Rate My Professor David Throsby

David Throsby, AO, is Distinguished Professor of Economics at Macquarie University, Sydney, in the Business & Economics faculty's Department of Economics. He earned his BScAgr in 1960 and MScAgr in Agricultural Economics in 1963 from the University of Sydney, followed by a PhD in Economics from the London School of Economics in 1967. Throsby's academic career includes a lectureship at the LSE (1966-1967), research economist at the NSW Department of Agriculture (1967-1969), part-time lecturer at the University of Sydney (1969-1972), and progression at Macquarie from Senior Lecturer and Associate Professor (1969-1974) to Professor of Economics (1974-present) and Distinguished Professor (2010-present, reappointed 2015 and 2021).

Renowned internationally for his pioneering work in the economics of the arts and culture, Throsby's research encompasses the economics of the performing arts, the role of artists as economic agents, the Indigenous art economy, heritage economics, culture's role in sustainable development, and the intersections of economic and cultural policy. Major publications include Economics and Culture (Cambridge University Press, 2001; translated into eight languages), The Economics of Cultural Policy (Cambridge University Press, 2010), The Economics of the Performing Arts (1979, with G.A. Withers), and co-edited Handbook of the Economics of Art and Culture volumes (Elsevier, 2006 and 2014). His influence extends through service on editorial boards of the Journal of Cultural Economics and International Journal of Cultural Policy, presidency of the Association for Cultural Economics International (1996-1998), and consultations for UNESCO, the World Bank, OECD, FAO, and others. Awards include Officer of the Order of Australia (2014) for service to cultural economics and the arts, Fellow of the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia (1988), Distinguished Fellow of the Association for Cultural Economics International (2008), Fellow of the Royal Society of NSW (2015), and Distinguished Fellow of the Economic Society of Australia (2021). He chaired the NSW Arts Advisory Council (2003-2008) and contributed to national cultural policy development.