Clem Tisdell


Clement Allan Tisdell was an Australian economist and Emeritus Professor at the University of Queensland. He was best known for his work in environmental and ecological economics.

Personal life

Tisdell was born in Taree, New South Wales on 18 November 1939.
He died on 14 July 2022 in Brisbane, Queensland.

Academic background

Clem Tisdell obtained his bachelor's degree in Commerce from the University of New South Wales in 1961 and his doctorate in Economics from the Australian National University in 1964. During his professorship he has occupied various academic offices: acting head of the Department of Economics at the Australian National University, dean of the Faculty of Economics and Commerce at the University of Newcastle, deputy director of the School of Marine Sciences and head of the Department of the School of Economics at the University of Queensland.

Academic interests

While Clem Tisdell was commonly recognised as an ecological economist, his research interests were diverse. His contribution to the literature on the environment, biodiversity conservation and sustainable development notwithstanding, his research and writing encompassed various areas that included poverty, trade and globalisation, economic development, welfare economics, tourism, natural resources, the economics and socioeconomics of China and India, socioeconomic gender issues, economic theory and the history of economic thought.
Clem Tisdell was among the top three most prolific economists in Australia. Apart from academic articles, he authored microeconomics textbooks and monographs on the economics of environmental conservation. Under the RePEc project, Tisdell was ranked among the top 5% of all registered economic authors. In terms of the 'number of distinct works' produced, RePEc ranked him No. 11 globally.

Selected publications

; Books
; Journal articles
; Papers
  • Tisdell, Clem. Elephants and polity in ancient India as exemplified by Kautilya's Arthasastra. Working papers in Economics, Ecology and the Environment, No. 120. School of Economics, University of Queensland: Brisbane, Queensland.
  • Tisdell, Clem. The production of biofuels: welfare and environmental consequences for Asia. Working papers in Economics, Ecology and the Environment, No. 159. School of Economics, University of Queensland: Brisbane, Queensland.