Doctoral study in Economics

Why study with us?

  • We are a leading education provider in our subject in the Asia-Pacific region
  • Our Business School is in the 1% of business schools worldwide to hold Triple Crown accreditation from the leading international bodies: AACSB International, EFMD-EQUIS and AMBA
  • We are the most innovative university in Australia and New Zealand, placed 27th in the Reuters Top 75: Asia’s Most Innovative Universities ranking
  • Postgraduate Research Student Support (PReSS) funding is available for research expenses

Research opportunities

When you undertake your doctorate in Economics at the University of Auckland Business School, you’ll join a community of internationally recognised researchers. You’ll have opportunities to publish your research and present it at international conferences. You may also be actively involved in our research centres and groups, including the Centre for Applied Research in Economics (CARE), the Retirement Policy and Research Centre (RPRC), the Energy Centre and the NZ APEC Study Centre.

We welcome research proposals in topics relating to our key research specialisations:

  • Industrial organisation, regulation, energy, transport and environmental economics
  • Macroeconomics and finance
  • Microeconomics and experimental economics
  • Labour markets, education, health and public policy
  • International trade and development economics

Our people

There are a large number of high-calibre researchers working in the Economics discipline at the University, in both the Business School and the Faculty of Arts.

Dr Debasis Bandyopadhyay: The relationship between the distribution of human capital and economic growth, macroeconomic productivity, migration and social security

Professor Ananish Chaudhuri: Issues of gender and leadership, how different payment schemes affect productivity and learning in cognitively challenging tasks, cooperation in human social dilemmas

Dr Simona Fabrizi: Economic Theory & Design, Innovation Theory, Decision Theory, Information Economics, Industrial Economics, Network Industries, Competition Law and Policy, and Public & Institutional Economics.

Professor Prasanna Gai: The design of macro-prudential policy, sovereign risk, information acquisition in OTC markets, law and finance, network models and financial stability

Dr Ryan Greenaway-McGrevy: Time series and panel data econometrics, urban economics

Professor Tim Hazledine: Impacts of New Zealand’s economic liberalisation policy alternatives, trade and growth

Dr Steffen Lippert: Climate Cooperation; Taxation in Two-sided Markets; Privacy in Two-sided Markets; Ambiguity and Employment Contracts; Worker Composition, Absorptive Capacity and Innovation.

Professor Sholeh Maani: Economics of Labour Markets and Labour Market Policy, Economics of Education, Economics of Immigration, Income Distribution, Health and Housing

Professor Robert MacCulloch: Law and Economics, the Economics of Global Development, Navigating the Business Environment, Business Economics

Dr Stephen Poletti: Industrial organisation and regulation, energy and environmental economics

Dr Erwann Sbai: Auctions, econometric theory, empirical industrial organisation, micro-econometrics, structural econometrics

Professor Basil Sharp: Energy and resource economics, economics of the environment, law and economics

Dr Asha Sundaram: International Trade, Development Economics, Applied Econometrics

Dr Haiping Zhang: Macroeconomics, International Economics, Financial Market Imperfections, Development Economics

Past research topics

  • "Essays in Behavioral Labour Economics" | Supervised by Professor Ananish Chaudhuri
  • "Money, markets, and jobs: essays on financial stability" | Supervised by Professor Prasanna Gai
  • "Productivity and Relative Prices" | Supervised by Dr Ryan Greenaway-McGrevy and Dr Martin Berka
  • “Worker skills, competition, labour allocation and economic performance” | Supervised by Dr Simona Fabrizi and Dr Steffen Lippert

Scholarships and awards

There are several scholarships you may be eligible for when you decide to pursue your doctoral studies in Economics.

University of Auckland Doctoral Scholarships

Barry Spicer and Owen G Glenn PhD Scholarship

Contact us

Phone the University

  • 923 7186 (within Auckland)
  • 0800 61 62 63 (outside Auckland)
  • +64 9 373 7513 (overseas)

For specific information on doctoral study in Economics, please contact the Department of Economics

Apply for doctoral study