Lecture by Dr. Chunbo Ma from University of Western Australia

On September 29,2014, Dr. Chunbo Ma from University of Western Australia gave a lecture for teachers and students of CoME which was entitled “Solar Capitalization in Western Australian Property Market” .More than 40 people, including Faclties from College of Management and Economics, School of Architecture, School of Environmental Sciencs and Engineering, and graduate students and Ph.D candidates attended the lecture.

Chunbo Ma received his Ph.D. in Ecological Economics, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, United States and his B.Sc. in Economics, Nankai University. He is currently an Assistant Professor (tenured in 2012) in School of Agricultural and Resource Economics, Faculty of Natural and Agricultural Sciences, UWA, Perth, Australia as well as a Research Associate in Centre for Environmental Economics and Policy, University of Western Australia, Perth, Australia. He published nearly ten papers on , and other top journal of related areas. Because of the valuable achievements, he was offered the Australia-China Emerging Future Leaders Fellowship in Low Emission Coal Technology, Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering (ATSE), 2013. His research interests cover the Environmental Economics, Energy Economics, Environmental Risks and Policy, Spatial Econometrics and etc..

Dr. Chunbo Ma first introduced the development of the Australian housing market, and analysed why the private and public benefits of renewable energy are studied. Followed that, he forwarded three models and data that might benefit the study, and then explained why one of them is prefered. This study provided the first empirical estimate of the price premium of properties with PV panels in Australia by using a large sample of property sales data and high-resolution aerial maps.The results may gave valuable implications for property owners, builders, financial institutions, PV retailers, and policy makers. There was an interactive atmosphere during the lecture. Dr. Chunbo Ma gave patient and humorous answers to the forwarded questions.