Summer Internships at CoPS

CoPS summer internships are offered to economics students who are interested in learning about CGE modelling, potentially leading to a PhD in CGE modelling. Successful applicants will work with an experienced CoPS researcher.

Applications close 5.00pm Wednesday 30 November, 2016.

Get paid while undertaking a research project in the field of CGE modelling at the Centre of Policy Studies. Scholarships are offered to current third and fourth year students who intend to go on to a masters or PhD. The duration is usually 6 to 8 weeks during the summer break period, December through to mid February.

Prerequisites. Applicants should currently be a 3rd year or Honours year undergraduate majoring in economics. Preference will be given to applicants who have studied macro and micro economics at second year level, and have some mathematical background.

Applications.

Download the application form.
Indicate your first and second preference from the projects on offer below.
Complete the application form and submit by email to Prof Glyn Wittwer (Glyn.Wittwer@vu.edu.au) by 5.00pm 30 November, 2016. A copy of your academic record must be attached to the application form.

Scholarships will be decided and offered by Friday 2nd December, 2016.

2016/17 Projects.

Project Title	How do Australian Industries Finance New Investment?
Start date: 05/12/2016 (negotiable)	Value: $450 x 6	Contact: Dr Jason Nassios email: jason.nassios@vu.edu.au tel: 03 9919 1480
Prerequisites	Applicants should be majoring in economics. Preference will be given to applicants who have studied macro and micro economics at second year level, and have some mathematical background.
Details	Researchers at the Centre of Policy Studies have recently developed a financial computable general equilibrium model (FCGE) for Australia. This project will focus on one FCGE model agent in particular, the Industry agent. At present, the database upon which the FCGE model depends has two recognised investment agents: the housing and industry agents. These agents finance new investment via debt and/or equity liabilities; these liabilities are purchased by the various other financial agents in the model. While investment activity by the housing agent maps directly to the real-side model's housing sector, the industry agent is an aggregate agent. The liabilities they raise in financial markets represent the aggregate financial liabilities of all the other real-side model industries. The aim of this project will be to enhance the FCGE model by disaggregating the Industry agent's balance sheet, e.g., we will separately account for how each of the mining, agriculture, manufacturing, and electricity supply (among many other) industries finance their investment activities. This will involve: (1) sourcing financial statement data for various listed companies; (2) extracting from these statements the various bond, deposit, loan and equity assets/liabilities owned by these companies; (3) inputting this data into a large data matrix; and (4) developing a mapping of these companies to the industries presently described in the Australian FCGE model.

Project Title	Land use and commuting data for spatial economic modelling.
Start date: 05/12/2016 (negotiable)	Value: $450 x 6	Contact: Dr James Lennox email: james.lennox@vu.edu.au tel: 03 9919 1712
Prerequisites	For the first of the two options for project work described below, proficiency in programming in Python is necessary while GIS skills would be helpful. For the second option, proficiency using QGIS or similar software is necessary as are basic programming skills. Preference will be given to applicants who have completed relevant coursework. We are open to applicants from economics, geography, computer science, or any other relevant fields.
Details	Dr Lennox is developing a spatially detailed economic model of Australian cities. This model will allow us to assess the economic impacts of urban infrastructure provision, land use planning reforms, and other policies that affect access to housing and employment and the productivity of firms in Australia's major cities. To calibrate such a model, large spatial datasets on population, land use, rental prices, employment and transport costs must be compiled. This project will focus on one of the following topics, depending on the skills and preferences of the successful applicant. Option 1: Commuting Compile estimates relating to public transport use and costs in Melbourne. Commuting data by mode will be compiled from a combination of Census and (city-specific) survey data. Costs will include station-to-station trip time and cash cost and will be obtained using the APIs provided by PTV and similar agencies. Optionally, for applicants who have studied econometrics, gravity models could be estimated using these data. If time permits, comparable data could be assembled for Sydney. Option 2: Land use Using Victorian Government data and QGIS and/or Python geoprocessing tools, compile estimates of land use for residential, commercial/industrial, agricultural, transport infrastructure, and parks/recreation/environmental purposes. If possible, estimate built shares of residential and commercial/industrial parcels using remote sensing or aerial data. Estimate average floor area ratios using ABS Census data on dwellings and/or other sources. If time permits, comparable data could be assembled for NSW.

Project Title	Adding tourism detail to an Australian CGE model
Start date: 05/12/2016 (negotiable)	Value: $450 x 6	Contact: Prof Glyn Wittwer email: glyn.wittwer@vu.edu.au tel: 03 9919 1493
Prerequisites	Applicants should be majoring in economics. Preference will be given to applicants who have studied macro and micro economics at second year level, and have some mathematical background.
Details	Tourism is an important international and inter-regional export. Different tourists have different expenditure patterns. For example, some international tourists spend more in casinos than others when in Australia. Backpackers stay longer and seek to fund part of their expenses with seasonal work. They have become part of the political debate, concerning the income tax threshold. Education exports are another important source of revenue. Education in one item of spending reported in Tourism Research Australia (TRA) data. Published input-output models do not usually provide explicit detail on tourism expenditures. In the US CGE model developed at CoPS, the various attributes of foreign tourists, US tourists at home and US tourists in foreign countries have been captured through separate new industries in the CGE database, namely Holidays, Foreign Holidays, Tourism Exports, Education Exports and Non-competing Imports. The latter captures non-competing items of spending by citizens in other countries. The contribution of an intern to this project would be work through TRA data and align expenditure items and values with commodities in the Australian national CGE database. Following the method used in the US CGE model, the aim of the larger project would be to create the abovementioned tourism industries in the Australian CGE model. The intern would have the opportunity to learn to use GEMPACK software for data processing. The project would also involve using regional TRA data to prepare activity shares for tourism sectors in the regions of Australia.