I just received this from the ABS. Can we call it a victory?

Nicola Giocoli


Thank you for your submission to the Australian Standard Research
Classification review.

Your concerns with regard to the proposed treatment of Economic History and
History of Economic Thought have been formally noted by the review team,
and your submission and interest together with others on this issue has
been taken into consideration. On the basis of the information received by
the review team, the proposal with regards to these research fields has
been revised. The revised proposal is to keep Economic History and History
of Economic Thought within Economics. The revised proposal is based on
extensive feedback on this issue and the core reasoning behind this
proposal is as follows:

   the techniques used in Economic History research are identical to those
   used in other areas of applied economics- the subject matter is
   historical economic data;

   the History of Economic Thought can be described as being primarily
   concerned with the development of economic theory.

The current thinking is therefore to align these categories with the
respective sub-categories of applied and theoretic economics. I appreciate
your input to this process and the classification in its entirety is not
due to be finalised until November 2007. Publication of the new
classification is expected early in 2008.

I hope that this addresses your concerns and thank you again for your
submission. If you have any further concerns please contact Dr David Brett
- [log in to unmask]  .

ABS appreciates such feedback in informing its deliberations for this
review.

Regards

Glyn Prichard
Director
Innovation and Technology National Statistical Centre
ABS