Academy Fellow

Professor Alan Duncan is Director of the Bankwest Curtin Economics Centre (BCEC) and John Curtin Distinguished Professor at Curtin University. Prior to taking up the position of BCEC Director in 2013, Alan was Director of the National Centre for Social and Economic Modelling (NATSEM) at the University of Canberra. He was previously Head of School and a Professor of Economics at Nottingham School of Economics, University of Nottingham and has also held positions at the University of York and the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS). 

Alan’s research is motivated by a passion to influence public debates on economic and social issues through rigorous, evidence-based research. He has a broad range of interests covering labour and workforce issues, gender equity, economic evaluation, public policy, poverty and inequality, the distribution of income and wealth, housing, migration, household wellbeing and childcare affordability. 

Alan ranks among the top 5% of economists worldwide, having published widely in both academic and policy outlets of the highest international reputation. He has published widely in both academic and policy outlets, with articles appearing in journals of the highest international reputation, including Econometrica, the Economic Journal, the European Economic Review, the Journal of International Economics, the Economic Record, the Journal of Human Resources, the Journal of Applied Econometrics and Fiscal Studies. 

Alan completed a DPhil in Economics at the University of York. He has served on senior advisory panels and boards for government and public sector organisations in Australia, the United Kingdom, Europe and the US, and has given evidence at numerous Federal Senate Committee inquiries, advising on areas including tax policy, pensions, labour markets and household welfare. Alan has served as instructor to World Bank country experts on policy evaluation and was invited by the International Monetary Fund to serve as a Mission Expert to the People’s Republic of China Technical Assistance mission on tax reform and employment incentives. He was an invited participant at the Australian Government’s Jobs and Skills Summit held in Parliament House in Canberra in September 2022. 

Alan was awarded one of the world’s most prestigious prizes in economics, the Frisch Medal of the Econometric Society in 2000 for a paper published in the world-leading journal Econometrica. 

In 2020, Alan was awarded the title of John Curtin Distinguished Professor at Curtin University in recognition of his research scholarship and sustained contribution to Curtin and the wider community. He was recently named the 2023 recipient of the prestigious Austin Holmes Award in recognition of his substantial contribution as an economist in Western Australia to research and public policy discourse over the course of his career. 

Director, Bankwest Curtin Economics Centre (BCEC), and  

John Curtin Distinguished Professor, Curtin University 

2023: The 2023 Austin Holmes Award, from the Economic Society of Australia (WA Branch) for sustained contributions to the economics profession. 

2020: The title of John Curtin Distinguished Professor in recognition of research scholarship and sustained contribution to Curtin and the wider community. 

2016: Recipient, the Ashley Goldsworthy Award for Sustained Collaboration between Industry and Tertiary Education, awarded by B/HERT (Business-Higher Education Roundtable). 

2002: The R I Downing Fellowship, University of Melbourne, 2002. 

2000: The Ragnar Frisch Medal (awarded biennially by the Econometric Society for the best applied paper published in the journal Econometrica during the previous five years), 2000. 

1. Duncan, A.S., A. Mavisakalyan, L. L. Vu and M. Windsor (2026), "Product of our environment? Place effects on Body Mass Index", Social Science & Medicine, Volume 388, January, Article 118728. 

2. Cassells, R., A. Duncan, A.S., Hailemariam and A. Mavisakalyan (2025), "Workplace policy responses to family and domestic violence: Assessing employers’ costs and benefits of providing 10 days paid leave", The Economic and Labour Relations Review, Volume 36, Number 2, June, pp. 388–409. 

3. Duncan, A.S., M. N. Harris, A. Mavisakalyan and T. Nguyen (2020), "Migration flows in commodity cycles: Assessing the role of migration policies", European Economic Review, Volume 127, August, Article 103458. 

4. Nguyen, H. T. and A.S. Duncan (2017), "Exchange rate fluctuations and immigrants' labour market outcomes: New evidence from Australian household panel data", Journal of International Economics, Volume 105, March, pp. 174–186. 

5. Blundell, R.W., A.S. Duncan and C.H.D. Meghir (1998), "Estimating Labor Supply Responses Using Tax Reforms", Econometrica, Volume 66, Number 4, July, pp. 827–862.