Bryce Hool, Professor of Economics and Dean of the School of Economics, joined SMU in 1 January 2012. Professor Hool has spent 15 years with the University of Auckland, holding the positions of Professor of Economics, Head of the Department of Economics and Associate Dean (International) of the Faculty of Business and Economics. Under his leadership, the department rose to top national research ranking and became among the top economics schools in the southern hemisphere. Professor Hool also chaired and served on many leadership committees and advisory groups on academic review, staffing and budgeting including being a member of the Academic Standards Council of Universitas 21, a consortium of universities in Asia-Pacific, Europe and the Americas.
Prior to that, he was with the State University of New York at Stony Brook for 17 years in various appointments as Professor of Economics, Chair of the Department of Economics, Director of the Institute for Decision Sciences, Dean of the Division of Social and Behavioural Sciences, Chair of the Council of Deans and rising to Provost and Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs. While at Stony Brook, he was responsible for major interdisciplinary programme developments including the expansion of the Institute for Decision Sciences with an emphasis on game theory, the establishment of the Institute for the Conservation of Tropical Environments and the Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies.
Professor Hool’s primary research interest is in natural resources. His current research focuses on the extraction of exhaustible resources and optimal payment schemes for extraction contracts, among other projects on government policy affecting exploration and extraction of natural gas, cost-benefit analysis for transport infrastructure, and competitive cities and agglomeration. He obtained his PhD in Economics from the University of California at Berkeley; his Master of Commerce (First Class Honours in Economics) and Bachelor of Science (First Class Honours in Mathematics) from the University of Canterbury.
