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Dr Paul Hansen

Dr Paul Hansen

Paul started studying Economics when he was 14, the same year that he started surfing in Dunedin, in the middle of winter - brrrrrr! Economics and surfing have been major presences in his life ever since. Though since 2001, Paul has been increasingly absorbed by his research into multi-criteria decision-making and conjoint analysis. Read more

Paul started studying Economics when he was 14, the same year that he started surfing in Dunedin, in the middle of winter - brrrrrrr! Economics and surfing have been major presences in his life ever since. Though since 2001, Paul has been increasingly absorbed by his research into multi-criteria decision-making and conjoint analysis.

With friend Franz Ombler, Paul developed decision-support software known as 1000Minds (see www.1000minds.com) for prioritising alternatives being considered by decision-makers, for considering their "value-for-money" when appropriate, and for revealing decision-makers' preferences.

Franz and Paul invented a new approach to the universal problem of how to combine alternatives' (or individuals') characteristics on multiple criteria - based on decision-makers' preferences - in order to rank the alternatives. 1000Minds grew out of research started in the 1990s at the University of Otago into methods for prioritising patients for elective (non-urgent) surgery, such as heart surgery, etc. Via their company, 1000Minds Ltd, Paul has many customers in a variety of sectors and dozens of international researchers and students use the software. 1000Minds is patented in four countries, including the USA, and has received many national and international awards for innovation.

Since 1989 Paul has taught Economics at the University of Otago (where he was once a student). Most of his teaching is for large undergraduate classes, though he has also taught Health Economics to honours students and MBA courses on the Otago MBA and in Auckland and Korea.  Paul has recently had time off for good behaviour: a secondment to The Treasury and sabbaticals in Sweden and Israel. These days Paul teaches on Otago's MBA programme, which is a great pleasure for him. He particularly enjoys the "intimate" class atmosphere and he gets to learn from the people in the class who, he hopes, learns something from him too!

Nationality: New Zealander
Originally From: Dunedin, New Zealand
Currently Living In: Dunedin, New Zealand
Qualification/s: BCom PGDipCom PhD (Otago) MEc (ANU)
Paper/s taught on the MBA: Managerial Economics
Area of specialty/interest: Economics, including Health Economics, and Multi-Criteria Decision-Making