UNSW Macro Lunch
A weekly lunchtime meeting of the UNSW macro group — alternating between a brownbag seminar and a reading group.
Setup
The Macro Lunch meetings are held every Tuesday at noon and alternate between a “brownbag” seminar and a “reading group”. The brownbag is meant as a platform for faculty and students to present their ongoing (early/middle/late stage) research. The reading group brings together faculty and students to explore recent research on a pre-selected topic.
Rules
Brownbag
- Presentations are at most 45mins (+15mins discussion afterwards)
- Email me if you want to present
Reading Group
- Compulsory for students writing dissertations in macroeconomics!
- Students choose a paper/slot to present (email me)
- Presentations have a standard seminar format
- present a paper as if it were your own
- answer questions about details/big picture/contribution
- All other students come prepared, having read the paper carefully
Time and Place
WhenEvery Tuesday in term (see schedule below)
WhereQUAD 2063
Time12-13
Term 2, 2026
- June 2, Brownbag: James Lake (U Tennessee)
- June 9, Reading group: Max: “Tracking Firm Use of AI in Real Time”, Bonney et al., 2024
- June 16, Reading group: Dan: “How Retrainable Are AI-Exposed Workers?”, Hyman et al., 2025
- June 23, Reading group: CANCELLED
- June 30, NO MEETING
- July 7, Reading group: Sydney: “Artificial Intelligence and the Modern Productivity Paradox”, Brynjolfsson et al., 2018
- July 14, Reading group: TBD
- July 21, Reading group: Joanna: “The Rapid Adoption of Generative AI,” Bick et al., 2024
- July 28, Reading group: TBD
- August 4, Reading group: TBD
- August 11, Reading group: TBD
Term 1, 2026
- March 10, Brownbag: Jacky/Dan
- March 17, Brownbag: Joanna/Max
- March 24, Brownbag: Marla Ripoll (University of Pittsburgh)
- March 31, NO MEETING
- April 7, Brownbag: Benjamin Villena (Universidad Andres Bello)
- April 14, Reading group: TBD
- April 21, Reading group: Max: Cruz, José-Luis and Esteban Rossi-Hansberg (2024). “The economic geography of global warming,” Review of Economic Studies
- April 28, Brownbag: Sydney/Pakasa
- May 5, Reading group: Jacky: Adrien Bilal, Diego R Känzig (2026). “The Macroeconomic Impact of Climate Change: Global Versus Local Temperature,” The Quarterly Journal of Economics
- May 12, Brownbag: Lukas Freund (Boston College)
Term 3, 2025
- Sep 16, Brownbag: TBD
- Sep 23, Brownbag: TBD
- Sep 30, Reading group: TBD
- Oct 7, Brownbag: Ufuk Akcigit. !!! This seminar runs from 12-13:30 and is in Law Theatre G02, Law building F8 !!!
- Oct 14, Reading group: no meeting
- Oct 21, Reading group: no meeting
- Oct 28, Brownbag: Eric Swanson
- Nov 4, Brownbag: Kaja Kierulf: “Increased Inequality in Financial Wealth for Retirees”
- Nov 11, Reading group: Pakasa - Financing the adoption of clean technology (Lanteri, Rampini)
- Nov 18, Reading group: Dan - Climate Change, Directed Innovation, and Energy Transition: The Long-run Consequences of the Shale Gas Revolution (Acemoglu, Aghion, Barrage, David Hémous)
- Nov 25, Reading group: Cancelled (SMRG workshop)
- Dec 2, Brownbag: Yunpeng - Job talk practice
Term 2, 2025
- June 3, Brownbag: Petr
- June 10, Brownbag:
- June 17, Reading Group: Max - Amiti, Redding, Weinstein (2018). “The Impact of the 2018 Tariffs on Prices and Welfare,” Journal of Economic Perspectives
- June 24, Brownbag: Bruce
- July 1, Reading Group: Dan - Cavallo, Gopinath, Neiman and Tang (2021). “Tariff Pass-through at the Border and at the Store: Evidence from US Trade Policy,” AER: Insights
- July 8, Brownbag:
- July 15, Reading Group: cancelled, sorry!
- July 22, Brownbag: Jiu Lian - “Wealth Tax and Wealth Mobility: A Quantitative Analysis”
- July 29, Reading Group: Joanna - Werning, Lorenzoni and Guerrieri (2025). “Tariffs as Cost-push Shocks: Implications for Optimal Policy,” unpublished manuscript
- August 5, Reading Group: Sydney - Furceri, Hannan, Ostry and Rose (2019). “Macroeconomic Consequences of Tariffs,” IMF Working Paper
- August 12, Reading Group: Jacky - Auclert, Rognlie and Straub (2025). “The Macroeconomics of Tariff Shocks,” unpublished manuscript
Presentation Schedule T1, 2025
- March 4:
- March 18:
- April 1 (no joke!): Yunpeng Deng: “Portfolio Choice in an Optimal Monetary-Fiscal Policy Model”
- April 15:
Presentation Schedule T3, 2024
- September 10: Bruce Preston, “Asset Prices with Non-Rational Expectations: Macroeconomic Implications”
- September 24: Dan Robbins
- October 15:
- October 29: German Cubas
- November 12: Geni Dechter
Presentation Schedule T2, 2024
- May 28: TBA
- June 11: TBA
- June 25: TBA
- July 9: Fernando Martin
- July 23: TBA
Presentation Schedule T1, 2024
- February 20: Yongs Shin (TBA)
- March 5: Tom Phelan: “Time use and the efficiency of heterogeneous markups”
- March 19: Luba Petersen: “Communicating Inflation Uncertainty and Inflation Expectations”
- March 26: Dennis Novy: “Urban-Biased Structural Change”
- April 9: Girish Bahal: “The Effect of Supply Base Diversification on the Propagation of Shocks”
- April 16: Matt Nolan: “Wage consequences of job loss in Australia: Evidence from mass layoffs”
Presentation Schedule T3, 2023
- September 12: NA
- September 26: Han: “Labor Market Sorting and Social Security in Developing Countries”
- October 10: Yue: “The Long-Run Effects of Federal Student Loans on Fertility and Social Mobility”
- October 24: Nicholas Chang: TBA
- November 7: Petr: “Scars of Entrepreneurship”
Presentation Schedule T2, 2023
- May 30: Pratiti: “The Sentiment Channel of Monetary Policy”
- June 13: TBA
- June 27: TBA
- July 11: TBA
- July 25: Han Gao: TBA
Presentation Schedule T1, 2023
- February 14: TBA
- February 28: Chris Phelan
- March 14: TBA
- March 28: Benoit - “On wage dispersion”
- April 11: Akshay Shanker - “Existence, computation and identification of recursive dynamic equilibrium in incomplete market economies”
- May 2 (April 25 is a holiday): Yue Hua - “Life-cycle effects of Australian student loans with income-contingent repayments”
Presentation Schedule T3, 2022
- September 13: PC
- September 27: Cancelled
- October 11: Geni/Gonzalo
- October 25: Han
- November 8: PC
Presentation Schedule T2, 2022
- June 7: Nalini - “The Effect of Investor Credit Supply on Housing Prices”
- June 21: Stanley - “TBA” & Tran - “TBA”
- July 5: Arpita - “Food, Fuel and Facts: Distributional Effects of External Shocks, joint with Saroj Bhattarai and Gauham Udupa”
- July 19: TBA
- August 2: TBA