UNSW Sydney Summer School (in February 2027)

Macroeconomics of Business Dynamism

Dates: February 8-10, 2027

Time: First two days: 9:30-12:30, 13:30-16:30, Last day: 9:30-12:30

Lecturer: Petr Sedlacek (UNSW)

Productivity growth is a key driver of improving living standards. Over the past several decades, however, productivity growth has slowed – both in Australia and abroad. Why?

One important part of the answer lies in what happens across businesses: some firms grow rapidly, others shrink or exit, and new firms enter and displace incumbents. These forces of reallocation and creative destruction help shape aggregate productivity, employment and economic growth, and are central to understanding how industrial policies affect the economy.

This graduate-level course examines the key questions surrounding business dynamism: it is centered around quantitative macroeconomic models, with firm-level data motivating and disciplining them. Each topic starts from key empirical patterns and then develops the models used to understand them. Participants will learn to interpret firm-level data, build and solve quantitative models of business dynamism, and use these frameworks to address key policy questions.

The course covers:

• Entry, exit and firm growth
  • Who creates and destroys jobs?
  • How important are small businesses vs startups and young firms?
• Productivity and misallocation
  • How do differences across firms shape aggregate productivity?
  • How is aggregate productivity affected by policies such as firing costs?
• Firm dynamics and the business cycle
  • How do firms respond to recessions and booms?
  • Can shocks to particular cohorts have persistent aggregate effects?
• Innovation and creative destruction
  • Which firms innovate, invest in R&D and patent?
  • What are the implications for innovation and industrial policy?

Climate Econometrics

Dates: February 10-12, 2027

Time: First day: 13:30-16:30, Last two days: 9:30-12:30, 13:30-16:30

Lecturer: Timothy Neal (UNSW)

The interaction between our climate and economy is fundamental. As the climate changes at a quickening rate, using data to understand its impacts and evaluate policies that seek to curb emissions has become very valuable. Empirical work in this area has the potential to improve our understanding of recent macroeconomic phenomena, such as stagnant productivity growth, and our expectations of the future. It is also important in enabling economists to apply cost benefit analysis to climate policy.

This graduate-level course will teach the econometric techniques that have been used to study climate change and the economy, such as panel-data regression, quasi-experimental methods (e.g. instrumental variables, difference-in-difference), and machine learning. It will place equal emphasis on teaching the econometric foundations, and examining prior literature with hands-on coding sessions and group discussion. The course will provide you with tools necessary to conduct your own projects in this area and interrogate existing work.

The course covers:

• Handling weather and emissions data
  • What are the relevant data sources?
  • Converting geospatial data into a usable format for econometric models
  • How to interpret weather and emissions data correctly
• The econometrics of climate change impacts
  • Explores the ability of panel data and related regressions in unearthing the impacts of climate change or weather on various outcomes
  • Learn how to interrogate economic research and modelling in this area, and critically evaluate the assumptions that underpin the results
  • Considers outcomes like economic growth, labour productivity, and agricultural yield
• The econometrics of climate policy evaluation
  • Explains the role of experimental and quasi-experimental approaches to evaluating policies that seek to reduce emission intensity or emissions
  • How does the empirical research relate to what economic theory suggests is optimal policy?

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