Fully-funded studentships as part of the University of Manchester’s and the University of Melbourne’s Global Doctoral Research Network are currently available on selected projects. The successful candidate will spend at least 12 months at each institution and will receive a dual PhD at the end of the programme.

PhD Project Title:  Transportation and housing market interactions in cities: infrastructure changes and urban form, housing needs and policy implications.

Project brief description: The nexus between transport infrastructure demand and housing needs is fraught with significant challenges. As increasing land development is made possible by infrastructure improvements, the dynamics for residential developments change with both short and longer terms implications. The first aim of the proposed PhD is to identify the indirect value of transportation infrastructure reflected in property market appreciation. This can be achieved by integrating the recent innovations in house price modelling and further developing the methodological framework. The second aim of PhD research is to gain insights on the policy implications of transport improvement by analysing their long term effects and explicitly addressing the aspects of affordability, population dynamics, and inflection points of capacity constraints. This can be achieved by employing machine learning, simulations, and/or small area city wide panel models.

The candidate will have a solid background in urban analytics, urban/regional/transport/behavioural economics, applied econometrics, planning, or real estate. Excellent skills in statistical/econometric analysis is a requirement.