PhD topics

I would be interested in supervising students on the following topics. If this is you, please follow the links under ‘Scholarships’ to apply.

• Analysis of Water pollution in India and economic impact: While India has some of the most polluted rivers and water bodies in the world, the link between water pollution levels and socio-demographic variables in India has not been systematically analysed. We have collated a comprehensive dataset on water quality in India provided by the ENVIS Centre on Control of Pollution, Water, Air and Noise. This dataset provides a host of yearly water pollution variables such as lead levels, dissolved oxygen, E coli etc. across all major and medium sized rivers, lakes, and canals in India, starting from 2007. The proposed research will study the relationship between water quality and its relationship to socioeconomic variables in India. This will require combining the water quality data with other survey datasets in India and building testable hypothesis around it. The student needs to have strong quantitative and computing skills and be able to work with large datasets.
• Analysis of catch method and bycatch in New Zealand’s commercial fishery: Using catch landings data provided by Fishserve and the Ministry of Primary Industries in New Zealand, we can determine each fisher’s catch, fishing method, target species, revenue and bycatch for a given year. This data can be used to identify portfolios of fish catch by individual fishers and method of catch, allowing us to analyse the economic incentives and amount of control fishers have over the choice of catch and bycatch. The student is expected to have skills in data analysis and econometric methods.