Department of Economics and Finance

I am a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) Charterholder and a certified Financial Risk Manager (FRM). I have been the Principal Contact of the CFA Institute University Affiliation Program at the University of Canterbury (UC) since 2014. In my role, I process applications and offer scholarships to UC students to take the CFA exams, and ensure that our two affiliated programs - Bachelor of Commerce with a Major in Finance and Master of Financial Analysis - are closely aligned with the CFA Program curriculum. Being interested in financial education and giving back to the profession, I have been doing various volunteer work relating to the CFA Program, CFA Institute Research Challenge (Asia-Pacific and Western U.S. rounds), practice analysis, and professional misconduct monitoring for the CFA Institute. I was the organiser/ academic adviser and led UC student team to the top three performers in the national CFA Institute Research Challenge for a number of years.

I have been teaching at both undergraduate level (Fixed Income Securities, Investments) and postgraduate level (Equity Valuation, Investment Analysis and Portfolio Management, Credit Risk Management, Sustainable Finance). My teaching covers challenging topics included in the CFA Program curriculum, and helps students be well-prepared to take the CFA exams which have low pass rates. I have also led students to conduct research projects on applied finance topics, including those sponsored by Christchurch-based investment bank Northington Partners and financial advisory firm Bradley Nuttall (renamed Cambridge Partners), each resulted in a refereed publication. My students and Teaching/ Reseach Assistants have been offered analyst roles at financial institutions in Australia and New Zealand, and recently, the central government agency New Zealand Treasury.

My research portfolio includes multi-disciplinary studies on culture, credit risk, portfolio management, and sustainability. My co-authored research has been published in highly respected journals, for example, the Journal of Financial Economics and the Journal of Environmental Management. Since 2020, I have been an Associate Editor of the Journal of Applied Accounting Research (Quartile 1/ Scimago) published by Emerald. I am also an Advisory Board member of the project “Resilient Investment for Sustainable Environments” (RISE-IN), a Consortium of 26 parties including the UC and Christchurch City Council working under the Horizon Europe Grant # 101214441 with an aim to narrowing the gap between environmental resilience and financial viability. 

Research interests include international finance, behavioural finance, corporate finance, financial development and applied econometrics.

I began my academic career at UC in August 1993 and have been on the academic staff since then. My main contribution throughout this time has been to ensure that the quality of teaching monetary macroeconomics at UC is on par with its peer institutions, or arguably better. If one takes account of the many contributions that graduates of our Honours/Masters programme have made to discussions of economic issues in the public sphere and policymaking in general, then I can say with pride that I have accomplished my mission. 

My research has benefited immensely from being able to spend lengthy intervals away from campus. With gratitude I acknowledge the generous support from central banks and other universities around the globle. The ability to work alongside international experts in the field has greatly influenced the breadth and depth of my research agenda.

I am currently serving as co-editor of Contemporary Economic Policy. This journal is published by the Western Economic Association. 

Prof. Koska’s principal research interests are broadly in applied microeconomic theory, with a special focus on international trade, industrial organisation, multinational firm behavior and foreign direct investment.

He received his Ph.D. degree in Economics in 2010 from the University of Otago (New Zealand), and joined the UC in March 2019. Before having joined UC, he was an Associate Professor at the Middle East Technical University (METU), Turkey (2015-2019), and Assistant Professor at the University of Tübingen, Germany (2011-2015) and at the University of Würzburg, Germany (2009-2011).

Prof. Koska has published independently and with collaborators from New Zealand, Australia, Canada, the USA, Germany and Turkey, in various highly-regarded academic journals such as Journal of International Economics, Review of International Economics, Economic Inquiry, Review of World Economics, Journal of Public Economic Theory, and Southern Economic Journal.

He is currently serving as Editor-in-Chief of New Zealand Economics Papers (NZEP), and Council Member of New Zealand Association of Economists (NZAE). He is also one of the co-organisers of the Australasian Trade Workshop and one of the co-founders / co-organisers of the PhD Summer Institute in International Trade & Industrial Organisation.

Chunxiao Lu joined the University of Canterbury in November 2025 as a Lecturer in Finance. Her research interests lie in empirical asset pricing, political finance, investments, institutional investors, ESG, and international finance. She completed her PhD in Finance at the University of Melbourne.

I am an academic economist, with over 25 yeas of professional experience spanning teaching, research, university administration, governance and other external service. My research spans different topics in Applied Microeconomics, including Industrial Organisation, Economics of Competition Policy, International Trade and Wine Economics. I am currently the Head of the Department of Economics and Finance at University of Canterbury. I bring energy and commitment to everything I do, and I am passionate about bringing success of those I serve, be that the students, the staff in my department, my university or the organisations that I am involved with.

Research interests include empirical finance, behavioural finance, mutual funds, investments, SRI, and replications.

Qing (Sophie) Wang is a Senior Lecturer and the Programme Director for Master of Financial Analysis at the University of Canterbury. Her research interests span several key areas within empirical corporate finance, including venture capital, coporate toxic emissions, cash policies, and labor investment. Her articles have been accepted for publication in several high-ranking academic journals including the Journal of Management Studies (A*, FT50), Journal of Business Ethics(Old FT50), Journal of Corporate Finance (A*), Journal of Banking & Finance(A*) etc. She is currently an Editorial Board Member for Journal of Business Research (Q1, A).