Adaptive resilient economy: responding to shocks under boundedly-rational economic expectations

This project focuses on understanding economy as an adaptive complex system. Heterogeneous economic agents, which may exhibit boundedly-rationality and possess imperfect information, make decisions and interact with each other giving rise to macroeconomic dynamics and phenomena. As economies globally become more interconnected and prone to various shocks, policy and academia become increasingly concerned with the extent of economic damage from various shocks and economy’s ability to recover and evolve in face of adversities. This is especially relevant as we are to deal with more frequent and severe hazards – floods, wild fires, droughts – that accelerate with climate change. Shocks to one economic sector may cause cascading effects to others, exacerbating risks and subsequent macroeconomic fluctuations. To what extent do economic expectations of actors operating in a highly uncertain environment capture this? Departing from the assumption of a representative rational agent with perfect information allows for the quantitative exploration of these processes. This PhD project aims to develop a computational economic agent-based model to explicitly model behavior of economic agents’, networks of their interactions and expectation formations in uncertain and volatile environments.
Possible application areas include but are not limited: housing bubbles, damage from climate change related extreme events, inequality and socio-economic resilience.

Your profile
1. MSc degree in Economics or Computer Science;
2. Strong background in quantitative methods and statistical analysis;
3. Programming skills (Java, Python, C++ or other languages);
4. Previous experience with evolutionary economics, computational economics or agent based modeling is an asset;
5. Excellent command of English, including academic writing;
6. Ability to work independently as a researcher and effectively in a team.

Our conditions
Joining the PERSWADE Research Center is a great opportunity to carry out research of societal value in a beautiful city of Sydney! The scholarship offers an annual remuneration of $27,082 tax-free and a tuition fee waiver for qualified candidates for 3 years. There are no restrictions on the nationality of the applicants and the selection will be based on the candidate’s qualifications and experience. Training and support in both computational agent-based modeling and economics will be provided.

How to apply
Interested candidates should follow the application procedure listed on the University of Technology Sydney’s web pages: https://www.uts.edu.au/research-and-teaching/research-degrees/applying-uts/how-apply and apply following this link: https://msa.uts.edu.au/eStudent/S1/eApplications/eAppLogin.aspx?f=UTS.WAP.LOGIN.WEB

Before the formal application please send (1) a cover letter with your motivation to pursue a PhD, (2) one page description of your research idea in line with this topic and (3) your CV with a list of publications (if applicable) and names of three referees to Prof.Dr. Tatiana Filatova Tatiana.Filatova@uts.edu.au and Prof.Dr. Mikhail Anufriev Mikhail.Anufriev@uts.edu.au

The positions will remain open until filled. Please check UTS application deadlines here.