Leo Dobes

Dr Leo Dobes is an Adjunct Associate Professor at the Crawford School of Economics and Government at The Australian National University.

Following a DPhil (Oxford) in East European economics, he worked for almost 30 years in Australian Public Service positions, much of it as a Senior Executive Service officer.  His experience includes the diplomatic service, the Office of National Assessments, Defence, the Australian Treasury, telecommunications reform, regional programs, and a secondment to Ernst & Young.  In 1992 he established an Environment Branch within the Australian Bureau of Transport Economics, publishing a series of reports on the costs and benefits of mitigating greenhouse emissions in the transport sector.  He was appointed to the College of Experts of the Australian Research Council just before retiring from the Public Service in 2007.

Dr Dobes’ key areas of expertise include cost-benefit analysis, transport economics, government procurement, and adaptation to climate to change.

His key current research interests lie primarily in the following areas:

• the application of ‘real options’ to policy on adaptation to climate change
• Sir Sidney Kidman as a climate pioneer
• the funding of adaptation to climate change, especially in cases of slow onset coastal erosion
• estimation of costs and benefits in adaptation to coastal cyclones (grant from National Climate Change Adaptation Research Facility)
• costs and benefits of standardising Australia’s railway gauges 1900 to 1950

http://orcid.org/0000-0002-9395-5660