Professor Warwick McKibbin has had an impact on the lives of ordinary Australians ranging from how much they repay on their mortgages to how they feel about climate change as governments across the globe shape their environmental policies.
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His work in economic modelling is internationally recognised and he has been honoured for "distinguished service to education as an economist, particularly in the area of global climate policy and to financial institutions and international organisations".
Based in Canberra, where he holds the Vice-Chancellor's Chair in Public Policy at the Australian National University's Crawford School, Professor McKibbin is also a non-resident Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution in Washington where he is co-director of the Climate and Energy Economics Project.
He was a member of the Board of the Reserve Bank of Australia between 2001-2011 and was also involved in the design and development of the Lowy Institute for a decade from its inception.
Internationally renowned for his contributions to global economic modelling, Professor McKibbin has published more that 200 academic papers as well as being a regular commentator in the press. He has authored or edited four books and served as a member of the Australian Prime Minister's Science, Engineering and Innovation Council and on the Australian Prime Minister's Taskforce on Uranium Mining Processing and Nuclear Energy in Australia.
Privately, he manages a software company which develops numerical algorithms for research and policy analysis while also consulting to a range of international agencies and governments on issues of macroeconomic policy, international trade and finance, greenhouse policy issues, global demographic change and the economic cost of pandemics.
Professor McKibbin said the Australia Day honour had come as a surprise.
"Sometimes you think it might happen but I have never done anything for a prize, I do it because it is the right thing to do."
Professor McKibbin paid tribute to the ANU for its independence, saying he had sometimes felt "highly exposed" in political debate given his close association with the Howard Government and often antagonistic relationship with the ALP.
"If I could call for anything it would be a more bipartisan approach to climate change."
He said the debate in Australia was little more than "short-term politics which will have an enormous cost to society".
Acting ANU Vice-Chancellor Professor Margaret Harding said "We at ANU are enormously proud to see one of Australia's and our own great economists recognised in the Australia Day Honours. Professor Warwick McKibbin has made an enormous contribution to economic and public policy, research and teaching, and I congratulate him on this well-deserved recognition."
