Research
Research in Business and Economics covers a wide range of disciplinary, multi-disciplinary and inter-disciplinary areas including Accounting, Actuarial Studies, Economics, Finance, Business and Statistics.
Our research-led teaching programs give students access to both the basics of their discipline and the cutting edge of international research. We take pride in our ability to reach an audience outside the university and our engagement in collaborative research with external partners.
Business and Economics has a strong global focus, achieved through international research collaborations, a large number of international higher degree research students, and a range of research projects focusing on globalisation of labour and capital markets, regional economic developments and the global challenge of climate change.
A/Prof Melanie Beresford
Associate Dean, Research
Major Research Areas in the Faculty
The Financial Risk Group focuses on the financial implications of risk. Risks include those arising out of global capital market fluctuations, climate change, market risks, foreign exchange, financial statements, longevity retirement, health, default, bankruptcy and regulatory risk. These risks impact all sectors of society: individuals, corporations, governments and regulatory authorities. The key research agenda for the Financial Risk Group is to better understand, integrate, manage and price financial risk to allow their efficient and equitable distribution within our economic system.
The Burma Economic Watch (BEW) research group produces Burma Economic Watch, a periodical that provides up-to-date and reliable data, analysis and commentary on the economy of Burma. Information on the Burmese economy is both difficult to obtain and notoriously unreliable, while comment and analysis are often only scarcely less so. The aim of the journal is to contribute to improving each of these areas and to encourage informed debate. In doing so the BEW group has attained an outstanding international reputation for its economic research and commentary on this isolated, yet important, country.
The Social and Environmental Risk group integrates the disciplines of strategic management, international business, marketing, information systems and economics, and aims to analyse the effects that the shift from a manufacturing to a knowledge- and services-based economy is having on business.
One key focus of the research program is on Exporting, Off-shoring and In-sourcing in the Knowledge and Services sectors worldwide. Related research projects include: management of knowledge in domestic and multinational enterprises and technology transfer.
A second key focus is on migration of knowledge workers and knowledge-based economic development. Although international competition for skilled labour has never been more intense among countries, education, immigration, and innovation are usually studied independently of each other. The group studies skill formation and flows, and provides opportunities within Macquarie University for interdisciplinary research amongst researchers and policymakers from the areas of labour markets, migration, education, innovation and development.
The Climate Risk Group in the Economics Department is attached to one of Macquarie University’s Concentrations of Research Excellence, and works in conjunction with researchers in the Faculty of Science.
The Economics and Culture research group applies economic analysis to problems in culture and the arts. Research topics include: economic circumstances of artists; the functioning of non-profit firms in the performing arts; the relationship between economic policy and cultural policy; the economic structure and performance of cultural industries; effects of economic globalisation on culture; the role of culture in economic development; and the economics of cultural heritage.
The Organisational Governance and Performance Reporting Network (OGPRN) draws on inter- and intra-disciplinary theories to better understand the nature and role of accounting information in stakeholder decision making. It seeks to examine empirically common and distinctive reporting practices across for-profit, public and not-for-profit sectors and in different organisational forms.
Research on causes of corporate collapses highlights the importance of effectively linking organisational strategies with governance structures and performance management systems; the OGPRN aims to bridge the gap between academics and practitioners through active engagement and dissemination of research findings.
The Learning and Teaching research group focuses on the ‘Scholarship of Teaching and Learning’, namely the two key areas of academic work: research and teaching.
Current projects investigate the pedagogical basis of the disciplines, and cover a range of overlapping issues concerned with learning and teaching at the university level. They include:
- the development of research skills;
- graduate capabilities and the transition to work;
- assessment and feedback;
- teaching and learning methods, such as peer assisted learning;
- the research-teaching-industry nexus; and
- the role of e-learning in learning.