Tom Kompas is the Director of the Crawford School of Economics and Government and Professor of Economics at The Australian National University (ANU). He is also the Foundation Director of the Australian Centre for Biosecurity and Environmental Economics (AC BEE), and has dedicated much of his recent time to public policy in Australia. Until recently, he was a part-time Senior Economist at the Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics (ABARE), a Commonwealth Environment Research Facilities (CERF) project leader on biosecurity and Editor-in-Chief of the Australian Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics. In 2010, Tom was appointed to the Eminent Scientists Group (ESG) in the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry. The ESG provides independent advice to the Minister on matters of biosecurity and risk analysis.

Tom's research specialises in economic dynamics, agricultural economics and natural resource and environmental economics. His bioeconomic modelling and biosecurity research has been published in the world's leading international journals (including Science, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences and Conservation Biology), and his current work focuses on the major biosecurity issues in Australia and internationally. In 2009, Tom received the 'CSIRO Medal for Research Achievement', in 2004, the 'Crawford Award for Research Excellence' from ABARE, and in 2011 the 'Eureka Prize for Water Research and Innovation'.

In 2009, Tom was a recipient of the University's highest award for teaching, the 2009 'Vice Chancellor's Award for Excellence in Teaching'. In 2008, Tom also received the 'Award for Teaching Excellence' from the College of Asia and the Pacific at ANU, and in 2010 he received a national teaching award, the Australian Learning and Teaching Council 'Citation for Outstanding Contribution to Student Learning'. He teaches Masters Microeconomics, Applied Economic Dynamics, and a component of the School's flagship course, Government, Markets and Global Change. 

Tom is currently a Board Member of the Australian National Institute of Public Policy, the Cairns Institute, the Crawford School of Economics and Government and the Victoria University of Wellington School of Government. He received his PhD in Economics from the University of Toronto in 1990.

Research interests/expertise

• Bioeconomic Modelling
• Economic dynamics and optimal control theory
• Natural resources and environmental economics
• Applied econometrics

Current projects

• Biosecurity and the economics of quarantine and surveillance
• Public infrastructure, social capital and growth
• Market reform and rice production in Vietnam
• Fisheries dynamics and management

Recent publications

• Q. Grafton, Tom Kompas, Nhu Che, Long Chu and Ray Hilborn, (2011) 'BMEY as a Fisheries Management Target',  Fish and Fisheries, 8 Nov 2011.
• Quentin Grafton, Michael Ward, Hang To and Tom Kompas, (2011) 'Determinants of Residential Water Consumption: Evidence and Analysis from a Ten-country Survey,' Water Resources Research, 47(8).
• Tom Kompas, Tuong Nhu Che, Hoa Thi Minh Nguyen, Ha Quang Nguyen, (2011) 'Productivity, Net Returns and Efficiency: Land and Market Reform in Vietnamese Rice Production', Land Economics, in press.
• Quentin Grafton, Long Chu, Michael Stewardson and Tom Kompas, (2011) 'Optimal Dynamic Water Allocation: Irrigation Extractions and Environmental Tradeoffs in the Murray River, Australia,' Water Resources Research, 47 June.
• Quentin Grafton, Sonia Akter and Tom Kompas, (2011) 'A Policy-enabling Environment for the Ex-ante Evaluation of Marine Protected Areas,' Ocean and Coastal Management, 54(6), 478-87.
• Trevor Breusch, Michael Ward, Hoa Thi Minh Nguyen and Tom Kompas, (2011) ‘FEVD: Just IV or Just Mistaken?’ Political Analysis, 19, 165-69.
• Trevor Breusch, Michael Ward, Hoa Thi Minh Nguyen and Tom Kompas, (2011) ‘On the Fixed-Effects Vector Decomposition’, Political Analysis, 19, 123-34. 
• Joko Mariyono, Budy Resosudarmo, Tom Kompas and Quentin Grafton, (2010) ‘Understanding environmental and social inefficiencies in Indonesian rice production,’ in Economic Transition and Natural Resource Management in East and South East Asia, V. Beckman et al. (eds.), Shaker Verlag, Aachen.
• L. Little, R. Q. Grafton, Tom Kompas, A. D. M. Smith, Andre Punt and B. Mapstone, (2010) ‘Complementarity of No-Take Marine Reserves and Individual Transferable Catch Quotas for Managing the Line Fishery of the Great Barrier Reef,’ Conservation Biology, 25, 333-340.
• Satoshi Yamazki, R. Quentin Grafton and Tom Kompas, (2010) 'Non-consumptive values and optimal marine reserve switching," Ecological Economics, 69, 2427-2434.
• Tom Kompas, Quentin Grafton and Nhu Che, (2010) ‘Bioeconomic Losses from Overharvesting Tuna’, Conservation Letters, 3, 177-83.
• R. Quentin Grafton, Tom Kompas, Chu Long and Nhu Che, ‘Maximum Economic Yield,’ (2010), Special Fisheries Issue (Diane Dupont, guest editor), Australian Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics, 54, 273-80.
• Tanira Tingi and Tom Kompas, (2010) ‘Rural Reform and Fiji’s Indigenous Sugarcane Growers: An Application of Stochastic Frontier Analysis,’ Pacific Economic Bulletin, 25, 42-61.
• R. Quentin Grafton, Tom Kompas and Ray Hilborn, ‘Limits to the Privatization of Fisheries Resources; Comment,” (2010) Land Economics, 86, 609-13.
• Tom Kompas, Cathy Dichmont, Andre Punt, A. Deng, T. N. Che, J. Bishop, P. Gooday, Y. Ye and S. Zhou, (2010) ‘Maximizing Profits and Conserving Stocks in the Australian Northern Prawn Fishery’, Special Fisheries Issue (Diane Dupont, guest editor), Australian Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics, 54, 281-99.
• Andre E. Punt, Roy A. Deng, Cathy Dichmont, Tom Kompas, William Venables, Shijie Zhou, Sean Pascoe, Trevor Hutton, Rob Kenyon, Tonya van der Velde and Marco Kienzle, ‘Integrating Size-structured Assessment and Bioeconomic Management Advice in Australia’s Northern Prawn Fishery,’ (2010), ICES Journal of Marine Science, 67, 1785-1801.
• Joko Mariyono, Tom Kompas and R. Quentin Grafton, ‘Shifting from the Green Revolution to Environmentally Sound Policies:  Technological Change in Indonesian Rice Agriculture’, (2010) Journal of Asia Pacific Economy, 15, 128-147.
• Rich Little, R. Quentin Grafton, Tom Kompas and Tony D. Smith, (2010) ‘Closure strategies as a tool for fisheries management in metapopulations subjected to catastrophic events’, Fisheries Management and Ecology, 17, 346-55.
• Tom Kompas, R. Quentin Grafton, Pham Van Ha, Nhu Che and Long Chu (2010) ‘Bioeconomic Modeling of Marine Reserves with Environmental Uncertainty,’ in Handbook of Marine Fisheries Conservation and Management, London: Oxford University Press.
• Cathy Dichmont, Sean Pascoe, Tom Kompas, Andre Punt and R. Dung, (2010) ‘On Implementing Maximum Economic Yield in Commercial Fisheries’, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Vol 107:16-21
  
• R. Quentin Grafton, David Campbell, Christopher Costello, Ray Hilborn and Tom Kompas, (2009) ‘Comment on “Abdicating Responsibility: The Deceits of Fisheries Policy”,’ Fisheries, 34, 292-94.
• Nazmun N. Ratna, R. Quentin Grafton and Tom Kompas, (2009) ‘Is Diversity Bad for Economic Growth? Evidence from State-level Data in the US,’ Journal of Socio-Economics, 38, 859-70.
  
• R. Quentin Grafton, Tom Kompas, and Pham Van Ha, (2009) ‘Cod Today and None Tomorrow: The Economic Value of a Marine Reserve’, Land Economics, 85 (3): 454-469
  
• Thi Bich Tran, Quentin Grafton, Tom Kompas, (2009) ‘Contribution of productivity and firm size to value-added: Evidence from Vietnam’, International J. Production Economics, 121, 274-285
  
• Thi Bich Tran, R. Quentin Grafton and Tom Kompas, (2009) ‘Institutions Matter: The Case of Vietnam’, Journal of Socio-Economics, 38, 1-12.
• Satoshi Yamazaki, Tom Kompas and R. Quentin Grafton, (2009) ‘Output Versus Input Controls Under Uncertainty: The Case of a Fishery,’ Natural Resource Modeling, 22, 212-236.
  
• C. Dichmont, A. Deng, A. Punt, N. Ellis, W. Venables, T. Kompas, Y. Ye, S. Zhou and J. Bishop, (2008) ‘Beyond Biological Performance Measures in Management Strategy Evaluation: Bringing in Economics and the Effects of Trawling on the Benthos’, Fisheries Research, 94, 238-50.
• Tom Kompas, Nhu Che and Quentin Grafton, (2008) ‘Fisheries Instrument Choice under Uncertainty’, Land Economics, 84, 652-66.
  
• Tran Thi Bich, Grafton R. and Kompas, Tom (2008),‘Firm Efficiency in a Transitional Economy: Evidence from Vietnam,’ Asian Economic Journal, 22, 47-66
  
• Kompas, T. and R. Kuk (2008) ‘Managing the Gulf of Papua Prawn Fishery: Sustainability, Maximum Returns and Cooperation between Commercial Fishing and Indigenous Fishing Communities’, Pacific Economic Bulletin, 23, 29-38
  
• Nazmun Ratna, Anne Dray, Pascal Perez, R. Quentin Grafton, and Tom Kompas (2008) ‘Innovation Diffusion among Heterogeneous Agents: Exploring Complexity with Agent Based Modeling (ABM)’, in Applications of Complex Adaptive Systems, Y. Shang and A. Yang (eds.), London, IGI Publishing
• Nazmun Ratna, Anne Dray, Pascal Perez, R. Quentin Grafton, David Newth and Tom Kompas, (2008) "Diffusion and Social Networks: Revisiting Medical Innovation with Agents," in Complex Decision Making: Theory and Practice, Hans Qudrat-Ullah, J. Michael Specter, Pal Davidsen (eds.), Berlin: Springer.
• R. Quentin Grafton, Tom Kompas and Ray Hilborn, (2007) "The Economics of Overexploitation Revisited", Science, 318, 7 December, 1601.
  
• Grafton, Q., Kompas, T., McLoughlin, R., and Rayns, C., (2007) ‘Benchmarking for Fisheries Governance’, Marine Policy 31, 470-479.
  
• Grafton R., and Kompas, T., (2007) ‘Pricing Sydney Water’, Australian Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics, 51, 227-241.
  
• Grafton, R., Kompas, T. and Owen, D., (2007) ‘Bridging the barriers: knowledge connections, productivity and capital accumulation,’ Journal of Productivity Analysis.
  
• Kompas, T. and Gooday, P. (2007) ‘The failure of command and control approaches to fisheries management: lessons from Australia’, International Journal of Global Environmental Issues, 7, 174-190.
  
• Kompas, T. and Che, T.N. (2006) ‘Economic profit and optimal effort in the Western and Central Pacific tuna fisheries’, Pacific Economic Bulletin, 21, 46-62
  
• Kompas, T. and Che, T. N. (2006) ‘Technology Choice and Efficiency on Australian Dairy Farms’, Australian Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics, vol 50, 65-83
  
• Fox, K.J., R.Q. Grafton, T. Kompas and N. Che. (2006) ‘Capacity Reduction, Quota Trading and Productivity: The Case of a Fishery’, The Australian Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics, 50, pp. 189–206
  
• Grafton, R.Q., Kompas, T. and Pham, V. H. (2006) ‘The Economic Payoffs from Marine Reserves: Resource Rents in a Stochastic Environment’, Economic Record, Vol. 82, 469-480
  
• Grafton, R.Q., Arnason, R., Bjørndal, T., Campbell, D., Campbell, H.F., Clark, C.W., Connor, R., Dupont, D.P., Hannesson, R., Hilborn, R., Kirkley, J.E., Kompas, T., Lane, D.E., Munro, G.R.,  Pascoe, S., Squires, D., Steinshamn, S.I., Turris, B.R., Weninger, Q. (2006) "Incentive-Based Approaches to Sustainable Fisheries," Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences , 63: 699-710.
  
• Che, T. N.; Kompas, T. and Vousden, N. (2006), ‘Market reform, Incentives and Economic Development in Vietnamese Rice Production’, Comparative Economic Studies, Vol. 48, 277-301
  
• Kompas, T. (2005), ‘Fisheries Management: Economic Efficiency and the Concept of 'Maximum Economic Yield’. Australian Commodities, 12, 1:, 152-60.
  
• Kompas, T. (2005), ‘Economic Growth’. Encyclopedia of International Development, T. Forsythe (ed), Routledge, 2005, Online publication not available.
• Grafton, R.Q.; Kompas, T.; Lindemayor, D. (2005), ‘Marine reserves with ecological uncertainty’. Bulletin of Mathematical Biology, 67, 957-971
  
• Grafton, R.Q. Kompas, T.; (2005), ‘Uncertainty and the active adaptive management of marine resources’. Marine Policy, 29,471-479
  
• Kompas, T.; Che, T.; (2005), ‘Efficiency gains and cost reductions from individual transferable quotas: a stochastic cost frontier for the Australian south east fishery’. Journal of Productivity Analysis, 23, 285-307.
  
• Grafton, R.Q.; Kompas, T.; Schneider, V. (2005), ‘The bioeconomics of marine reserves: a selected review with policy implications’. Journal of Bioeconomics, 7, 161-78.
  
• Kompas, T.; Che, T.; Grafton, R. (2004), ‘Technical Efficiency Effects of Input Controls: Evidence from Australia’s Banana Prawn Fishery’. Applied Economics, 36, 1631-41.
  
• Kompas, T.; Che, T (2004), ‘Productivity in Australian Dairy Industry’. Review of Agribusiness, 12, 1-24.
  
• Che, T.; Kompas, T.; Vousden, N. (2001), ‘Incentives and static and dynamic gains from market reform: rice production in Vietnam’. Australian Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics, 45(4), 547-72.
  
• Kompas, T. (2000), "Traditional Notions of Equilibrium Reconsidered," in Equilibrium, Donald Walker, ed., (Series: Critical Ideas in Economics, Mark Blaug and Kevin D. Hoover, eds.), Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar, 2000, 484-495.

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