School of Economics
Our undergraduate and postgraduate economics programs consistently rank in the top five for Australia*. We have a long and proud history of research strengths and teaching excellence and are one of the most highly ranked centres for research in economics globally.
Our academics and researchers are leaders in their fields. Their broad expertise promotes a deep understanding of the key concepts of economics and a focus on contemporary issues.
Our alumni are highly sought after and have included a former Prime Minister, several NSW premiers, and leaders in the World and Reserve Banks. Our graduates have also held influential positions in the Treasury and other policy departments, international agencies such as the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), financial institutions and non-government organisations.
Our study offering
Undergraduate courses
The Bachelor of Economics introduces you to a diverse, fascinating discipline that addresses a range of big issues in modern life and plays a central role in shaping the broad framework of society at every level. It provides undergraduate training in theoretical and applied aspects of modern economics, econometrics and financial economics.
- Bachelor of Economics
- Bachelor of Economics/Bachelor of Advanced Studies
- Bachelor of Economics (Dual Degree, Sciences Po, France)
- Bachelor of Economics/Bachelor of Laws
Majors and minors
Below is a list of our economics majors and minors, available to students in the Bachelor of Economics (except where indicated) and numerous other undergraduate courses - click on the links for further details.
Econometrics
Economic Policy*
*Not available to Bachelor of Economics students
Economics
Environmental, Agricultural and Resource Economics
- Environmental, Agricultural and Resource Economics major
- Environmental, Agricultural and Resource Economics minor
Financial Economics
Honours
Honours is an additional year (full time) of study on top of a three-year bachelor’s degree. It provides an opportunity to develop research skills in your undergraduate major by undertaking advanced coursework and conducting a supervised but independent research project. An Honours year adds greater depth to your undergraduate studies and is a pathway to postgraduate research courses such as the PhD.
If you have completed your bachelor’s degree (with the required level of merit) with a major in economics at the University of Sydney (or equivalent qualification), you can undertake Honours in economics or econometrics through one of the following courses.
Undergraduate diploma
- Diploma of Arts (major/minor in Economic Policy)
This part-time course allows holders of a bachelor’s degree in another discipline to complete a major or minor in Economic Policy.
Non-degree study
Non-degree study allows you to take undergraduate units of study (subjects) without committing to a full award course (e.g., bachelor’s). Successfully completed units may be credited towards a relevant award course at a later date.
Cross-institutional study
If you are enrolled in an undergraduate award course at another Australian institution you can take units of study (subjects) with us for credit towards your course (subject to the approval of your home institution).
Postgraduate coursework programs
Whether you’re an economics graduate or have no background in economics, the Master of Economics will provide you with the skills to apply economic methods and knowledge to practical, contemporary problems in business and government. The duration of the course depends on your background in economics.
If you have a strong background in economics and/or mathematics and are looking to receive advanced training or a pathway to higher degree by research study (e.g., PhD), the Master of Economic Analysis is the ideal choice.
If you don't have time to commit to a master's or prefer to 'test the waters' first, you can take a shorter program of study in the above areas through a graduate certificate or graduate diploma.
- Graduate Certificate in Economics
- Graduate Diploma in Economics
- Graduate Certificate in Economic Analysis
- Graduate Diploma in Economic Analysis
Economics specialisations
Economics is available as a specialisation in the following courses:
- Master of Commerce
- Master of Commerce (Extension)
- Master of International Relations
- Master of International Security
- Master of Public Policy
Economic Policy is available as a specialisation in the Master of Public Policy.
Non-award study
Non-award study allows you to take postgraduate units of study (subjects) without committing to a full award course (e.g., master’s). Successfully completed units may be credited towards a relevant award course at a later date.
Cross-institutional study
If you are enrolled in a postgraduate award course at another Australian institution you can take units of study (subjects) with us for credit towards your course (subject to the approval of your home institution).
Our people
- Professor Garry Barrett, Head of School
- Professor Andrew Wait, Deputy Head of School (Education)
- Professor Deborah Cobb-Clark, Deputy Head of School (Research)
- Dr Christian Gillitzer, Undergraduate Coordinator
- Dr Katrien Stevens, Postgraduate Coursework Coordinator
- Professor Stefanie Schurer, Honours Coordinator
- Postgraduate Research Coordinators: econ.hdrenq@sydney.edu.au
- Dr Shauna Phillips, Bachelor of Advanced Studies Coordinator
- Dr Jiemai Wu, Thesis Coordinator (Honours and MEcA)
- Assoc Professor Oleksii Birulin, Master of Economic Analysis Coordinator
- School Manager, Ms Janelle Kenchington
- Emeritus Professor Tony Aspromourgos
- Adjunct Professor Adrian Blundell-Wignall
- Visiting Professor Colin Cameron
- Dr Ashley Cooper Craig
- Professor Stephen Donald
- Adjunct Professor Malcolm Edey
- Dr Dennis Claudy Feher
- Mr Mario Fiorini
- Professor Jennifer Hunt
- Professor Greg Warren Kaplan
- Dr Elizabeth Nolan
- Emeritus Professor Adrian Pagan
- Honorary Associate Professor Russell Ross
- Honorary Associate Kevin Schnepel
- Dr Abhijit Sengupta
- Dr Yi Sun
- Research Affiliate Mara Thiene
- Professor Donald Weatherburn
- Visiting Professor Justin Wolfers
- Honorary Associate Professor Donald Wright
- Dr Di Zeng
Visiting academics
Professor Pascaline Dupas, The Kleinheinz Family Professor of International Studies, Standford University, June 2022
Dr Silvia Griselda, Bocconi, July-August 2022
Associate Professor Julie Moschion, Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, August-September 2022
Soojoong Nam, Kongju National University
Visiting: January-December
Uttam Sharma, World Bank and Asian Development Bank
Visiting: January - February
Giuseppe Cavaliere, University of Bologna
Expertise: time series econometrics; financial econometrics; statistical inference; empirical macroeconomics
Visiting: January
Jocelyn Martel, ESSEC Business School
Expertise: corporate restructuring; insolvency; bankruptcy
Visiting: January-February
Betsey Stevenson, University of Michigan
Expertise: the impact of public policies on the labour market
Visiting: January-February
Justin Wolfers, University of Michigan
Expertise: Labour economics; macroeconomics; social policy; behavioural economics; political economy; law and economics
Visiting: January-February
Joeri Smits, Yale University
Expertise: development economics; political economy; applied econometrics
Visiting: November 2019-April 2020
Jennifer Hunt, Rutgers University
Visiting: February-June
Shelly Lundberg, University of California, Santa Barbara
Expertise: Labour economics; economic demography
Visiting: January - March
Richard Startz, University of California, Santa Barbara
Expertise: Econometrics; macroeconomics
Visiting: January - March
Betsey Stevenson, University of Michigan
Expertise: the impact of public policies on the labour market
Visiting: January-February
Justin Wolfers, University of Michigan
Expertise: Labour economics; macroeconomics; social policy; behavioural economics; political economy; law and economics
Visiting: January-February
Jocelyn Martel, ESSEC Business School
Expertise: Financial Economics
Visiting: February
John Nachbar, Washington University, St Louis
Expertise: Economic theory
Visiting: February - June
Kevin Schnepel, Simon Fraser University
Expertise: Crime economics, labour economics, environmental economics
Visiting: February
Sholeh Maani, University of Auckland
Expertise: Economics of labour markets and labour market policy; economics of education; economics of immigration; income distribution; health and housing
Visiting: February - March
Brian Jacob, University of Michigan
Expertise: Labour economics; program evaluation; economics of education
Visiting: February
Marco Caliendo, University of Potsdam
Expertise: Evaluation of Labour Market Programs; Job Search and Unemployment Dynamics; Entrepreneurship, Self-Employment, Start-up Subsidies; Personality Traits, Preferences, and Economic Outcomes; Applied Microeconometrics
Visiting: February - March
Simon Burgess, University of Bristol
Expertise: Labour Economics; Inequality; Poverty
Visiting: February-March
Miriam Gensowski, University of Copenhagen
Expertise: Labour economics and economics of education
Visiting: February-April
Rémi Piatek, University of Copenhagen
Expertise: Bayesian econometrics; factor modeling; mixture modeling, and computational econometrics
Visiting: February-April
Thomas Schober, Johannes Kepler University
Expertise: Health economics; applied microeconomics; policy evaluation
Visiting: March-May
Ian Walker, Lancaster University Management School
Expertise: Applied empirical microeconomics
Visiting: March
Orla Doyle, University College Dublin
Expertise: Economics of human development; health economics; labour economics; political behaviour; early childhood development and education; developmental psychology and methods for evaluating policy interventions
Visiting: May-June
Yibai Yang, University of Macau
Expertise: economic growth; innovation; intellectual property rights; monetary and fiscal policies
Visiting: July 2019
Hannah Schildberg-Hörisch, Düsseldorf Institute for Competition Economics (DICE)
Expertise: Applied microeconomics; economics and psychology; public economics; experimental economics
Visiting: July-August
Daniel Hamermesh, University of Texas, Austin
Expertise: Time use; labour demand; discrimination; academic labour markets; labour economics
Visiting: July - September 2019
Colin Cameron, UC Davis
Expertise: econometric theory for cross-section data
Visiting: July-September 2019
Martin Huber, University of Fribourg
Expertise: Policy/treatment effect evaluation in labour, health and education economics; semi- and nonparametric microeconometric methods for causal inference
Visiting: July - August 2019
Daniel Kamhöfer, Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf
Expertise: Returns to education; formation of cognitive and non-cognitive skills; female labor supply; drivers of physical and mental health, and; economic aspects in family planning.
Visiting: August 2019
Nigel McClung, Bank of Finland
Expertise: Macroeconomics; monetary; learning
Visiting: September 2019
Duc Minh Nguyen, Vietnam National University of Agriculture
Visiting: November-December 2019
Benjamin Wong, Monash University
Expertise: applied macroeconomics; time series analysis
Visiting: November 2019
Pablo Andrés Neumeyer, Universidad Torcuato Di Tella, Argentina
Expertise: macroeconomics; international finance and development
Visiting: December 2019
Craig Riddell, University of British Columbia
Expertise: Labour economics, labour relations; public policy
Visiting: November 2017 - January 2018
Mathias Sinning, Australian National University
Expertise: Labour economics; public economics; policy evaluation
Visiting: January 2018
Jocelyn Martel, ESSEC Business School, France
Expertise: Corporate restructuring; insolvency; bankruptcy
Visiting: January - Febuary 2018
Guillaume Frechette, New York University
Expertise: Experimental economics; industrial organization; political economy; public economics
Visiting: February 2018
Simon Burgess, University of Bristol, IZA
Expertise: Labour economics; inequality; poverty
Visiting: February - March 2018
Martin Kocher, University of Munich
Expertise: Behavioural and experimental economics
Visiting: February 2018
Gavin Wood, Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology
Expertise: Public policy and urban studies; housing finance; labour economics; homelessness
Visiting: February 2018
Angus Holford, ISER, University of Essex
Expertise: Evidence-based policy; randomised control trials; peer effects; microeconometrics; family economics; education inequalities
Visiting: April 2018
Anne Gielen, Erasmus University, Rotterdam
Expertise: Labour economics; health economics; applied microeconometrics
Visiting: May - July 2018
Dominique Lemmermann, University of Erlangen, Nuremberg
Expertise: Development economics; economics of migration; economics of education; labour economics
Visiting: May - June 2018
Brendan K. Beare, University of California, San Diego
Expertise: Econometric theory; financial econometrics; time series econometrics
Visiting: May - June 2018
Daniel Tregeagle, University of California, Davis (UC Davis)
Expertise: Agricultural economics; environmental economics; natural resource economics
Visiting: June 2018
Prabal Roy Chowdhury, Indian Statistical Institute, New Delhi
Expertise: Game theory; industrial organization; bargaining; development economics; micro-finance; land acquisition
Visiting: June 2018
Jana Mareckova, University of Konstanz
Expertise: High-dimensional models; regularization methods
Visiting: July - September 2018
Orla Doyle, University College Dublin
Expertise: Economics of human development; health economics; early child development and education; methods for evaluating policy interventions
Visiting: July - August 2018
Christopher Jepsen, University College Dublin
Expertise: Economics of education; labour economics; demographic economics; public economics
Visiting: June 2018 - January 2019
Sayeed Unisa, International Institute for Population Sciences
Expertise: Mathematical demography and statistics
Visiting: August 2018
Peer Skov, Auckland University of Technology
Expertise: Public finance; applied micro-econometrics; programme and policy evaluation
Visiting: September 2018
Juliana Silva Goncalves, Queensland University of Technology
Expertise: Behavioural economics
Visiting: September 2018
Karl Whelan, University College Dublin
Expertise: Applied macroeconomic
Visiting: November 2018
Craig Riddell, University of British Columbia
Expertise: Labour economics; labour relations; public policy
Visiting: October - December 2018
Past events and public lectures
The School of Economics celebrated the tercentenary of the birth of Adam Smith by hosting 'Adam Smith at 300' on Friday 16 June 2023.
Emeritus Professor Tony Aspromourgos delivered the lecture to a crowd of alumni, students and guests.
Listen to the lecture: Adam Smith at 300
Watch the lecture: Adam Smith at 300
The School of Economics marked its Centenary on Wednesday 20 July 2022 with a celebratory dinner in the historic MacLaurin Hall. Australia’s first dedicated Faculty of Economics was established at the University of Sydney in 1920 and has since produced more than 20,000 graduates, including those who have gone on to be Prime Ministers, Premiers, Ministers of State, Chief Justice, Reserve Bank Governor, Secretary of Treasury, distinguished academics and leaders in business and finance.
Our celebration included a keynote presentation by alumnus Dr Steven Kennedy PSM, speeches by Professor Garry Barrett, Chancellor Belinda Hutchinson AC and VC Professor Mark Scott AO.
The School of Economics was established from 1 January 2011 to serve as the primary institutional vehicle for Economics research and education within the University of Sydney. That year the school inaugurated an annual public lecture series – the Warren Hogan Memorial Lecture – devoted to the economic analysis of public policy issues. It commemorates Warren Pat Hogan (1929–2009), Professor of Economics in the University of Sydney, 1968–1998.
- 2022
Hon Dr Andrew Leigh MP
Assistant Minister for Competition, Charities and Treasury, and Federal Member for Fenner in the ACT
Watch the lecture: Economic Dynamism: A Global Perspective
- 2020
Dr Kerry Schott AO
Chair of the Australian Energy Board and Director of NBN
Watch the lecture: Economic policy amid disruption
- 2019
Hon Chris Bowen MP, Shadow Minister for Health
- 2018
The Hon John Winston Howard OM AC
Former Prime Minister of Australia
- 2017
Dr Guy Debelle
Deputy Governor of the Reserve Bank of Australia
- 2016
Ms Annabel Spring (BEc Hons '92, LLB Hons '94)
Group Executive Wealth Management, Commonwealth Bank of Australia
- 2015
Dr Martin Parkinson
Secretary, Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet, Commonwealth of Australia
- 2014
Mr Hugh Harley (BEc Hons '84, LLB Hons '86)
Financial Services Leader, Price Waterhouse Coopers
- 2013
Dr John Laker (BEc Hons ’72)
Chairman of the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority
- 2012
Charles Calomiris
Henry Kaufman Professor of Financial Institutions, Columbia University Graduate School of Business
- 2011
Mr Glenn Stevens (BEc Hons ’80)
Governor of the Reserve Bank of Australia
Previous Seminars
Speaker |
Affiliation |
Title |
Alastair Fraser |
The University of Sydney |
Why do people respond to success vs failure? Help me figure out a behavioural puzzle
|
Stefanie Schurer |
The University of Sydney |
The impact of a minimum unit price for alcohol on consumption and infant health: Evidence from Australia’s Northern Territory
|
Dan Hamermesh |
The University of Sydney |
How Slow? Why Slow? Is Slow Productive? Fixing Slow? |
Vladimir Smirnov |
The University of Sydney |
Conditions for efficient entry and clustering
|
Speaker |
Affiliation |
Title |
David Kaczan
|
World Bank
|
Management and/or investment? Modelling the costs and benefits of reform in Indonesia’s fishery sector
|
Anna Chorniy |
Northwestern Feinberg
|
More Money, Fewer Problems? The Effect of Foster Care Payments on Children's Quality of Care
|
Mike Gilraine |
New York University |
Making Teaching Last: Long-Run Value-Added
|
Vinayak Alladi
|
University of Sydney |
The Impact of Background Ambiguity On Risk Taking: Evidence From The Lab
|
Pablo Guillen Alvarez
|
University of Sydney |
Can mutually destructive punishment foster cooperation?
|
Stephen Cheung
|
University of Sydney |
Drivers of the choice to self-manage one's investments
|
Alexandra de Gendre
|
University of Sydney |
Class Rank and Sibling Spillover Effects
|
David Ubilava
|
University of Sydney |
Commodity Price Shocks and the Seasonality of Conflict
|
Emilia Tjernstrom
|
University of Sydney |
The Impact of Air Pollution on Mental Health: Evidence from Australia
|
Jennifer Hunt |
Rutgers University and NBER
|
Do Female--Named Employment Agencies Expand Opportunity for Women?
|
Jennifer Hunt |
Rutgers University and The University of Sydney
|
Did JobKeeper Keep Australian Jobs?
|
Kevin Pugh |
University of Sydney |
Don’t sweat the test! Do higher temperatures affect student test scores? Evidence from Australia’s NAPLAN program.
|
Peter Siminski
|
University of Technology Sydney
|
Are we Richer than our Parents were? Absolute Income Mobility in Australia
|
Rebecca McKibbin
|
University of Sydney |
Does Research Save Lives? The Local Spillovers of Biomedical Research on Mortality
|
Rebecca Taylor
|
University of Sydney |
If you build it, they will compost: The effects of municipal composting services on household waste disposal
|
Russell Toth
|
University of Sydney |
The Impact of Liquidity Loans on Mobile Money Volumes
|
Tiffany Ho |
University of Sydney |
Parental Responses to Children’s Achievement Test Results
|
Valentina Duque |
University of Sydney |
The Effects of Free Housing on Children
|
Andres Santos
|
University of California, Los Angeles
|
Inference for Large-Scale Linear Systems with Known Coefficients
|
Gary Koop |
University of Strathclyde
|
Tail forecasting with multivariate Bayesian additive regression trees |
Greg Kaplan |
University of Chicago
|
Markups, Labor Market Inequality and the Nature of Work
|
Jiemai Wu |
The University of Sydney
|
Correlated Information Cascades
|
Mert Kimya |
The University of Sydney
|
Stability of Alliance Networks
|
Nicolas de Roos
|
The University of Sydney
|
Limited Vertical and Horizontal Compatibility
|
Onur Kesten |
The University of Sydney
|
Blood Allocation with Replacement Donors: A Theory of Multi-unit Exchange with Compatibility-based Preferences |
Vladimir Smirnov |
The University of Sydney
|
Solo or Duo? Optimal operating modes in team production
|
Mengke Wang |
The University of Sydney |
Decision Making under Time Pressure
|
Suraj Prasad |
The University of Sydney |
Managing Innovation (and Conflict) through Mediation
|
Speaker |
Affiliation |
Title |
Pablo Guillen Alvarez
|
University of Sydney |
Evaluating Advice in a Matching Mechanism with Experienced Participants: An Experimental Study of University Applicant Behaviour in Australia
|
Speaker |
Affiliation |
Title |
Aurelien Baillon
|
Erasmus University Rotterdam
|
Leveraging Probability Distortion to Target Prevention? Evidence from a Lottery Experiment on Cardiovascular Risk
|
Guillaume Chevillon
|
ESSEC Business School
|
Long-memory prone priors for large systems within a finite-order VAR
|
Matteo Luciani
|
Federal Reserve Board |
Measuring the output gap using large datasets
|
Gadi Barlevy
|
Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago |
Asset Price Booms and Macroeconomic Policy: a Risk-Shifting Approach
|
Jennifer Hunt |
Rutgers University and NBER
|
Is Employment Polarization Informative About Wage Inequality and Is Employment Really Polarizing?
|
*2023 QS World University Rankings for Economics & Econometrics
Economics Review
The Sandra Cadwallader Indigenous Economics Scholarships
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