Crawford School of Public Policy

As shares slide in Asian financial markets, the global economy fears a new financial crisis could be waiting in the wings.

But what causes financial contagion, and how can it be avoided in the future? That’s the question to be addressed by Crawford alumna and fellowship recipient Dr Hai Anh La.

Dr La will spend four months at Crawford School looking at financial shock transmission in Asia and contributing to global research in the wake of the crisis.

Dr La has been awarded the 2015 Australia-APEC Women in Research Fellowship and has come back to Crawford to undertake this research project.

The competitive fellowship is funded and organised by the Australian Department of Education and Training to support high-achieving female researchers from developing APEC economies to work together with Australian education and research institutions. Up to 10 fellowships are awarded each year.

Dr La is currently a senior researcher at the Vietnam Academy of Social Science and works on research projects with organisations such as the World Bank and UNDP.

She studied a Bachelor of Finance and a Masters of Development Economics in her home country of Vietnam before undertaking her PhD in International and Development Economics at Crawford School in 2007 through the AusAID Scholarship Program.

“I decided to do my PhD program at Crawford because many former students have been very successful in their careers and are among the best economists in Vietnam - their success inspired me to do the same,” she said.

“The research skills I developed while doing my PhD have become assets in my role at the Centre for Analysis and Forecasting (CAF) of Vietnam Academy of Social Sciences.

“My research projects included a project on fiscal decentralisation in Vietnam and a large scale European project NOPOOR on governance program.”

She first became aware of the fellowship via the Australia Awards Alumni email group and it sparked an interest to work with former Crawford colleagues.

“I thought the fellowship would provide me with an opportunity to collaborate with Australian scholars on research projects of common interest,” she said.

“I am looking forward to working with Dr Ying Xu again, who will be my main collaborator in Australia under the fellowship.

“We have past experience of fruitful collaboration. I was a team member of a recently completed research project led by her on foreign banks and international shock transmission in the Asian region.”

Despite great success in her career so far, Dr La is excited about a new opportunity.

“When finding out I won this fellowship I felt really happy and proud of myself because this fellowship was really competitive. I was selected from 75 applicants in ten APEC countries.

She is also pleased to be back at The Australian National University.

“ANU has a one of the world’s highest rankings, has good facilities, quality seminar series’ and it has many top researchers in my field of interest,” she said.

“In the future, like my fellow Crawford graduates, I want to be a good economist and have a successful career.”

By Kelly Hayward

Discover how you can advance your career with a postgraduate qualification from Crawford School at the ANU postgraduate information evening on Thursday 15 October.