Dr David Vanzetti is an Adjunct Senior Lecturer in the School of Agriculture and Environment at The University of Western Australia. He is an agricultural economist whose career began after graduating with a B.Ec (Hons) in Economics from the University of Western Australia in 1975. He subsequently obtained an MSc in Agricultural Economics from the University of Reading in 1977 and a PhD in Economics from La Trobe University in 1989, with his thesis entitled 'Trade Games: Non-cooperative strategies in the international wheat market,' applying game theory to wheat trade.

Vanzetti's professional trajectory includes roles at the Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics in Canberra from 1976, the Food and Agriculture Organization in Rome, the Danish Institute for Agricultural and Fisheries Economics, various universities in Australia, the United Kingdom, and the Netherlands, and the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development in Geneva. He held an Adjunct Senior Lecturer position for 12 years at the Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University. His research specializes in general equilibrium modelling, covering trade policy analysis for WTO negotiations, where he supported developing-country negotiators and co-developed the Agricultural Trade Policy Simulation Model (ATPSM); free trade agreements across Asia, Latin America, Central Asia, and the Gulf States; commodity markets such as coffee, cocoa, and bananas; rice policies in Thailand and Vietnam; desert locust control; avian influenza; food security; and climate change effects on agricultural exports. He has trained trade officials in Asia, Africa, and Eastern Europe. In 2026, he received the Australian Agricultural and Resource Economics Society Distinguished Fellow award for his rigorous analysis, policy influence, and society contributions including committee work, conference roles, presentations, and journal reviews.

Professional Email: david.vanzetti@uwa.edu.au