This book offers the first intellectual biography of the Anglo Australian economist, Colin Clark. Despite taking the economics world by storm with a mercurial ability for statistical analysis, Clark's work has been largely overlooked in the 30 years since his death. His career was punctuated by a number of firsts. He was the first economist to derive the concept of GNP, the first to broach development economics and to foresee the re-emergence of India and China within the global economy. In 1945, he predicted the rise and persistence of inflation when taxation levels exceeded 25 per cent of GNP. And he was also the first economist to debunk post-war predictions of mass hunger by arguing that rapid population growth engendered economic development. Clark wandered through the fields of applied economics in much the same way as he rambled through the English countryside and the Australian bush. His imaginative wanderings qualify him as the eminent gypsy economist for the 20th century.

This overview of Australasian economic thought presents the first analysis of the Australian economic contribution for 25 years, and is the first to offer a panoramic sweeping account of New Zealand economic thought. Those two countries, both at the start of the twentieth century and at its end, excelled at innovative economic practices and harbouring unique economic institutions. A History of Australasian Economic Thought explains how Australian and New Zealand economists exerted influence on economic thought and contributed to the economic life of their respective countries in the twentieth century. Besides surveying theorists and innovators, this book also considers some of the key expositors and builders of the academic economics profession in both countries. The book covers key economic events including the Great Depression, the Second World War, the post-war boom and the great inflation that overtook it and, lastly, the economic reform programmes that both Australia and New Zealand undertook in the 1980s. Through the interplay of economic events and economic thought, this book shows how Australasian economists influenced, to differing degrees, economic policy in their respective countries. This book is of great importance to those who are interested in and study the history of economic thought, economic theory and philosophy, and philosophy of social science, as well as Australasian economics.

Until the end of the early 1970s, from a history of economic thought perspective, the mainstream in economics was pluralist, but once neoclassical economics became totally dominant it claimed the mainstream as its own. Since then, alternative views and schools of economics increasingly became minorities in the discipline and were considered 'heterodox'. This book is in honour of John Edward King who has an impressive publication record in the area of economic theory with specific interest in how economic thought in the past shapes current economic theory and enforces certain paths of economic policy and economic development. This book is divided into five themes based on King's interests. The first theme looks at the challenge in trying to reclaim pluralism in economics. The second faces head-on the direct collision of mainstream economics with history of economic thought and heterodox economics. The third addresses classical economic ideas, their central influence in the past and how they can still primarily guide modern pluralist economics. The fourth examines Post Keynesian and Kaleckian economics with a view to providing a more coherent and extensive branch of heterodox economics. The final theme critiques the policy of neoliberalism that has entrenched itself in capitalist economies which have led to financial, industrial, labour, and behavioural/consumerist crises. This text aims to provide a clear path for pluralism to serve the economics discipline as its standard bearer, and to no longer be merely a heterodox challenge to the mainstream. This book is of interest to those who study history of economic thought, political economy and heterodox economics.

This book offers the first intellectual biography of the Anglo Australian economist, Colin Clark. Despite taking the economics world by storm with a mercurial ability for statistical analysis, Clark's work has been largely overlooked in the 30 years since his death. His career was punctuated by a number of firsts. He was the first economist to derive the concept of GNP, the first to broach development economics and to foresee the re-emergence of India and China within the global economy. In 1945, he predicted the rise and persistence of inflation when taxation levels exceeded 25 per cent of GNP. And he was also the first economist to debunk post-war predictions of mass hunger by arguing that rapid population growth engendered economic development. Clark wandered through the fields of applied economics in much the same way as he rambled through the English countryside and the Australian bush. His imaginative wanderings qualify him as the eminent gypsy economist for the 20th century.

This overview of Australasian economic thought presents the first analysis of the Australian economic contribution for 25 years, and is the first to offer a panoramic sweeping account of New Zealand economic thought. Those two countries, both at the start of the twentieth century and at its end, excelled at innovative economic practices and harbouring unique economic institutions. A History of Australasian Economic Thought explains how Australian and New Zealand economists exerted influence on economic thought and contributed to the economic life of their respective countries in the twentieth century. Besides surveying theorists and innovators, this book also considers some of the key expositors and builders of the academic economics profession in both countries. The book covers key economic events including the Great Depression, the Second World War, the post-war boom and the great inflation that overtook it and, lastly, the economic reform programmes that both Australia and New Zealand undertook in the 1980s. Through the interplay of economic events and economic thought, this book shows how Australasian economists influenced, to differing degrees, economic policy in their respective countries. This book is of great importance to those who are interested in and study the history of economic thought, economic theory and philosophy, and philosophy of social science, as well as Australasian economics.

Until the end of the early 1970s, from a history of economic thought perspective, the mainstream in economics was pluralist, but once neoclassical economics became totally dominant it claimed the mainstream as its own. Since then, alternative views and schools of economics increasingly became minorities in the discipline and were considered 'heterodox'. This book is in honour of John Edward King who has an impressive publication record in the area of economic theory with specific interest in how economic thought in the past shapes current economic theory and enforces certain paths of economic policy and economic development. This book is divided into five themes based on King's interests. The first theme looks at the challenge in trying to reclaim pluralism in economics. The second faces head-on the direct collision of mainstream economics with history of economic thought and heterodox economics. The third addresses classical economic ideas, their central influence in the past and how they can still primarily guide modern pluralist economics. The fourth examines Post Keynesian and Kaleckian economics with a view to providing a more coherent and extensive branch of heterodox economics. The final theme critiques the policy of neoliberalism that has entrenched itself in capitalist economies which have led to financial, industrial, labour, and behavioural/consumerist crises. This text aims to provide a clear path for pluralism to serve the economics discipline as its standard bearer, and to no longer be merely a heterodox challenge to the mainstream. This book is of interest to those who study history of economic thought, political economy and heterodox economics.