University public lecture examines strategy of economics

Economic theorist Professor Geoff C. Harcourt will present the seventh Colin Clark Memorial Lecture at the University of Queensland.

He will discuss Economic Theory and Economic Policy: Two Views on Friday, June 6 in the Kathleen Room at the University's Staff and Graduates Club at 1pm.

The cost for the lecture is $35 ($25 for full-time students who are associated members of the Economics Society of Australia (QLD) Inc (ESAQI) and includes a two-course lunch and refreshments (RSVP is May 30).

The lecture will examine the theory of two economic strategists, the late Nicholas Kaldor and Joe Stiglitz.

Professor Harcourt, reader in history of economic theory at Cambridge University and a Fellow of Jesus College at Cambridge, said Colin Clark would have approved of the economic strategies of Kaldor and Stiglitz.

'Both were/are critical, innovative, and determined to make economic theory provide relevant policy,' he said.

Professor Harcourt said both Nicholas Kaldor (UK) and Joe Stiglitz (USA), while highly critical of mainstream economics, were important policy advisors to their respective governments.

He said the raison d'etre of the economics discipline for the two economists - and of the economist in whose honour the lecture is named - was to develop a set of interrelated policies designed to improve the lives of all ordinary men and women.

Born in England, Colin Clark (1905-1989) was described by Professor H.W. Arndt as having 'one of the most fertile minds in twentieth century applied economics'.

Colin Clark held posts at the Universities of Cambridge, Melbourne, Chicago, Oxford and Queensland. He worked as an economic advisor to the Queensland Government from 1937-52 before serving as an honorary research consultant in the Economics Department at the University of Queensland.

He was one of the pioneers of national income estimates in the 1930s and has been described as co-author - along with Simon Kuznets - of the 'statistical revolution' that accompanied the development of macro economics.

Professor Harcourt is the author, co-author or editor of 17 books and more than 150 articles and notes in journals and book chapters.

In 1971 he was elected a Fellow of the Social Sciences in Australia (FSAA), in 1994 he was made an Officer in the General Division of the Order of Australia (AO) and in 1996 he was made a Distinguished Fellow of the Economic Society of Australia.

The lecture is hosted by the Economics Department in conjunction with the ESAQI and with the financial support of the Queensland Treasury.

For more information, contact Jackie Robinson (telephone 3365 6645, fax 3365 7299, email robinsoj@commerce.uq.edu.au).