Dr Liu’s teaching and research interests are in the field of applied microeconomics.

Research interests/expertise

• Wage structure in Vietnam and China
• Wage gap of immigrants and natives in Australia
• Assessing development: designing better indices of poverty and gender equity
• Wage gap and consumption distribution in Pakistan

Her research on gender issues published in the Journal of Comparative Economics and Oxford Development Studies in 2004 was recognized by Pham and Reilly (2007) in the Journal of Asian Economics as the first systematic studies on the gender pay gap in Vietnam. Her research on children’s schooling complements the research on gender by focusing on the factors that disadvantage girls’ education. The results were reported in Vietnamese newspapers such as ‘Tuoi Tre’ and were published in the Asian Economics Journal in 2001 and 2004. Her work on inequality and poverty in Vietnam has led to publications in the Asian Economics Journal in 2001and Economic Systems in 2008.
She has also worked on wage structure in Vietnam which led to a research grant from the International Centre for the Study of East Asian Development (ICEAD), Japan in 2004. Her article published in Economics of Transition (2006) examines the role of demand in the rising returns of education in Vietnam. Her co-authored article on union wage gap in Australia was published by the Economic Record in 2008. Another co-authored paper that examines the Australian public-private wage gap using semi-parametric decomposition method is forthcoming in the British Journal of Industrial Review. In 2009, she is the Chief Investigator of the successfully funded Australian Research Council (ARC) Linkage project which seeks to develop a multidimensional development measure for poverty and gender equality.

Current projects

• Wage structure in Vietnam and China
• Wage gap of immigrants and natives in Australia
• Assessing development: designing better indices of poverty and gender equity

Selected publications

• P. Frijters, X. Meng, and A.Y.C. Liu (2012). ‘An optimistic expectation keeping the Chinese happy?’, Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, Vol. 81(1): 159-171.
  » view publication
• Cai, L. and A.Y.C. Liu (2011). ‘Public-private wage gap in Australia: Variation along the distribution’, British Journal of Industrial Relations, Vol. 49(2): 362-390.
  » view publication
• Cai, L. and A. Y.C. Liu (2010). ‘Public-private wage gap in Australia: Variation along the distribution, British Journal of Industrial Relations, forthcoming.
• Cai, L. and A. Y.C. Liu (2008). ‘Union wage effects in Australia: Is there variation along the distribution?’, Economics Record, 84(267):496-510.
  » view publication [PDF, 285KB]
• Liu, A. Y.C. (2008). ‘Changes in urban inequality in Vietnam: 1992-1998’, Economic Systems, 32(4): 410-425.
  » view publication [PDF, 361KB]
• Liu, A. Y.C. (2006). ‘Changing wage structure and education in Vietnam 1993-1998: The roles of demand”, Economics of Transition.
  » view publication [PDF, 163KB]
• Liu, A. Y.C. (2005). ‘Impact of economic reform on wage structure in Viet Nam’, East Asian Economic Perspectives, 16(2): 46-57.
• Liu, A. Y.C. (2004). ‘Changes in gender wage gap in Vietnam’,
  Journal of Comparative Economics, Vol. 32(3): 586-596.
  » view publication [PDF, 138KB]
• Liu, A. Y.C. (2004), 'Sectoral gender wage gap in Vietnam'.
  Oxford Development Studies, Vol. 32(2): 225-240.
  » view publication [PDF, 273KB]
• Liu, A.Y.C. (2004), 'Flying ducks? Girls' schooling in rural Vietnam - A revisit'.
  Asian Economics Journal, Vol. 18(3): 293-318.
  » view publication [PDF, 187KB]
• Liu, A.Y.C. (2001). 'Flying ducks? Girls' schooling in rural Vietnam'.
  Asian Economics Journal, 15(4): 385-403.
• Liu, A. Y.C. (2001) 'Market, inequality and poverty in Vietnam', Asian Economics Journal, 15(2): 217-235.
• Chapman, B., Y. Dunlop, M. Gray, Y.C. Liu and D. Mitchell. (2001). 'The impact of children on the lifetime earnings of Australian women: Evidence from the 1990s', Australian Economic Review, 34 (4):373-389.
• Cobb-Clark, D., D. Mitchell and Y.C. Liu (2000) 'Reassessing the role of child care costs in the work and care decisions of Australian families', Australian Bulletin of Labour, 26(4):279-297.

» view Google Scholar citations

Teaching

• Government, Markets and Global Change
  » CRWF8000
• Applied Microeconomics: Cost-Benefit Analysis
  » IDEC8001/IDEC8088

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