Company (2025). The agentic commerce opportunity: How AI agents are ushering in a new era for consumers and merchants. McKinsey Insights. https://www.mckinsey.com/capabilities/quantumblack/our-insights/the-agentic-commerce-opportunity Shahidi, P., Rusak, G., Manning, B. S., Fradkin, A., & Horton, J. J. (2025). The Coasean singularity? Demand, supply, and market design with AI agents. In A. K. Agrawal, A. Korinek, & E. Brynjolfsson (Eds.), The Economics of Transformative AI. University of Chicago Press.

Expected learning outcomes and deliverables:

The student will gain a foundational understanding of behavioural industrial organization and experimental economics. They will develop skills in evaluating algorithmic decision-making and understanding how market complexity impacts choice quality. A literature review and a preliminary benchmarking report comparing the decision accuracy of 3–5 commercial AI agents.

Suitable for:

Economics students with interest in microeconomics, or

maths/science/engineering students with some economics background.

Primary Supervisor:

Further info:

Project title: 

Hours of engagement & delivery mode

30 hrs per week for 4 weeks (30 June – 25 July 2026).

The core of the project will be completed remotely. Meetings will be online.

Description:

How do people communicate when they have conflicting interests? And how does the structure of who talks to whom shape what gets said? The scholar will join a research program in economic theory, exploring how people communicate strategically and how the patterns of communication shape outcomes. We focus on both direct interactions, where everyone can speak to everyone else, and networked settings, where social structure influences which information spreads and how it is interpreted.

The scholar will be involved in learning by doing activity in the economics of communication and its application in networks. Activities may include: 

• Reading and discussing key literature on communication games, including strategic information transmission and cheap talk. 
• Exploring how communication strategies operate in networked settings and how network structure influences information flow and behaviour.  
• Working through theoretical models and selected examples to understand mechanisms and replicate or extend results. 
• Preparing summaries and short presentations that reflect on the readings and/or provide some additional analysis.

Further reading: ·

• Crawford and Sobel (1982): Strategic information transmission. Econometrica. 
• Galeotti, Ghiglino, and Squintani (2013): Strategic information transmission networks. Journal of Economic Theory. 
• Hagenbach and Koessler (2010): Strategic communication networks. Review of Economic Studies.

Expected learning outcomes and deliverables:

Responsibilities and learning outcomes may be tailored to align with the supervisors’ active research interests at the time and the scholar’s background, skills, and interests. The program is designed as a collaborative introduction to research in the economics of communication, emphasising conceptual understanding and hands-on engagement with the literature.

Expected deliverables may include a literature review report, a paper summary, and paper presentations.

Suitable for:

This project is open to applications from Masters students and 3rd-4th year undergraduates in economics or related fields (statistics/econometrics, operations research, applied mathematics, computer science, etc.)

Primary Supervisor:

Further info:

Project title: 

Hours of engagement & delivery mode

30 hrs per week for 4 weeks (30 June – 25 July 2026).

The core of the project can be completed remotely. Meetings could be in-person or online

Description:

The scholar will join an existing research project that develops a theoretical model of water auctions and studies its applicability to water markets in Queensland, drawing on the institutional experience of water auctions in Victoria.

The project focuses on auction environments in which a collection of farmers jointly submit a group bid against a large corporation that participates as an individual outsider. This setting reflects key features of real-world water allocation mechanisms, where smaller users often coordinate to compete with large industrial buyers. The research will develop a formal game-theoretic model of a second-price auction with group bidding. The project will characterize equilibrium bidding strategies, identify conditions under which group participation affects allocation and efficiency, and derive testable implications that can be brought to administrative or auction data. This is a theoretical project grounded in microeconomic theory, auction theory, and optimization. Depending on their preparation, the student may assist with literature review, formal derivations, numerical illustrations, and preparation of research notes.

Expected learning outcomes and deliverables:

Expected learning outcomes include:

• Understanding how to formulate economic problems using formal mathematical models 
• Learning how auction theory can be applied to real-world policy questions such as water allocation 
• Developing skills in optimization, equilibrium analysis, and comparative statics
• Learning how theoretical predictions can generate testable empirical implications

Expected deliverables may include: 

• A structured literature review on water auctions and group bidding
• A technical research report summarizing the model and equilibrium characterization 
• Analytical derivations and supporting calculations 
• Optional numerical simulations illustrating equilibrium behavior

Suitable for:

This project is open to applications from advanced undergraduate (3rd–4th year Honours) students and Masters students in Economics. The project is theoretical and requires strong analytical skills. Suitable applicants should preferably have completed courses in: 

• Advanced Microeconomics 
• Mathematical Economics or Optimization 
• Calculus and Differential Equations

Students with strong mathematical preparation and interest in economic theory are especially encouraged to apply.

Primary Supervisor:

Dr Allan Hernandez Chanto (principal)

Further info:

Project title: 

Hours of engagement & delivery mode

30 hrs per week for 4 weeks (30 June – 25 July 2026).

The core of the project can be completed remotely. Meetings could be in-person or online.

Description:

The scholar will be involved in learning by doing activity in the field of Productivity and Efficiency Analysis, e.g., through conducting replication exercises, data preparation and analysis, literature review, etc.

Exact responsibilities may vary depending on the active project at the time of the placement as well as the individual interests, knowledge and skills of the scholar. Examples of finished projects can be seen here. 

More about the field of Productivity and Efficiency Analysis can be found here.

Expected learning outcomes and deliverables:

Expected learning outcomes include gaining knowledge and skills of practicing various methods of econometric and economic analysis, including real data analysis and Monte Carlo simulations and preparing literature review reports using classical and modern approaches.

Expected deliverables include reports from replication exercises, reports from economics analysis, data preparation and data analysis, literature review reports, etc.

Suitable for:

This project is open to applications from Masters students and 3rd-4th year undergraduates in economics or related fields (statistics/econometrics, operations research, applied mathematics, computer science, etc.)

Primary Supervisor:

Professor Valentin Zelenyuk

UQ Profile: https://economics.uq.edu.au/profile/2171/valentin-zelenyuk

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/valentin-zelenyuk-a695228/

Further info: