Dr Anushiya Thanapalan

Senior Lecturer

  • Bio
  • Research Interest
  • Research
  • Teaching

  • Dr Anushiya Thanapalan promotes sustainable change, smarter economic policy, and technical findings that translate into action that matters. She fosters collaborative research across Griffith University, University of the Sunshine Coast, University of Queensland, CSIRO and others to ensure project buy-in and real-world application. Dr Thanapalan’s projects include mapping flood adaptation risk across 1,200+ properties in Queensland, using QGIS + NearMap. This improved the accuracy of economic forecasts for housing resilience. Another study reduced data consolidation time by 50% across 214 countries in a global banking study, delivering insights used in academic and policy briefs. Dr Thanapalan also developed six policy tools for sustainable groundwater management in Sri Lanka, used in high-level discussions with the Ministry of Agriculture.

    QUALIFICATIONS
    Doctor of Philosophy in Economics, Queensland University of Technology, 2023
    Master of Science in Development and Resource Economics, Norwegian University of Life Sciences, 2009
    Bachelor of Agriculture, University of Jaffna, 2004

  • Economic policy and sustainability

    • Sooriyakumar, K., Sivakumar, S., Sarujan, S., Nithila, K., Selvana, S., & Thanapalan, A. (2025). Assessing the willingness to pay of fishermen, biologists and engineers for sustainable management of Thondamanaaru Lagoon in Jaffna District, Sri Lanka. World Lake Conference (WLC20), Brisbane, Australia.
    • Thanapalan, A., de Villiers Scheepers, M. J., Verreynne, M. L., & Hoang, V.-N. (2024 July 15). Determinants of innovation outcomes of firms in regional Queensland. Innovation Economics in Queensland Research Symposium.
    • Thanapalan, A., Wilson, C., Hoang, V. N., & Lee, B. A. (2023). A comparison of agricultural policy instruments to overcome negative impacts of intensive farming practices: The case of WTP vs WTA approaches. ACE conference 2023, The Economic Society of Australia, July 7, 2023.
    • Thanapalan, A. (2023). Agricultural intensification and negative externalities: Farmers’ profitability and their responses to a changing status quo [Doctoral dissertation, Queensland University of Technology].
    • Sooriyakumar, K., Sivashankar, S., & Thanapalan, A. (2019). Farmers’ willingness to pay for ecosystem services of organic farming: A locality study in Sri Lanka. Applied Ecology and Environmental Research, 17(6), 13803–13815.
    • Thanapalan, A., Antonarulrajah, J., Selva, E. A., & Selvanathan, S. (2017). Modelling the inbound tourism demand in Sri Lanka (Discussion Paper Series, Economics and Business Statistics). Griffith University, Griffith Business School.
    • Sireeranhan, A.* (2013). Participation of family women in agricultural production: A case study of Jaffna District, Sri Lanka. Journal of Economics and Sustainable Development, 4(13), 143–147.
    • Thanapalan, A. (2009). The impact of forest conservation policy on consumer and producer surplus in the Norwegian timber market [Master’s thesis, Norwegian University of Life Sciences].
      Note. Anushiya Thanapalan and Anushiya Sireeranhan refer to the same author.