Richard Holden is professor of economics at UNSW Business School, and President of the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia. He received a PhD from Harvard University and was a faculty member at MIT and the University of Chicago before returning to Australia. 

He has published in leading journals such as the Quarterly Journal of Economics, American Economic Review, Journal of Political Economy, Review of Economic Studies, and Nature. His popular writings have appeared in outlets such as the New York Times, Australian Financial Review, The Australian and The Sydney Morning Herald. He is currently a regular columnist for the Australian Financial Review. 

He is a fellow of the Econometric Society, of the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia, and of the Royal Society of New South Wales. His most recent book is Money in the 21st Century: Cheap, Mobile, Digital (University of California Press).