Scientia Professor of Economics Richard Holden
Affiliation: UNSW
Discipline: Economics
Year elected: 2016
What initially drew you to your field of study?
I loved that economics provides rigorous tools to help address some of society’s most pressing challenges.
How would you describe your work at a dinner party?
I work on cognitive economics which is about “getting inside” people’s heads to rebuild economics by understanding the limit of human computational capacity and the individual reasoning process.
Tell us about a recent moment of motivation or inspiration?
At the Manos Institute we have some incredibly pre-doctoral fellows, post-docs, and undergraduate research assistants. Every time we have our weekly meeting I’m amazed at how brilliant they are.
What question or issue, in your field, keeps you awake at night?
The fact that major economic crises seem to come along more frequently than they used to.
What are you most proud of?
I like to think I do serious research but I have also written a weekly newspaper column for a decade which helps explain complex economic concepts in an accessible way.
What continues to motivate your work?
The excitement of playing a part in building a new field of economics.
Where is your ‘happy’ place?
Centennial Park in Sydney.
What is your desert island book, song and/or movie?
The TV series “Succession”.