Information About

Information For

David Throsby

Formal Name: David Throsby

Personal Title: Professor

Position: Professor

Organisational Unit: Department of Economics

Qualifications: BScAgrSyd., MScAgrSyd., PhD Lond., FASSA

Telephone: (+61-2) 9850-8588

Fax: (+61-2) 9850-8324

Email: dthrosby@efs.mq.edu.au

Location: E4A 438

Profile

David Throsby holds Bachelors and Masters degrees from the University of Sydney, and a PhD in Economics from the London School of Economics. He has been Professor of Economics at Macquarie University in Sydney since 1974. He has been a consultant to the World Bank, the OECD, FAO and UNESCO, as well as many government organisations and private firms. In 1990-1992 he chaired three of the Prime Minister's Working Groups on Ecologically Sustainable Development. In 2008 Professor Throsby was selected to take part in the Prime Minister's Australia 2020 Summit as a participant on the Towards a Creative Australia panel.

David Throsby is listed in Who's Who in Australia and Who's Who in Economics (3rd edn.). He was elected a fellow of the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia in 1988.

Committee/Board Membership

Professor Throsby is currently Chair, NSW Arts Advisory Council and member of the Experts Committee for drafting the UN Convention on Cultural Diversity (2003-04) UNESCO. He has held numerous positions on Boards and Committees, including President of the NSW Branches of the Australian Agricultural Economics Society and the Economic Society of Australia, President of the Association for Cultural Economics International, and Foundation Chair of the National Association for the Visual Arts. He has served on the Boards of the Australian Museum, the Museum of Contemporary Art, the Copyright Agency Limited and VISCOPY.

He is also currently a member of the Editorial Boards of the Journal of Cultural Economics, the International Journal of Cultural Policy, Poetics, and the Pacific Economic Bulletin.

Student Supervision

Current

Onur Ates (Ph.D. candidate), "Investment Appraisal in the Cultural Sector: Accounting for Economic and Cultural Value"
Jan Zwar (Ph.D. candidate), "Cultural Policy and Literary Non-Fiction in Australia"

Recent completions

2007, Stephen Boyle, "Ownership, Efficiency and Identity: the Transition and Development of Australia's Symphony Orchestras from Government Departments to Corporate Entities"
2007, Vinita Deodhar, "Economic Valuation of Heritage Policy Programs"
2004, Niramon Sutummakid, "Economic Growth, Soil Pollution and Soil Quality in Central Thailand"
2004, Zulfiqar Bashir, "The Effects of Economic Reform on Agriculture and Agricultural Trade in India and Pakistan"

Research

Research Specialties

David Throsby is internationally known for his work in the economics of the arts and culture. His book The Economics of the Performing Arts, co-authored with Glenn Withers, first published in 1979 and reissued in 1993, has become a standard reference work in the field. In addition to the performing arts, Professor Throsby's research and writing has covered the economic role of artists, the economics of public intervention in arts markets, cultural development, cultural policy, heritage issues, and sustainability of cultural processes. He has also written extensively on the theory of public goods and the economics of higher education. Professor Throsby's book, Economics and Culture, was published in 2001 by Cambridge University Press, and he has recently co-edited A Handbook of the Economics of the Arts and Culture (2006, Elsevier/North-Holland) and Beyond Price: Value in Culture, Economics, and the Arts (2008, Cambridge University Press). He is currently working on a book on cultural policy to be published in 2009.

Research Grants/Projects

From the Australia Council 2002, for research project Survey of Australian Artists.
From Columbia University, New York 2003, for research project on Career Transition of Professional Dancers.
From Rockefeller Foundation, New York 2003, for project on Value and Valuation in Arts and Culture (Team Residency at Bellagio Study and Conference Centre, Italy).
From ARC, Discovery Grant 2004, for project on Culture and the Economy: Economic and Culture Value Creation in the Arts, Heritage and Cultural Industries.

Publications

Books

Beyond Price: Value in Culture, Economics and the Arts, co-edited with Michael Hutter (contributed two chapters; one co-authored with M. Hutter), Cambridge University Press, New York, 2008.
Handbook of the Economics of Art and Culture, co-edited with Victor Ginsburgh (contributed three chapters; one co-authored with Tony Bryant, and one co-authored with Ilde Rizzo), Elsevier/ North-Holland, Amsterdam, 2006.
Does Australia Need a Cultural Policy? Platform Paper No. 7, Currency Press, Sydney, 2006.
Don't Give Up Your Day Job: An Economic Study of Professional Artists in Australia, with V. Hollister, Australia Council, Sydney, 2003.
Economics and Culture, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK, 2001.
But What Do You Do for a Living?: A New Economic Study of Australian Artists, with Beverley Thompson, Australia Council, Sydney, 1994.
The Economics of the Performing Arts, with G. Withers, Edward Arnold (Australia) Pty Ltd, 1979, reprinted by Gregg Revivals, Hampshire, England, 1993.

Chapters in books

"Value and valuation in art and culture: Introduction and overview" (with Michael Hutter) and "The creation of value by artists: The case of Hector Berlioz and the Symphonie Fantastique" in Beyond Price: Value in Culture, Economics and the Arts (eds. M. Hutter and D. Throsby), Cambridge University Press, New York, 2008.
"Tourism, heritage and cultural sustainability: Three golden rules" in L. F. Girard and P. Nijkamp, eds. Cultural Heritage, Local Resources and Sustainable Tourism, Routledge, London, 2007.
"Introduction and overview", "Creativity and the behaviour of artists" (with Tony Bryant) and "Cultural heritage: Economic analysis and public policy" in Handbook of the Economics of Art and Culture (eds. V. Ginsburgh and D. Throsby), Elsevier/North-Holland, Amsterdam, 2006.
"Sustainability in the conservation of the built environment: an economist's perspective" in Managing Change: Sustainable Approaches to Conservation of the Built Environment (eds. J. M. Teutonico and F. Matero), Getty Conservatino Institute, Los Angeles, 2003.
"Cultural capital" and "Cultural sustainability" in A Handbook of Cultural Economics (ed. Ruth Towse), Edward Elgar, UK 2003.
"Artists as workers" in Cultural Economics, (R. Towse and A. Khadee, eds.), Springer-Verlag, Germany, 1992.

Selected Refereed Journal Articles

"The concentric circles model of the cultural industries", Cultural Trends, 17(3): 147-164, September 2008.
"Modelling the cultural industries" International Journal of Cultural Policy, 14(3): 217-232, August 2008.
"Determining the value of cultural goods: how much (or how little) does contingent valuation tell us?" Journal of Cultural Economics 27: 275-285, 2003.
"Does the Australian Government have a cultural policy?" Dialogue, Vol. 22 No. 2, Canberra: Academy of Social Sciences, 2003.
"Defining the artistic workforce: the Australian experience", Poetics, 28: 255-271, 2001.
"Perception of quality in demand for the theatre", Journal of Cultural Economics 14 (1) 1990: 65-82, reprinted in Towse, Ruth (1997), Cultural Economics: the Arts, the Heritage and the Media Industries Vol 1, Cheltenham: Edward Elgar, pp. 254-271.