CEPAR research fellow Dr Mengyi Xu from UNSW has been awarded the prize for Best CEPAR PhD thesis in 2017 for her thesis on Retirement savings and housing under the supervision of CEPAR Chief Investigator Professor Michael Sherris, and Dr Adam Wenqiang Shao and Dr Jennifer Alonso-Garcia who both were CEPAR research fellows during the period of Mengyi Xu’s candidacy.
“We received a number of excellent nominations for the award this year, demonstrating the high standard of CEPAR PhD student research,” said CEPAR Director Professor John Piggott.
“Mengyi’s thesis addressed an important issue in retirement research both pre and post retirement, filling important gaps in the actuarial literature,” said her supervisor, Professor Michael Sherris.
Her thesis examiners found “the research questions identified and studied […] to be interesting, novel and relevant [and] the research methodology to be rigorous and the empirical analyses carefully executed.”
The research provides new insights and has important implications for investment strategies of defined contribution funds.
Dr Xu will present her research as part of the closing plenary session of the Emerging Researchers in Ageing (ERA) Conference which will be held this year on 19 - 20 November at Monash University’s Caulfield Campus.
“I feel very honoured to receive this prize, and I would like to sincerely thank the committee and my supervisors,” said Dr Xu.
This year, for the first time, the prize is awarded as a commemoration of Professor Hal Kendig, who was a Chief Investigator in CEPAR, and an important influence on the policy debate around ageing in this country and internationally.