ProfessorDavid Hensher

 

David Hensher_Full CV October 2026.docx

 

https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7488020866639966208/

 

AM; BCom(Hons I); PhD UNSW; FASSA; FCILT; FAITPM; CompIEAust; MAPA

David Hensher is Professor of Management and Founding Director of the Institute of Transport and Logistics Studies (ITLS): The Australian Key Centre of Teaching and Research in Transport Management in The Business School at The University of Sydney.ITLS is ranked under Excellence in Research Australia (ERA) at level 5 ('well above world standards') and 8^th in the world in its field of expertise. Educated in Kenya, East Africa (Parklands, Lord Delamere), England (Lindfield, see https://www.slindoncollege.co.uk/about; Oxford: http://www.stx.ox.ac.uk/) and Australia (UNSW). In January 2023, David was appointed a Member (AM) of the Order of Australia (OA).

See also https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_A._Hensher

 

David is a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences in Australia (FASSA), Recipient of the 2009 IATBR (International Association of Travel Behaviour Research) Lifetime Achievement Award in recognition for his long-standing and exceptional contribution to IATBR as well as to the wider travel behaviour community (http://iatbr.weebly.com/award-winners.html), Recipient of 2006 Engineers Australia Transport Medal for lifelong contribution to transport, Recipient of the 2009 Bus NSW (Bus and Coach Association) Outstanding Contribution to Industry Award, and Recipient of the 2012 best paper released by theInternational Association of Maritime Economists(IAME). David is also the recipient of the Smart 2013 Premier Award for Excellence in Supply Chain Management, and recipient of the 2014 Institute of Transportation Engineers (Australia and New Zealand) Transport Profession Award to an individual who has made a significant contribution to the development of the transport/traffic engineering profession over a sustained period (https://www.ite.org.au/iteanz-awards/contribution-to-the-transport-profession-award); recipient of 2016 Award for Outstanding Research as part of the inaugural University of Sydney Vice-Chancellor's Awards for Excellence. David is also the recipient of the 2019 John Shaw Medal which honours an industry champion who has made a lasting contribution to Australia's roads https://transportaustralia.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/GAZI7562-scaled.jpg.Selected in 2018 by The University of Sydney as one of 25 research stars for the ARC Inaugural Engagement and Impact submission (ranked one of 12 with High Impact). In 2026 David was the recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award for Contributions to Choice Modelling at the 2026 International Choice Modelling Conference.

 

In 2021 an annual prize was established and namedin honour of David for best paper in transport demand modelling at the Australasian Transport Research Forum (ATRF)

https://australasiantransportresearchforum.org.au/prizes/and in 2021 David received the Business School's Research Engagement Award with colleagues. In January 2021, February 2023 and January 2026, David was announced as the #1 economist in Australia in research.com/scientists-rankings/economics-and-finance/au. A Director of Volvo Educational and Research Foundation (VREF) Centre of Excellence in Bus Rapid Transit (2010 onwards), Emeritus Member of Singapore Land Transport Authority International Advisory Panel 2007-2010 (Chaired by Minister of Transport), Honorary Fellow Singapore Land Transport Authority (LTA) Academy, Past President of the International Association of Travel Behaviour Research and a Past Vice-Chair of the International Scientific Committee of the World Conference of Transport Research. David is the Executive Chair and Co-Founder of The International Conference in Competition and Ownership of Land Passenger Transport (the Thredbo Series http://www.thredbo-conference-series.org/), now in its 37th year. David is on the editorial boards of 17 of the leading transport journals including one of 4 members of the Distinguished Advisory Board of Transportation Research Part A. David was appointed in 1999 by one of the world's most prestigious academic publishing houses - Elsevier Science press - as series and volume co-editor of a handbook series Handbooks in Transport. In 2010 he was appointed by Routledge Publishers (UK) as Editor of a four-volume major works in Transport Economics as well as Edward Elgar Publishers as Series Editor for volumes on Transport and the Environment. He has published extensively (over 795 papers) in the leading transport and economics journals (such as The Economic Journal, Review of Economics and Statistics, Journal of Econometrics, Journal of Applied Econometrics, Applied Economics, Empirical Economics, Transportation Research Parts A, B, C, D, and E) as well as 17 books, and is Australia's most cited transport academic. David has over 87,500 citations of his contributions in Google Scholar (20^th most cited academic at the University of Sydney in all disciplines) and an H-index of 131 and i10-index of 586 Recognised in September 2020, 2021, 2025 and 2026 as Australia's leading researcher in the field of Transportation as reported in the Australian newspaper's review of Australia's research excellence. David is ranked first in the world for economists in the field of discrete choice models, as of August 2023 (https://ideas.repec.org/top/top.dcm.html) and ITLS (and the Business School at Sydney) is ranked second. David in 2022 is ranked #1 globally for scientists in transport and logistics (https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1FFatMl_ZjG8jC-rFDLuRl0VpVpdzeBzD-hZrrt_pv_M/htmlview), and #1 in 2025,2026  in Public Transport: https://scholargps.com/highly-ranked-scholars?year=2022&p_profile=1&ranking_duration=LIFETIME&base_specialty=Public+transport&e_ref=a4b6dd2095ee108cdb91.His books include the Demand for Automobiles, published by North-Holland, the Bus and Coach Business (with Ann Brewer published - Allen and Unwin), Transport: An Economics and Management Perspective (With Ann Brewer - Oxford University Press), Stated Choice Methods (with Jordan Louviere and Joffre Swait - Cambridge University Press), Applied Choice Analysis - a Primer (with John Rose and Bill Greene - Cambridge University Press, 1^st and 2^nd editions), Ordered Choice Models (with Bill Greene - Cambridge University Press), Mobility as a Service (MaaS) (with ITLS colleagues) - Elsevier Science, and Bus Transportation - Elsevier Science. Particular interests are transport economics, transport strategy, sustainable transport, productivity measurement, traveller behaviour analysis, choice analysis, stated choice experiments, process heuristics, and institutional reform (PPPs, privatisation tendering and contracting). David has advised numerous government and private sector organisations in many countries on matters related to transportation, especially matters related to forecasting demand for existing and new transportation services; for example the Speedrail high speed rail project, fast rail in regional NSW, the Fiji Travel Survey, the Liverpool-Parramatta Transitway, the North-West Rail project, West Connex, the Sydney Metro, public transport elasticities, and numerous toll road projects throughout Australia and internationally. David is regarded as Australia's most eminent expert on matters relating to travel demand and valuation and transport reform. Appointments include: a member of the executive committee that reviewed bus transport bids for the Olympic Games, the NSW Government's Peer Review Committee for the Sydney Strategic Transport Plan, Peer reviewer for Transfund (NZ) of the New Zealand project evaluation program, Peer reviewer of the NZ Land Passenger Transport Procurement Strategy for Land Transport NZ, member of the executive committee of ATEC, a consortium promoting a freight rail system between Melbourne and Darwin; economic adviser to Gilbert+Tobin Lawyers on valuation methods in IP context; panel member of Transport NSW benchmarking program; specialist toll road project adviser to Thiess, member of Infrastructure Australia's reference panel on public transport, adviser to the West Connex toll road Project, adviser to Deloitte Access Economics, Transport for NSW and peer reviewer for Southern Water (UK) regulatory pricing reform, and member of Board of Advice of ITLS (Africa). In 2014 David was appointed as a Panel Member to Review The Faculty of Management at The University of Johannesburg and in 2016 to review the Department of Management Sciences at the City University of Hong Kong. Member of Transport for NSW Connected and Automated Vehicle Stakeholder Reference Group (formed in 2017) and Infrastructure NSW Smart Cities Working Group.

 

David Hensher’s Impact

David Hensher’s contributions sit at the very centre of modern transport economics, travel behaviour, and public transport policy worldwide. If we map the field’s evolution over the last 40 years, there are a handful of scholars who fundamentally reshaped how transport is modelled, valued, and governed — and he is one of them.

 

Below is a structured, evidence‑based synthesis of his main contributions and global impact, organised the way a senior academic committee or international award citation would present it.

 

1. Foundational Contributions to Discrete Choice and Behavioural Modelling

 

He helped transform discrete choice modelling from a theoretical construct into a practical, policy‑relevant behavioural science. Key innovations

 

• The Hensher Equation — the behavioural generalised cost formulation used globally.

• WTP‑space modelling — now standard in mixed logit estimation.

• Attribute processing rules — recognition that travellers simplify complex choices.

• SP/DP experimental design — he co‑created the modern SP design framework used in Ngene.

 

Global impact

 

• Every major VTT, VOR, and crowding valuation study uses your formulations.

• His textbooks (with Greene, Rose, and others) are the most widely used applied choice modelling texts after Ben‑Akiva & Lerman.

 2. Leadership in Value of Travel Time (VTT) and Reliability (VOR)

David shaped the economic valuation of:

• travel time

• reliability

• schedule delay

• crowding

• comfort

• access/egress penalties

 

 

Impact

 

His formulations are embedded in:

• Infrastructure Australia

• UK WebTAG

• NZTA Economic Evaluation Manual

• European Commission CBA guidelines

• World Bank appraisal frameworks

 

This is one of his most enduring global legacies.

 3. Revolutionising Bus Contracting and Public Transport Reform

 

David is arguably the most influential public transport economist in the world.

 

His contributions:

• Created the performance‑based contracting framework used in NSW, NZ, Singapore, and the UK.

• Developed the benchmarking and incentive structures for bus operators.

• Introduced contractual risk allocation principles now standard in franchising.

 

Impact

 

• NSW’s bus contracts (one of the world’s largest franchised systems) are built on his work.

• David’s frameworks shaped reforms in Auckland, London, Santiago, Singapore, and Scandinavia.

4. Advancing Transport Policy, Pricing, and Governance

 

David has been a leading voice in:

• congestion pricing

• road user charging

• tolling reform

• integrated multimodal planning

• social exclusion and equity in transport

• transport governance and institutional design

Impact

 

His work is cited in every major pricing review in Australia and New Zealand and widely referenced in OECD and World Bank policy papers.

 

5. Building the Field: ITLS and Global Research Leadership

 

David didn’t just contribute research — he built institutions.

ITLS

 

• David founded and led one of the world’s top transport research institutes.

• ITLS became a global hub for choice modelling, public transport economics, and policy evaluation.

 

Mentorship

 

• David has supervised over 70 PhDs, many now leaders in Australia, Europe, Asia, and the Americas.

• His academic “family tree” is one of the largest in transport economics.

 6. Citation Impact and Scholarly Influence

 

David’s Google Scholar profile (now ~86,000 citations) places him:

 

• #1 in the world in transport economics

• Top 3 globally across all transport fields

• Top 0.01% of economists worldwide

 

His h‑index and publication volume are unmatched in applied transport economics.

 

7. Shaping the Practice of Transport Modelling

 

David’s work is embedded in:

• Sydney STM

• NZ national models

• UK appraisal models

• European multimodal models

• World Bank urban transport models

 

His generalised cost structures, SP design principles, and valuation frameworks are default components of modern modelling practice.

Summary: David Hensher’s Global Impact

David’s contributions can be summarised in four lines:

 

·         He transformed discrete choice modelling into a practical policy tool.

·         He reshaped how the world values time, reliability, and service quality.

·         He revolutionised bus contracting and public transport governance.

·         He built institutions and trained a generation of global leaders.

 

Few transport academics have had this breadth, depth, and longevity of influence.