Our story

The Department of Econometrics and Business Statistics has played a significant role in the history of Monash University. Professor Don Cochrane was the Foundation Dean of what is now the Monash Business School. In 1949, Professor Cochrane and Professor Guy Orcutt published a pair of groundbreaking articles presenting an ingenious method of estimating time series models ‑ a method now known to generations of econometrics and statistics students as the 'Cochrane-Orcutt procedure'.

Professor Cochrane went on to create an environment in which econometrics flourished. In 1968 he established Australia's first Chair in Econometrics, awarded to Professor Alan Powell. These developments led to the creation of the Department, which is world renowned for the quality of its teaching and research.

This vibrant culture and drive continues today, and the department has grown to also cover statistics, business analytics, data science, and actuarial studies.

Teaching excellence

We pride ourselves on our contemporary and engaging teaching activities, much of which is informed by our research. Our academic staff provide quantitative training in all relevant courses offered by Monash Business School. Our classes are often ‘flipped’, where students are expected to prepare online pre-class activities and then apply this knowledge in class. Our academic staff have written world-renowned textbooks, including an innovative, free and online textbook on forecasting, which is used by an average of 1500 people per day.

Our teaching innovations have been recognised through the Monash Business School annual Dean’s Awards for Teaching Excellence. These awards foster a strong teaching environment and our staff are regular recipients, further acknowledging the innovative teaching approaches that we employ to influence, motivate and inspire our students to learn.

Our actuarial program is fully accredited by the Actuaries Institute of Australia, and has been designated a Center of Actuarial Excellence (CAE) by the Society of Actuaries (SOA, US). Our business analytics program is fully accredited by the Statistical Society of Australia.

Industry engagement

We have strong ties with industry and government, with our academics providing consulting advice on planning, decision making and analytics including forecasting, econometric and statistical analysis and statistical reporting. We are also at the forefront of statistical software development, especially through the open source R project

The Department maintains strong professional links with the Centre for Development Economics and Sustainability. Through this Centre, our academic staff are engaged in high-impact research focusing on development programs in Indonesia and East Timor.