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Iqbal Syed

Senior Research Associate

Centre for Applied Economic Research (CAER) - PhD Economics, University of New South Wales | MA Economics, New York University | MSS, BSS (Honours) Economics, University of Dhaka

Expertise

Iqbal Syed’s research areas are applied econometrics, measurement economics, real estate economics and finance, and urban economics. He has conducted research on the consumer price index (CPI), recommending methods of constructing price indexes using large electronic point-of-sale data. Iqbal has worked on hedonic methodologies, with applications to supermarket and high-tech products, international comparisons of prices and incomes, and residential and commercial property markets. He has worked on the Australian housing market, investigating its valuation in relation to equilibrium using price–rent ratios, price indexes and the user cost formula. Iqbal’s interest lies in behavioural models in economics, with a focus on developing empirical models and writing computer algorithms to test and predict the models using newly sourced large data sets. His future research directions include the investigation of links between property markets and credit markets, taxation, demographic composition and macroeconomy.

About Iqbal

After completing his bachelor and master degrees in Economics at the University of Dhaka (Bangladesh), Iqbal worked in the economic evaluation team for a number of development projects, including flood prevention and irrigation projects, and taught economics in tertiary educational institutions, including the University of Dhaka and the Chartered Accountants Institute. He received a Fulbright Scholarship and Tuition Fellowship to pursue his MA in Economics at New York University (1998–2000). After gaining his MA from NYU, Iqbal worked as a Lecturer/Assistant Professor at the University of Dhaka where he taught a range of courses including Microeconomics, Managerial Economics, Econometrics, International Trade, and Mathematics and Statistics for Economists.

After teaching for three years, Iqbal commenced his doctoral research in 2004 in the School of Economics at the University of New South Wales (UNSW). His PhD thesis “Understanding Price Movements: Measurement of Price Rigidity and Pure Price Change” studied the measurement of price rigidity in retail markets, the use of scanner data in constructing the consumer price index, and the construction of multilateral price indexes for housing in the presence of missing data. While studying for his doctorate, Iqbal worked as a tutor/teaching assistant for the School and as a research assistant on a project examining house prices in Australia.

Since completing his PhD in 2008, Iqbal has worked as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in Australian Research Council (ARC) funded research projects affiliated with the School of Economics and the Centre for Applied Economic Research (CAER) at UNSW. He has also taught courses and administered online courses offered by the School of Economics. In 2014, in partnership with colleagues from UNSW and CorVal Partners Limited / RF Capital, Iqbal received an ARC grant to undertake research on property markets (2014–2017). He currently holds a Senior Research Associate position in the Real Estate Initiative program of CAER, UNSW Business School.

Journal Articles

Melser D; Syed IA, 2017, 'The product life cycle and sample representativity bias in price indexes' Applied Economics, vol. 49, pp. 573 - 586, http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00036846.2016.1203060
Syed IA; De Haan J, 2017, 'AGE, TIME, VINTAGE, AND PRICE INDEXES: MEASURING THE DEPRECIATION PATTERN OF HOUSES' Economic Inquiry, vol. 55, pp. 580 - 600, http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/ecin.12383
Fox KJ; Syed IA, 2016, 'Price discounts and the measurement of inflation' Journal of Econometrics, vol. 191, pp. 398 - 406, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jeconom.2015.12.010
Hill RJ; Syed IA, 2016, 'Hedonic price-rent ratios, user cost, and departures from equilibrium in the housing market' Regional Science and Urban Economics, vol. 56, pp. 60 - 72, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.regsciurbeco.2015.11.001
Melser D; Syed IA, 2016, 'Life Cycle Price Trends and Product Replacement: Implications for the Measurement of Inflation' Review of Income and Wealth, vol. 62, pp. 509 - 533, http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/roiw.12166
Hill RJ; Syed IA, 2015, 'Improving International Comparisons of Prices at Basic Heading Level: An Application to the Asia-Pacific Region' Review of Income and Wealth, vol. 61, pp. 515 - 539, http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/roiw.12116
Hill RJ; Melser D; Syed I, 2009, 'Measuring a boom and bust: The Sydney housing market 2001-2006' Journal of Housing Economics, vol. 18, pp. 193 - 205, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jhe.2009.07.010

Conference Papers

Syed IA, 2006, 'Estimating Price Rigidity in Coffee Markets: A Cross Country Comparison' in Estimating Price Rigidity in Coffee Markets: A Cross Country Comparison, Ph.D Conference in Economics and Business, Australian National University, Canberra, Australia, presented at Ph.D Conference in Economics and Business, Australian National University, Canberra, Australia, 01 November 2006

Working Papers

Fox KJ; Syed IA, 2016, 'Price Discounts and the Measurement of Inflation: Further Results'
Syed IA, 2015, 'Sales Spotter: An Algorithm to Identify Sale Prices in Point-of-Sale Data', UNSW Business School Research Paper No. 2015 ECON 13, Sydney
Fox KJ; Syed IA, 2014, 'Price Discounts and the Measurement of Inflation', Australian School of Business Research Paper No. 2014 ECON 05, University of New South Wales, Sydney
Melser D; Syed IA, 2013, 'Prices over the Product Life Cycle: Implications for Quality-Adjustment and the Measurement of Inflation', Australian School of Business Research Paper No. 2013 ECON 26, University of New South Wales, Sydney
Hill RJ; Syed IA, 2012, 'Hedonic price-rent ratios, user cost, and departures from equilibrium in the housing market', Graz Economics Papers GEP 2012-08, University of Graz, Graz
Syed IA, 2010, 'Consistency of Hedonic Price Indexes with Unobserved Characteristics', UNSW Australian School of Business Research Papers No. 2010 ECON 03, Sydney
Hill RJ; Syed IA, 2010, 'Improving International Comparisons of Real Output: The ICP 2005 Benchmark and its Implications for China', UNSW Australian School of Business Research Papers No. 2010 ECON 25, Sydney
Hill RJ; Melser D; Syed IA, 2009, 'Measuring the Boom and Bust: The Sydney Housing Market 2001-2006', UNSW School of Economics Discussion Paper 2009/08, Sydney
Syed IA; Hill RJ; Melser D, 2008, 'Flexible Spatial and Temporal Hedonic Price Indexes for Housing in the Presence of Missing Data', UNSW School of Economics Discussion Paper 2008/14