What is our culture worth? Ask David Throsby

Monday, 14 August 2006

Leading cultural economist Professor David Throsby will present the 51st Joseph Fisher public lecture at the University of Adelaide in Elder Hall on August 16.

Professor Throsby is a world authority on the economic benefits of the arts and culture. His essay published earlier this year Does Australia Need a Cultural Policy? provoked considerable attention.

At the Joseph Fisher lecture, he will discuss heritage as "cultural capital" and the implications for policy.

The Joseph Fisher lecture, organised by the School of Economics, has been presented at the University almost every other year since 1904.

Funds for the lectures and a medal for the top accounting student each year were provided by an endowment to the University in 1903 by prominent Adelaide businessman Joseph Fisher.

Professor Throsby has been Professor of Economics at Macquarie University in Sydney since 1974. He has been a consultant to the World Bank, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, the United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organisation and UNESCO, as well as many government organisations and business.

He was a member of the Experts' Committee drafting the UN Convention on Cultural Diversity in 2003-2004.

His book The Economics of the Performing Arts, with Glenn Withers, first published in 1979 and reissued in 1993 became the standard reference work of the field and his most recent book, Economics and Culture, was published in 2001 by Cambridge University Press and has since been translated into five other languages.

The 2006 Joseph Fisher lecture 'Paying for the Past: The Economics of Cultural Heritage' is a free public lecture, to be held at 6pm, Wednesday August 16, at Elder Hall, University of Adelaide. All welcome.

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