My friend and colleague, Anthony Clunies-Ross, who has died aged 83, was a distinguished economist and academic who was committed to improving conditions in the developing world. Much of his work was done at the University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, which was his base for the last four decades of his life, but he was also a well-known figure at the University of Glasgow and other colleges in Britain and beyond.
Active in research, his long list of publications included Alternative Strategies for Papua New Guinea (with John Langmore, 1971), Taxation of Mineral Rents (with Ross Garnaut, 1983); and Development Economics (with David Forsyth and Mozammel Huq, 2009).
Born in Sydney, Australia, Anthony was the eldest son of Ian, a scientist, and Janet Clunies-Ross. His younger brother, Adrian (who became a major general), remembered him as “a precocious child, reading at three and writing sermons when he was four”.
A graduate of the University of Melbourne and then Cambridge, Anthony taught at various institutions, including Monash University, Melbourne, and the University of Papua New Guinea, before settling at Strathclyde.
In the 1990s he was a prominent proponent of the idea of a Tobin tax on financial trading to raise money for economic development in poorer countries. In his final book, The Universal Social Safety-Net and the Attack on World Poverty (2014), he estimated that to eliminate extreme poverty would cost no more than $88bn a year, which to many is a feasible target.
He took part in church activities and was always supportive of good causes, regularly contributing to more than 10 charities and collecting funds for Christian Aid.
In recent years he was the prime carer of his younger son, David, who had learning disabilities – he predeceased his father by only a few weeks. His older son, Jamie, also predeceased him.
Anthony is survived by his wife, Morag, from whom he was separated, by his daughters, Sarah and Brigit, and by four grandchildren.
