Nikki Dumbrell

Nikki Dumbrell

Higher Degree by Research Candidate

School of Economics and Public Policy

Faculty of the Professions

Broadly, I am interested in environmental and natural resource economics. I seek to engage in research projects that can improve our understanding of: (1) the economic, social and environmental consequences of different natural resource use decisions; (2) how these consequences are understood and experienced by different stakeholders; and (3) the appropriateness of different policies and (dis)incentives to encourage alternative resource use decisions. I also really enjoy undertaking research in interdisciplinary teams!

My PhD research (commenced mid-2018) is concerned with links between the social licence to operate, economics and decision-making with particular focus applied to the agricultural and energy industries. In 2019 I started working with the Future Fuels Cooperative Research Centre (FFCRC). The FFCRC was established in 2018 with an overarching objective to support Australia’s transition to a low carbon energy future. The research I am undertaking with the FFCRC seeks to identify factors that may contribute to community decisions to grant or withhold a social licence for a hydrogen industry in our low carbon future.

From November 2021 (after submitting my PhD thesis), I will be working on a project concerned with identifying (and describing the evidence base for) agricultural management practices that sequester carbon on farms, and their co-benefits. I will be working across the Centre for Global Food and Resources in the School of Economics and Public Policy, and the School of Agriculture, Food and Wine.

For much of 2017-2018 I worked on projects to improve the profitability and sustainability of vegetable industries in Southeast Asia (at The University of Adelaide).

For much of 2013-2016 I worked on projects related to carbon farming adoption and the trade-offs between greenhouse gas mitigation and other objectives for Australian grain growers (at The University of Western Australia).

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  • Journals
    Year Citation
    2021 Dumbrell, N. P., Adamson, D., Zuo, A., & Wheeler, S. A. (2021). How do natural resource dependent firms gain and lose a social licence?. Global Environmental Change, 70, 12 pages.
    DOI
    2020 Loch, A., Adamson, D., & Dumbrell, N. (2020). The fifth stage in water management: policy lessons for water governance. Water Resources Research, 56(5), 1-17.
    DOI Scopus5 WoS5
    2020 Dumbrell, N. P., Adamson, D., & Wheeler, S. (2020). Is social licence a response to government and market failures? Evidence from the literature. Resources Policy, 69, 11 pages.
    DOI Scopus9 WoS8
    2019 Dumbrell, N. P. (2019). Economics in Two Lessons: Why Markets Work So Well, and Why They Can Fail So Badly. AUSTRALIAN JOURNAL OF AGRICULTURAL AND RESOURCE ECONOMICS, 63(3), 668-669.
    DOI
    2018 Dumbrell, N. P. (2018). To what extent should society determine the right to farm?. Farm Policy Journal, 15(4), 19-26.
    2017 Kragt, M. E., Dumbrell, N., & Blackmore, L. (2017). Motivations and barriers for Western Australian broad-acre farmers to adopt carbon farming. Environmental Science and Policy, 73(C), 115-123.
    DOI Scopus28 WoS25
    2017 Meier, E. A., Thorburn, P. J., Kragt, M. E., Dumbrell, N., Biggs, J. S., Hoyle, F. C., & van Rees, H. (2017). Greenhouse gas abatement on southern Australian grains farms: biophysical potential and financial impacts. Agricultural Systems, 155, 147-157.
    DOI Scopus5 WoS4
    2017 Dumbrell, N., Kragt, M., Meier, E., Biggs, J., & Thorburn, P. (2017). Greenhouse gas abatement costs are heterogeneous between Australian grain farms. Agronomy for Sustainable Development, 37(4), 1-10.
    DOI Scopus1 WoS1
    2016 Dumbrell, N., Kragt, M., & Gibson, F. (2016). What carbon farming activities are farmers likely to adopt? A best-worst scaling survey. Land Use Policy, 54, 29-37.
    DOI Scopus32 WoS29

  • Conference Papers
    Year Citation
    2019 Dumbrell, N. P. (2019). Economics and the ‘social licence to operate’ for natural-resource-dependent industries. In 63rd Annual Conference of the Australasian Agricultural and Resource Economics Society. Melbourne, Australia.
    2018 Pagliuca, L. G., Dumbrell, N., Umberger, W., & Zeng, D. (2018). Drivers of changing meat expenditure and consumption patterns in urban Vietnam. In 62nd Annual Conference of the Australasian Agricultural and Resource Economics Society. Adelaide, Australia.
    2017 Meier, E. A., Thorburn, P. J., Bell, L. W., Harrison, M. T., Biggs, J. S., Dumbrell, N. P., & Kragt, M. E. (2017). Potential greenhouse gas abatement from converting croplands to pastures negated by emissions from livestock. In G. J. O’Leary, R. D. Armstrong, & L. Hafner (Eds.), Proceedings of the 18th Australian Agronomy Conference. Ballarat, Australia.
    2017 Dumbrell, N., Umberger, W., Zeng, D., Nguyen, A., & Pagliuca, L. (2017). Consumer preferences and consumption patterns for fruit & vegetables in urban Vietnam. In North-West Vietnam Research Symposium: Mountains of Opportunity. Hanoi, Vietnam: Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research.
    2017 Meier, E. A., Thorburn, P. J., Dumbrell, N. P., Palmer, J., & Kragt, M. E. (2017). Least cost greenhouse gas abatement – opportunities in Australian grain farms. In G. J. O’Leary, R. D. Armstrong, & L. Hafner (Eds.), Proceedings of the 18th Australian Agronomy Conference. Ballarat, Australia.
    2016 Dumbrell, N. P., Kragt, M. E., Meier, E. A., Thorburn, P. J., & Biggs, J. S. (2016). Options for simultaneous greenhouse gas abatement and profitability on Australian broadacre cropping farms. In 60th Annual Conference of the Australian Agricultural and Resource Economics Society. Canberra, Australia.
    2015 Dumbrell, N., Kragt, M., Meier, E., Biggs, J., & Thorburn, P. (2015). Integrating biophysical and whole-farm economic modelling of agricultural climate change mitigation. In T. Weber, M. McPhee, & R. Anderssen (Eds.), MODSIM2015, 21st International Congress on Modelling and Simulation (pp. 382-388). Online: Modelling and Simulation Society of Australia and New Zealand.
    2015 Meier, E., Thorburn, P., Kragt, M., Dumbrell, N., Biggs, J., & McAlpine, S. (2015). Trade-offs between greenhouse gas abatement and profitability of alternative management practices on Australian grain farms. In E. Gritti, & J. Wery (Eds.), Proceedings of the 5th International Symposium for Farming Systems Design (pp. 123-124). Montpellier, France: European Society for Agronomy and Agropolis International.
    2015 Dumbrell, N., Kragt, M., & Gibson, F. (2015). What carbon farming activities are West Australian farmers willing to adopt?. In T. Acuña, M. Harrison, C. Moeller, & D. Parsons (Eds.), Building Productive, Diverse and Sustainable Landscapes. Proceedings of the 17th Australian Agronomy Conference (pp. 697-700). Hobart, Tas.: Australian Society of Agronomy.
    2015 Meier, E., Thorburn, P., Kragt, M., Dumbrell, N., & Biggs, J. (2015). Greenhouse gas mitigation potential and profitability of practices on Australian grain farms. In T. Acuña, C. Moeller, D. Parsons, & M. Harrison (Eds.), Building Productive, Diverse and Sustainable Landscapes. Proceedings of the 17th Australian Agronomy Conference (pp. 135-138). Hobart, Tasmania: Australian Society of Agronomy.
    2014 Kragt, M., Dumbrell, N., & Gibson, F. (2014). A best-worst scaling model of climate change abatement by Australian farmers. In Proceedings - 7th International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software: Bold Visions for Environmental Modeling, iEMSs 2014 Vol. 4 (pp. 1914-1920). Online: International Environmental Modelling and Software Society.
    2014 Dumbrell, N. P., Kragt, M. E., & Gibson, F. L. (2014). Climate mitigation preferences of Australian farmers: a best-worst scaling study. In 58th Annual Conference of the Australian Agricultural and Resource Economics Society. Port Macquarie, Australia.

  • Conference Items
    Year Citation
    2017 Dumbrell, N., Umberger, W., Zeng, D., Nguyen, A., & Pagliuca, L. (2017). The role of market research in agricultural development for northwest Vietnam: The case of fruit and vegetables. Poster session presented at the meeting of North-West Vietnam Research Symposium: Mountains of Opportunity. Hanoi, Vietnam: Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research.
    2017 Nguyen, A. D., Umberger, W. J., Zeng, D., & Dumbrell, N. P. (2017). Concerns and valuation of food quality and food safety in urban Vietnam. Poster session presented at the meeting of North-West Vietnam Research Symposium: Mountains of Opportunity. Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research.

  • Working Paper
    Year Citation
    2015 Dumbrell, N., Kragt, M., Biggs, J., Meier, E., & Thorburn, P. (2015). Climate change abatement and farm profitability analyses across agricultural environments. Working paper 1515, School of Agricultural and Resource Economics, University of Western Australia, Crawley, Australia..
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