Professor David Throsby

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Professor David Throsby is a Distinguished Professor in the Department of Economics at Macquarie University. He is internationally known for his work as an economist with specialist interests in the economics of the arts and culture. He holds Bachelor and Masters degrees from the University of Sydney and a PhD in Economics from the London School of Economics. Professor Throsby's research interests include the role of culture in economic development, the economic situation of individual artists, the economics of the performing arts, the creative industries, the economics of heritage and the relationship between cultural and economic policy. He has published several books and a large number of reports and journal articles in these areas, as well as in the economics of education and the economics of the environment. His book Economics and Culture, published by Cambridge University Press in 2001, has been translated into seven languages.

Recent research-related publications include Handbook of the Economics of Art and Culture Vol. 1 (Elsevier/North Holland, 2006) co-edited with Victor Ginsburgh, with a second volume in preparation. He also co-edited, with Michael Hutter,  Beyond Price: Value in Culture, Economics and the Arts (Cambridge University Press, 2008). Professor Throsby’s latest book, The Economics of Cultural Policy, was published by Cambridge University Press in 2010.

David Throsby has been a Fellow of the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia since 1987, and was elected a Distinguished Fellow of the Association for Cultural Economics International in 2008. During a career spanning employment in both government and academia, he has been chair or member of a number of boards and committees at both national and international levels. He has also been a consultant to a number of international organisations including FAO, UNCTAD, UNESCO, OECD, and the World Bank. He is a member of several Editorial Boards, including the Journal of Cultural Economics, the International Journal of Cultural Policy, Poetics, the  Asia Pacific Journal of Arts and Cultural Management and the Journal of Cultural Property.

In addition to his academic work, he has also written several plays, one of which was produced at the Royal Court Theatre in London in 1975.