Encourages critical thinking and analysis.
A master at fostering understanding.
Inspires growth and curiosity in every student.
Creates a collaborative and inclusive space.
Fosters a love for lifelong learning.
Professor David Johnston holds the position of Professor in the Centre for Health Economics at Monash University's Business School, where he also acts as Deputy Director for Research Excellence. He completed his PhD in Economics at the University of Melbourne in December 2007. Johnston's academic career includes prior roles as Senior Lecturer at Queensland University of Technology and Research Fellow at the University of Melbourne before joining Monash in 2011. His research specializes in health economics, labour economics, and applied microeconometrics, with particular emphasis on mental health and wellbeing economics, resilience, child development, the effects of natural disasters, health inequalities among disadvantaged groups, and the influence of environmental factors on health outcomes. Based at the Caulfield campus, he accepts PhD students and contributes to the centre's research excellence.
David Johnston has produced a substantial body of work, including 74 peer-reviewed articles, three commissioned reports, and additional contributions such as reviews and debates. Among his most cited publications are: "Comparing subjective and objective measures of health: Evidence from hypertension for the income/health gradient" (Journal of Health Economics, 2009), "Self-assessed health: what does it mean and what does it hide?" (Social Science & Medicine, 2014), "Retiring to the good life? The short-term effects of retirement on health" (Economics Letters, 2009), "Exploring the intergenerational persistence of mental health: Evidence from three generations" (Journal of Health Economics, 2013), "Nature’s experiment? Handedness and early childhood development" (Demography, 2009), "Physical appearance and wages: Do blondes have more fun?" (Economics Letters, 2010), and "Discrimination makes me sick! An examination of the discrimination-health relationship" (Journal of Health Economics, 2012). Recent works include "The growing divide: income inequities in access to mental healthcare in Australia" (SSM - Mental Health, 2026) and "Workforce impacts of subsidised mental healthcare" (Journal of Health Economics, 2026). His empirical studies have notably impacted the understanding of health gradients, retirement effects, intergenerational mental health transmission, and disaster exposure economics.
