Professor of Economics and PLuS Alliance Fellow, UNSW
Richard Holden is Professor of Economics at the UNSW Australia Business School and an Australian Research Council Future Fellow from 2013-2017.
Prior to that he was on the faculty at the University of Chicago and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He received a PhD from Harvard University in 2006, where he was a Frank Knox Scholar.
His research focuses on contract theory, law and economics, and political economy. He has written on topics including: political districting, the boundary of the firm, incentives in organizations, mechanism design, and voting rules.
Professor Holden has published in top general interest journals such as the American Economic Review and the Quarterly Journal of Economics.
He is currently editor of the Journal of Law and Economics, and is the founding director of the Herbert Smith Freehills Inititative on Law & Economics at UNSW.
He has been a Visiting Professor of Economics at the MIT Department of Economics and Visiting Professor of Law at the University of Chicago Law School.
His research has been featured in press articles in such outlets as: The New York Times, The Financial Times, the New Republic, and the Daily Kos.
Vital Signs. Do deficits matter any more?
Mar 01, 2019 13:46 pm UTC| Insights & Views Economy
It seems that whoever wins the White House in 2020, the US federal deficit will blow up. President Donald Trump has already signed into law massive tax cuts that are estimated to expand the deficit by at least US$1.5...
Now is the time to plan how to fight the next recession
Feb 26, 2019 14:43 pm UTC| Insights & Views Economy
This is part of a major series called Advancing Australia, in which leading academics examine the key issues facing Australia in the lead-up to the 2019 federal election and beyond. Read the other pieces in the series...
If needed, this man can and will cut rates during the election campaign
Feb 08, 2019 11:52 am UTC| Insights & Views Politics
It was a great story. Philip Lowe had taken over as Reserve Bank governor after 25 years of uninterrupted economic growth. The Australian economy was transitioning nicely away from the countrys biggest-ever mining boom....
Vital Signs: the power of not being too clear
Jan 19, 2019 09:03 am UTC| Insights & Views Business
Incentives, in one form or other, are central to our lives. The Soviet experiment ended in December 1991 because it turned out that when people got paid the same whether they worked hard or slacked off, most people...
Vital Signs: No, Joe, America should not be copying Australia's 'asset recycling' misdirection
Dec 15, 2018 17:34 pm UTC| Insights & Views Economy
Anyone who has been to La Guardia airport in New York can attest the dire need in the United States for infrastructure spending. Its not just crumbling bridges, pot-holed roads and lousy airports that provide the...
Vital Signs: 35 extraordinary years. What the float of Australian dollar bought us
Dec 08, 2018 17:32 pm UTC| Insights & Views Economy
If a week is a long time in politics, then 35 years must be an eternity. 35 years ago, on Monday December 12, 1983, the Hawke-Keating government announced the Australian dollar would be floated. That is, the prices...
Fresh thinking: the carbon tax that would leave households better off
Nov 26, 2018 17:08 pm UTC| Insights & Views Economy
Today, as part of the UNSW Grand Challenge on Inequality, we release a study entitled A Climate Dividend for Australians that offers a practical solution to the twin problems of climate change and energy...
Trade War Escalates: China Strikes Back