------------ EH.NET BOOK REVIEW --------------
Published by EH.NET (March 2008)

J.E. King, editor, _A Biographical Dictionary of Australian and New 
Zealand Economists_. Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar, 2007. xix + 337 
pp. $170/?85 (hardcover), ISBN: 978-1-84542-869-3.

Reviewed for EH.NET by Steven Kates, Department of Economics, Finance 
and Marketing, RMIT University, Melbourne.


In spite of what you might think, this is not just a reference book, 
wonderful though it is as a reference book, but a book to be read 
through from cover to cover with immense pleasure and much profit.

It is self-described as "a biographical _dictionary_." Dictionaries 
are not meant to be read through but consulted when needs be. I 
therefore adopted the strategy of beginning with just those 
economists I had personally known and working my way out from there.

In editing this dictionary, John King, Professor of Economics at La 
Trobe University in Melbourne, determined that only those who are no 
longer among us should be included -- a wise decision. Life is too 
short to be worried about all of us remaining economists, many of 
whom would no doubt have deeply resented not having been included. In 
making the decision he did, King ensured that no one alive would have 
grounds for serious complaint about their exclusion nor would they be 
in any hurry to make it into the second edition.

There were, as it turned out, quite a considerable number of 
economists I had known included in the text. And the more I read the 
more astonished I became at how little I had really known about any 
of them, yet how rich and varied their lives had been. And as I read 
on I found that I was no longer skipping past any of the entries to 
get to the next one among my past associations but would just go on 
to read each entry in sequence. And it was thus that I spent a 
brilliant Sunday afternoon reading through the entire lot.

What we have are short vignettes on 130 economists with some 
connection with Australia or New Zealand. Some were born, lived and 
died down under, some passed through briefly on their way elsewhere, 
and still others arrived from somewhere else to make their homes in 
the antipodes.

Some were professional economists typically associated with 
universities, while others were amateurs with enough of an influence 
on economic questions in their own times to keep their names alive 
among economists. Some had brilliant international reputations, while 
others are remembered now only because of how deranged their views 
were seen to be. Some appeared to lead quiet, sedentary lives while 
others appear to have lived the life of an Indiana Jones.

But what gives the book its excellence is the way in which the 
entries are written. Most have been put together by those with an 
obvious affection for their subjects. There is fulsome recognition of 
the achievements of each of the economists examined. And at the end 
of each entry, which range from just over a page to six pages in 
length, we know quite a bit about who they were as distinct 
individuals and something about their contributions to economics 
within Australia and New Zealand.

Moreover, the balance between their personal stories and their 
contributions to economics is for me just right. The aim surely is 
about describing who each of these economists were as people, not 
their contributions to the economic literature. For that, one may 
turn to libraries and journals. What we have here are attempts to 
capture their personal lives, quirky and individual as they might be, 
which is what a biographical dictionary is truly for.

And should one want to know more about any of the economists 
discussed or about their work, there is a quite comprehensive 
bibliography at the end of each entry provided a listing of their 
most important writings and further sources on the life histories 
that may be found elsewhere.

Also welcome is the subtle, probably unintended, pitch made for 
economic history and the history of economics as vehicles for 
learning the economist's trade. With both areas of economics under 
siege at the moment, I might just quote from one such entry as a 
reminder that these are ways in which the subject matter of economics 
can be learned. Of one economist, it was said that his: "early 
training in law and in the historical dimensions of economics can be 
said to have laid solid intellectual foundations for his ability to 
make clear and insightful policy responses to the visible 
requirements of war finance, intergovernmental financial relations 
and policies for recovery from depression." This is a reminder that 
delving into "the historical dimensions of economics" is one of the 
ways economists can and do learn their craft.

If I have a criticism it is this, minor though it may be. I have my 
misgivings whether any of the 130 economists listed should be 
described as "the greatest economist ever to have lived, worked and 
died in Australia" (Trevor Swan as it happens) or as said of another, 
"that he was the most significant Australian figure in economics 
before 1950, both nationally and internationally" (in this case L.F. 
Giblin). These judgements may well be true, but how do we know? These 
were the only statements in the entire volume that looked out beyond 
their own entries to make comparisons with others and to stake claims 
for their subjects which were not factually based.

Lastly, although many of the 130 economists lived active lives, there 
is no one to match our Bill Phillips, the inventor of the Phillips 
Curve and builder of the fabled Moniac (and if it comes to that, my 
own nominee for the most influential economist ever to have been 
born, lived and died in this part of the world). And what an amazing 
life! John Nash, beautiful mind or not, is as nothing in comparison 
with Phillips. If someone wants to make the most gripping imaginable 
film about an economist, Phillips is the one. If you don't believe 
me, just read his entry, just read his entry for yourself.


Steven Kates lectures in economics at the RMIT University in 
Melbourne. He is about to publish, in the winter edition of the 
_History of Economics Review_, a previously unpublished and 
undocumented letter from Keynes to the American economist, Harlan 
Linneus McCracken, titled: "A Letter from Keynes to Harlan McCracken 
dated 31st August 1933: Why the Standard Story on the Origins of the 
_General Theory_ Needs to be Rewritten."

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