Women in Economics Network (WEN)

WEN Special Session

Tuesday 11am

Celebrating Women Economists in the Past 100 Years

This session honours the contributions of women economists who have shaped the discipline over the past century in Australia — across academia, public policy, and industry. Speakers will reflect on the legacies of pioneering figures, highlight ongoing challenges, and discuss the progress made in fostering a more inclusive economics profession. The session aims to inspire the next generation by showcasing the impact and leadership of women in economics, both past and present.

Speaker: Professor Deborah Cobb-Clark, University of Sydney

Deborah Cobb-Clark AO FASSA is Professor and Deputy Head (Research) in the School of Economics at the University of Sydney. She is Deputy Director of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Children and Families Over the Life Course; an Officer of the Order of Australia; an elected Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences in Australia; and a Distinguished Fellow of the Economic Society of Australia. She is passionate about preventing poor children from becoming poor adults. Her research centres on building psychological concepts (locus of control, self-control, risk attitudes) into economic models of family decision-making. She studies the way that poverty affects the attention (cognitive capacity) parents have available; the role of depression, risk attitudes, and welfare receipt in risk-taking behaviour; the role of locus of control and self-control in human capital formation; and the link between parents’ self-control and children’s outcomes.

Speaker: Dr Luci Ellis, Chief Economist at Westpac Banking Group

Luci Ellis has been Westpac Group’s Chief Economist since October 2023. Prior to joining Westpac, Australia’s first bank, Luci held various senior positions over a three-decade career in central banking, including RBA Assistant Governor (Economic) 2017–2023, RBA Head of Financial Stability 2008–2017 and stints at the Bank of International Settlements and the European Central Bank. She has a PhD from UNSW, a Masters in Economics from ANU and a B.Com (Hons) degree from University of Melbourne. Luci has been a member of the Australian Statistical Advisory Council since 2015 and is a member of the Melbourne Institute Advisory Board.

Speaker: Dr Jenny Gordon, Non-resident Fellow at the Lowy Institute and Honorary Professor at the Centre for Social Research and Methods at the Australian National University

Dr Jenny Gordon is a Honorary Professor at POLIS: the Centre for Social Policy Research at the Australian National University. She is also a non-resident fellow at the Lowy Institute, one of Australia’s leading think tanks on foreign policy. Jenny serves on the Asian Development Bank Institute’s (ADBI) Advisory Committee, and is a non-executive director for NCEconomics, part of the Alluvium Group. In 2024 Jenny was a visiting fellow at the Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Business and Government at the Kennedy School at Harvard University and at Blavatnik School of Government and Business at Oxford University. Jenny was a member of the Australian International Agricultural Research Centre’s Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning Advisory Panel from 2020 to 2024, and in 2023 she served as a co-chair for the Taskforce on Peace, Stability and Governance for the T7, organised by the ADBI. Jenny was the Chief Economist at DFAT from 2019 to 2021, joining DFAT from Nous Group, where she was the Chief Economist. Jenny spent 10 years with the Australian Productivity Commission as Principal Adviser (Research) from 2008. From 1995 to 2008 worked at The Centre for International Economics (TheCIE), becoming a pattern in 2002. She has a PhD in Economics from Harvard University and started her professional career at the Reserve Bank of Australia.