Dr. Ravinthirakumaran Navaratnam is a Senior Lecturer in Economics at the Department of Business Economics, Faculty of Business Studies, University of Vavuniya. He was a former senior lecturer in the Department of Economics (1999 to 2015), the University of Colombo, Sri Lanka and a visiting academic in the Griffith University (2015-2017) and the University of Queensland (2017 – 2021), Australia. He earned his BA (Hons.) Degree in Economics from University of Jaffna and both Post Graduate Diploma in Economic Development and Master of Arts in Economics from University of Colombo. Dr. Ravinthirakumaran was awarded a PhD degree in Economics from the National University of Singapore in 2007.

His publications have appeared in journals such as Empirical Economics, Journal of the Asia Pacific Economy, An International Journal of Tourism and Hospitality Research, Asia Pacific Sustainable Development, International Journal for Innovation Education Research, South Asian Economic Journal, and Sri Lanka Economic Journal. Dr. Ravinthirakumaran also one of the co-authors of two textbooks for the undergraduate and postgraduate students in the area of microeconomics, Microeconomics: Consumer and Producer Behavior and Production theory. In 2008, he has edited a book with one of his staff members; Path to Economic Development: An Inquiry Based on Sri Lanka’s Experience. His research interests include political economy, economic development and poverty and ethnic studies.

Dr. Ravinthirakumaran has received scholarships: recipient of National University of Singapore Postgraduate Research Scholarship and awards: Dr. Ravinthirakumaran was honored with the distinguished teaching award (postgraduate small groups: ECON7012 Business Economics) from the School of Economics in the 2018 academic year and the distinguished teaching (tutor) award in the 2017 and 2018 academic years, School of Economics, University of Queensland.