1. Introduction
This series of the International
Journal of Social Economics in my honour first
commenced publication in early 1993;
over four years ago. At the request of
Professor, the editor of this series
and of this Journal, I
contributed three essays of a
biographical or related nature (1997,
1998;1998b). John requested that I
should write an additional essay of a
biographical nature for this, the
final issue in this series. This essay covers
miscellaneous matters which could not
be dealt with in the earlier essays.
In this essay, I intend to reflect on
the changing nature of the administration
and management of universities, on the
altering status of economics as a
discipline of study at universities
and consequent changes in the standing of
departments of economics, on the
administration of research and teaching in
universities and training of students,
especially higher degree students, and
then outline some of my more recent
international activities before adding a
few words about this series in my
honour.
2. Changing nature of administration
and management of universities
My observations about the changing
nature of the administration and
management of universities are mostly
based upon my experience in Australia
where I have spent over 18 years as a
head of university departments of
economics, both of which were quite
sizeable and which would qualify (as
stand-alone entities) as medium-sized
businesses, in terms both of revenue and
staff employed. My comparison with
business is not incidental; during the
period of my employment by
universities commencing in 1964, universities and
university departments have become
more business-like and market-oriented.
At least, this seems to me to be the
situation in Australia and is probably so in
most English-speaking countries.
It is largely a result of the
political triumph of ``economic rationalism'' in recent
times as typified by the structural
adjustment policies promoted by the
International Monetary Fund and the
World Bank. These policies call for a lean
public sector, the maximum use of
markets and the fostering of economic
globalisation. In addition, the
proponents of economic rationalism are generally of
the view that market failures are
grossly exaggerated by Pigovian-type
economists. Furthermore, government
intervention is unacceptable to most
economic rationalists as a policy
response to market failure because it is supposed
either that government failure is
likely to be even worse thanmarket failure or that
interventionism is an inferior policy
response compared to available alternatives.
A superior response from the point of
view of economic rationalists is to make
markets work or workmore efficiently
in the policy-area involved, for example, by
creating or ensuring private property
rights. It is appropriate to examine these
alternatives. However, the dogmatism
of economic rationalists is unjustified
because there are limits to the
economic efficiency of market-making (
1996, ). On occasions, state
intervention and public provision of
commodities are the socially
best-alternative, even though they are unlikely to
result in a social ideal ± an ideal
which indeedmay never really be attainable.
Interestingly enough, the views of the
economic rationalists are sometimes
associated with the ``Chicago School
of Economics''. However, this seems
paradoxical because Chicago-associated
economists have expressed a range of
views relating to market liberalism
and the use of markets. Several make it
clear that there are significant
limits to policies of market-making (market
activism). (1937) shows that
there are economic limits to the use of
markets by firms and that market
transaction costs are important in explaining
the existence and size of firms, a
theme which has been greatly developed in
more recent times by transaction cost
theorists (e.g. Williamson, 1975, 1979).
The existence of such costs also has
implications for the size and nature of
public bodies and limits the economic
efficiency of contracting out their
activities ( 1998c). Furthermore, as
(1967) and (1981)
point out, the creation of property
rights is largely an economic matter ± the
costs of their creation have to be
weighed against their benefits. It is not always
economic to create private property
rights. The nature of property rights evolves
as economic circumstances change and
the economics of their creation alter.
The above implies that active
market-making, as supported by most
economic rationalists, is not always
economically rational. But this matter is
not pursued by most economic
rationalists.
Nevertheless, in Australia, all major
political parties when in power have
adopted economic rationalism since at
least the mid-1980s. This has included
the Australian Labor Party when in
office and the Liberal/National Party
coalition. A consequence has been
reduced relative government financial
support for universities and greater
emphasis on user-pays principles for
university services. This has meant
determination of university fees for foreign
students at levels to ensure
``full-cost recovery'' for their courses, rising fees for
domestic undergraduates to recover an
increasing proportion of their training
costs, with full cost recovery
becoming the norm for postgraduate coursework
programs available to domestic
students. However, most Australian
undergraduates (Australian citizens)
are able to defer the payment of their
university fees under the Higher
Education Contribution Scheme (HECS). This
scheme enables Australian students to
avoid paying university fees upfront for
undergraduate degrees. Australian
students can, instead of paying fees upfront,
opt to repay their fees in the future
via a surcharge on their income tax. The
surcharge is levied only when future
annual income of an HECS-liable student
exceeds a prescribed trigger-level.
For those who do not reach the trigger-level
of income in the future (mostly
females), there is no repayment. A slight
surcharge on fees applies when a
student opts to take advantage of HECS rather
than pay his/her fees upfront.
Nevertheless, the scheme is more equitable or less
burdensome on beneficiaries than the
alternative of financing upfront fees by
bank loans or similar loans, as seems
to be a common practice in North America.
In that case, recipients of loans are
inflexibly committed to their repayment
irrespective of their level of income,
and the burden of repayment may be
especially high not long after
graduation when many graduates marry and
assume the financial burdens that come
with establishing a family. Consider
here the life-cycle savings hypothesis
of (1963).
Most Australian universities are state
rather than private universities but
each has its own charter and each is a
body corporate. Government control is
therefore indirect, but considerable
from a financial viewpoint. Originally, State
Governments exercised major financial
control over universities, but since
World War II the Federal
(Commonwealth) Government has become the major
financial force in relation to
Australian universities, as a consequence of
changing federal-state financial
relationships.
Changes made to the Australian
taxation system during World War II as an
emergency measure resulted in the
Commonwealth Government obtaining the
lion's share of tax revenue and
control over tax sources with growth potential.
After World War II, the extra taxing
powers obtained by the Commonwealth
Government were not returned to the
States. The Commonwealth Government
instead used its extra tax revenue to
fund activities previously funded by State
Governments or to redistribute funds
to the States, often with strings attached.
In the case of universities, funding
by the Commonwealth Government largely
replaced that of the State
Governments.
Currently, the Australian Commonwealth
department which is responsible
for university affairs and
Commonwealth funding for universities is the
Department of Employment, Education,
Training and Youth Affairs
(DEETYA). In recent years, despite the
proportionate fall in government
funding for universities, DEETYA has
exerted a growing influence on
university culture and administrative
practices. Government policies have
encouraged increasing emphasis on
university performance indicators; on
market- or demand-driven provision of
subjects, courses and degrees; on
competition between universities; on
economic efficiency, and on corporatism
as a means of managing universities.
University performance indicators are
being increasingly emphasized as a
means of measuring academic output
between institutions and as a measure to
ensure greater public accountability
by universities. Academic performance
indicators are in vogue both for
measuring teaching performance and research
output. Public funding provided to
universities now hinges in part on these
indicators, and in turn so too does
the funding for individual faculties and
departments in most universities.
Promotion of academic staff and new
appointments have become increasingly
reliant on such indicators. The
consequence of such accountability has
been a significant increase in the
transaction costs imposed on academic
staff and departments but with very little
analysis of the real costs and
benefits of such measures. Nevertheless, there are
sometimes further calls to make
academic performance indicators more rigorous,
for example, not only to have teaching
assessed by student evaluations, but also
to have staff members (at least two)
monitor lectures of an academic requiring
promotion and make a comprehensive
report. While this may satisfy those
calling for greater accountability,
costs could well exceed benefits. Again, there
are calls for refinement of the
research quantum index but, once again, extra
costs ought to be weighed against
extra benefits (1964).
There are some legitimate concerns
about what is being measured by
academic output indicators. For
example, in the case of the index of research
quantum, competitive research grants
obtained are given a positive weight in
the index. However, grants indicate
inputs rather than outputs.
Furthermore, research output is very
heterogeneous. Assigning weights to
research components involves value
judgments. Just how much weight to place
on different research publications is
a case in point. For instance, should
(refereed) articles in some journals
be given a higher weight than in others?
Again, why should textbooks in the
Australian system be given a much lower
weight than research-type books? All
such weights act as shadow prices and
have the capacity to alter the
composition of types of publications and nature of
research output as academics react to
top-down signals. It should be noted that
a weighting system which only gives
weight to selected journals creates entry
barriers for new journals,
concentrates academic power in few editorial hands,
and is likely to reduce diversity of
thought and contributions to knowledge.
Potentially, this system can have
serious adverse academic consequences.
Again, the pass rates of students and
their rates of academic progress can be
a poor indicator of teaching
performance because standards required can be
reduced to boost these results; an
outcome reminiscent of the consequences of
economic performance indicators in the
centrally planned economies.
Furthermore, systems of student
assessment, which have become mandatory in
many universities, may need to be
taken with a pinch of salt.
The nature and role of good teaching
at university-level is unclear and so is
the weighting that ought to be
assigned to different elements in the teaching
process. There is a danger that
teaching performance indicators will lead to
standardization in teaching methods
and in the material transmitted, especially
if there is greater emphasis on the
teaching technique used rather than on the
content of the material taught, as
appears to be increasingly the case. The role
of universities in promoting diversity
of thought, originality and critical
assessment both by academic staff and
by students may be increasingly eroded
by the use of performance indicators
of a standardized nature. The products
and services which universities
produce are extremely complex and creativity
is an important element in their
provision. However, creativity usually does not
flourish under standardized
administrative procedures ( 1942).
Attempts to manage universities along
lines akin to the operation of
corporations producing a standard
product are either doomed to failure or, if
they succeed, will undermine the
traditional role and purpose of universities.
Consequently, society is likely to be
stunted in its cultural and scientific
development with long-term adverse
consequences for economic development.
In relation to teaching standards, I
have been struck by the skepticism of
based on his experiences at the
College of the City of New
York. He poses the following:
Economic rationalists are keen on
letting the market decide, and consumer
sovereignty has assumed growing
influence in the management of universities.
Economic viability has become a major
consideration in the survival of
economic disciplines and departments
and in subject offerings.
In such circumstances, a danger exists
of standards for entry of students to
universities being lowered in order to
attract more financial resources.
Similarly, standards for academic
progression of students may be reduced.
However, this poses a long-term
danger. While it may be income-enhancing for
a university in the short term,
universities which lower academic students may
lose market share in the longer term
as adverse signals are received by the
community ( 1993). Both in Australia
and in the UK, market
competition appears to have resulted
in devaluation of coursework Master's
degrees. It has become more difficult
to determine the standard signalled by
postgraduate awards from different
universities.
Whether or not offerings by
universities of subjects ought to be driven
purely by market considerations is a
moot point. The view that marketability
should be the prime desideratum
ignores merit-good considerations,
externalities as well as other types
of market failure.
While the merit-good argument is not a
market-failure argument per se, it
fosters market intervention. In the
case of education, this may, for example,
have a cultural basis. Indeed, it is
sometimes argued that Western scientific
effort is more a cultural activity
than a narrowly economic-based activity
(1987). To a considerable extent,
culture and institutions
are beyond individual choice. Partly
for this reason, Immanuel Kant (
1970) suggested that utilitarianism is
an inadequate guide to the desirable
development of society, a process in
which universities and other educational
institutions play a major role.
Furthermore, the use of individual utilities to
decide on desirable development paths
is fraught with difficulties because
many preferences are path-dependent.
There is also the question of whether
the youth who enter universities are
well-informed about the career
prospects available to them by pursuing different
courses of study and about likely
future long-term manpower requirements in
different occupations. In my
experience, many (probably most) students entering
universities are poorly informed about
long-term income and employment
prospects and the nature of different
occupations. In this area, bounded or limited
rationality is the rule. Furthermore,
cobweb-type relationships appear to exist ±
market undersupply of individuals
entering a profession resulting in high
salaries tends to be followed by
oversupply. The market works very imperfectly
in relation to labour supply,
dependent on lengthy periods of training.
Furthermore, those university
departments, which experience reduced demand
for their subjects because of the low
marketability of training imparted by these
subjcts, often exaggerate theirmarket
prospects to potential students because the
future of departments depends to a
large extent on the size of their student body.
So both misleading information and
lack of information contribute to market
failure in university education. In
addition, social perceptions heavily influence
choice. For example, students have a
high demand to study law or medicine in
Australia, even though law is
oversupplied with graduates as indicated by high
unemployment rates amongst its recent
graduates.
Competition between universities has
been increasingly encouraged in Australia
with a view to increasing the
efficiency of university management. Expenditure by
universities on marketing and
advertising has therefore risen. A part of this
expenditure is of an informative
nature but much is also concerned with imagemaking.
This is partly intended to help with
signaling, as in the case of many
branded products. The social value of
such marketing is open to debate ± market
competition can give rise to socially
wasteful advertising. All universities are
drawn into promotion in order to
preserve their market shares but, as in some
oligopolistic situations, the total
size of themarketmay change little. Consequently,
much of the advertising and marketing
expenditure of Australian universities may
be of a defensive type. It is possible
that as the situation evolves, increased
differentiation of Australian
universities will occur in terms of entry standards,
research performance and so on. So the
signaling may result in a separating
equilibrium (1993). While, on the one
hand, sorting processes can
have some economic benefits, they can
have adverse social consequences if the
students of some institutions are
branded as academically ``inferior'' irrespective of
their individual performance. Just as
racial and gender discrimination involves
social problems, educational
discrimination according to institution is not without
its social dangers.
With reduced government funding for
Australian universities, there has
been growing emphasis on increasing
the economic efficiency of universities.
Although enhancement of market
competition between universities has been
directed partly at this goal, so have
other measures. These include increased
measurement and use of
performance-related criteria. These are intended not
only to increase accountability but to
reduce organisational slack. However, the
extent to which slack exists in
universities is questionable (its extent is easily
exaggerated) and some slack may be
needed to encourage creativity or even for
good management (1996). Furthermore,
it needs to be recognized
that increased accountability can
reduce productivity. Accountability has an
opportunity cost in terms of reduced
time for research, lecture preparation and
so on. Beyond a point, accountability
actually reduces economic efficiency.
Again, there are always some who
become expert at completing forms to
achieve a favourable impression but
are proficient at little else.
In Australia in the 1980s, Mr , the
relevant Australian Minister at
the time, reformed the Australian
tertiary education system. Prior to his
reforms a three-tiered tertiary
educational system existed consisting of
universities, colleges of advanced
education and technical colleges. Colleges of
advanced education (CAEs), accounting
for the second tier, were abolished.
Some CAEs were established as separate
universities and others amalgamated
with existing universities partially
or completely. As a result of the reforms, a
much larger number of universities
were created in Australia to compete for
Federal funding support. Thus
competition for university funds was widened.
At the same time, relative government
funding for universities was reduced.
Institutions (often located at
considerable distances from one another) were forced
to merge into one university. The
Australian government argued that this would
enable economies of scale to be
reaped. Therefore, reduced net government funding
for students would create no economic
hardship. However, as pointed out by
Professor at ameeting of theAcademy of
Social Sciences inAustralia,
no empirical evidence was provided
about these economies of scale and their
magnitude. Favourable economic impacts
were assumed rather than proven and
used as a political palliative for
reduced university funding. At the same time, some
university costs presumably increased
because of mergers, such as communication
cost with distant campuses now rolled
into one university institution. Increasing
problems were experienced with
information transmission (asymmetry of
information and gaps in information),
and growing conflicts of interest between
distant campuses emerged. Therefore,
managerial slippage occurred as spans of
administrative control became
extended. Eventually the strains were so much that
some campuses broke away from their
university conglomerates to become
independent universities. For example,
the campuses of the University of New
England located on the north coast of
New South Wales broke away to form the
Southern Cross University. Little
economic benefit appears to have been reaped by
the forced merger of institutions to
form super-sized universities, and little effort
has beenmade to document the benefits
and costs involved.
As mergers proceeded, it became clear
that relative public funding for
universities was falling. Therefore,
means had to be found to deal with this
situation. One method was to try to
ensure greater cost recovery from research
activities. However, the extra revenue
generated from this was relatively minor.
Another was to increase student-staff
ratios by substituting technology, especially
electronic technology, for manpower.
Greater use of videos, CD-ROMs and other
forms of electronic delivery was
encouraged in teaching. In administration,
delivery ofmaterial by electronicmail,
rather than in hard copy, increased.
In assessing the performance of
students, the use of multiple-choice
examination material and tests
requiring particular numerical or electronically
identifiable answers increased
greatly. This allowed either more rapid marking
by examination markers or the marking
of answers by electronic means. On the
other hand, such methods have an
adverse impact on scholarship. They
encourage the use of standard answers
and therefore uniformity in thinking.
Further, this approach biases
educators in favour of quantitative methods at
the expense of qualitative ones. It
provides little scope for subtleties of
interpretation and for critical
discussion. Consequently, these methods reduce a
student's need to read widely and
absorb and assess a wide range of views on a
subject. In fact, they encourage
reliance on standard types of textbooks
containing the ``right'' answers. This
further adds to conformity in education. In
the long term, the price of such
conformity can be intellectual stagnation, which
eventually can translate into economic
stagnation, a view consistent with that
of some evolutionary economists and
with my previously expressed position.
Another route to trying to increase
economic efficiency in universities has
been the growth of corporatism. There
has been increased substitution of
executive decision making or decision
making by small groups of university
personnel for decision making by
larger representative groups and/or input
from such groups. Executive power has
increased and democratic political
checks and balances within university
systems have been reduced in order to
streamline decision making. Thus the
collegiate system of universities has all
but disappeared in Australia.
Several questions are raised by these
changes. They undoubtedly put
greater economic and related power in
fewer hands. But it is far from clear that
those entrusted with such power are
well equipped as business and academic
managers and entrepreneurs, although
many may be astute politicians. The
academic background and training of
many such administrators poorly fits
them for their tasks. Thus money taken
off the top of university budgets to
support the strategic initiatives of
such executives may be unwisely spent. To
some extent also, university
administrators may be tempted to pursue their
own personal aggrandisement at the
expense of collective university interests,
e.g. pursue personal image-making in
advertising and promoting university
activities.
Calls for
academics-turned-administrators to adopt a professional approach
to management, as were common in
Australia in the 1990s because of the belief
that this would result in greater
efficiency within the universities, can have
other unfortunate consequences. Many
academics who become full-time
administrators or managers spend
little or no time on teaching or research, a
trend encouraged in Australia with the
vogue for professionalism in university
management. This further erodes the
traditional collegial nature of universities.
Academics who join the administration
become increasingly alienated from the
rank and file of the university and
from the main activities of the university.
Consequently, there is a danger of
some of them becoming both ill-informed
and arrogant ± some are left in the
position where they are poor administrators
with no continuing academic output.
In the 1990s, the idea of university
bodies having mission statements
became popular. These statements were
supposed to encapsulate the aims or
objectives of a university and its
sub-components. Presumably this
development was all in the belief that
a clear statement of objectives would
enable universities to operate more
efficiently; for example, all might be
encouraged as a team to pursue the
goals of the university more effectively.
The problems of university management
were cast into a similar mould to that
envisaged in neoclassical economic
theory. This implies that management
involves merely a technical or
mechanical optimisation problem; for example,
vary controlled variables so as to
maximize the objective function of the
university as expressed (at least
partially) by its mission statement. However,
there are many reasons why such a
simple view of management is flawed.
Mostly it is because of the presence
of bounded rationality and of conflicting
objectives of members of a university.
A university does not operate as a
team. If it did, it would imply that all
would pursue the same goal without any
individual incentives being needed for
this purpose. A university is closer
to a foundation ± a body in which there is
broad (but not absolute) agreement on
goals and in which both incentives and
penalties are needed to ensure that
individuals and groups pursue collective
(agreed) goals. The problem, however,
is that, if these incentive/penalty
mechanisms are very rigid, they may
stifle creativity and entrepreneurship in
universities. They may suppress
evolutionary mechanisms. A system which is
too well-ordered and uniform (highly
structured without much disorder) may
not progress or evolve well.
Therefore, a trade-off or a conflict often exists
between short-term efficiency and
managerial order and prospects for longterm
development. Given the important
creative role of universities and their
significant role in cultural
development, this dilemma is of greater significance
for universities than for most
organisations in society.
I have argued elsewhere that
benchmarking (especially on the basis of best
practicemanagement) is detrimental
froman economic efficiency point of view, if
it leads to uniformity or attempts by
all to be at the frontier or ``cutting edge''
(1996). I have given several reasons
why this is so. However, this has not
deterred university management from
embracing benchmarking. For example,
the University of recently
(December 1998) boasted on the back of its
booklets outlining the ``Ceremony for
the Conferring ofAwards'', as follows:
One cannot be sure if this is merely
political signalling or a case of ``if you
imitate me, I'll imitate you'', which
would do little to advance new ideas and
diversity. It is unclear what tangible
benefits would be achieved from such
benchmarking and what is so good about
the 20 chosen universities.
Universities in Australia experienced
a growing interest in foreign students
when these students became full-fee
paying and universities were permitted to
retain their fees. Promotion and
advertising by Australian universities overseas,
particularly in Asia, escalated. Some
departments scrambled to offer offshore
courses and came to deals with
overseas universities (twinning arrangements) in
order to extend their
studentmarket.Most of the initiatives taken were in relation
to teaching with little consideration
given to the impact of such extension on the
quality of research or scholarship.
Packaged-types of courses for MBAs and
similar degrees were soon developed
with little diversity and no discernible
originality. It seemed that this
development accelerated adoption of the idea of
Australian universities as possible
degree factories ± courses could now be
``canned'' on electronic media, and
made available at low marginal cost to
overseas institutions. Since it seemed
that this might pay Australian universities
well, the academic desirability of
such an approach appeared rarely, if ever, to be
debated in Australian universities. In
the new atmosphere of commercially
oriented universities, the temptation
for extra dollars was just too alluring.
Considerations about scholarship and
research might be a hindrance to export
earnings. So I am quite critical of
offshore lecturing as a means of increasing the
revenues of universities. At least
itmust be approached critically and sensitively,
so that it does not become a form of
intellectual imperialism which academically
also impoverishes the provider. In
particular, short-term profits should not be
elevated above the long-termgoals of
universities.
3. Economics at university level and
the status of departments of
economics and my responses
Just as evolutionary aspects have
consequences for universities as a whole,
they are of significance for
individual departments and components of
universities. Interest in economics at
universities has varied during my
association with university life and
the status of departments of economics at
universities has altered.
Rapid growth in student enrolment in
economics at university level occurred
after World War II and peaked in the
1970s in most universities or decelerated
to a very slow rate of growth after
that. Fewer university undergraduates
specialized relatively in economics in
the 1980s and 1990s compared to the
preceding decades. Initially students
began to substitute commerce degrees
(mostly accounting- and finance-based)
for undergraduate degrees with
specialisation in economics, and then
they substituted bachelor of business
degrees as these developed. Enrolments
in business degrees grew rapidly in the
late 1980s and throughout the 1990s,
expanding at the expense of student
enrolments both in economics
specialisations and in commerce-type degrees,
both of which tended to be more
rigorously discipline-based than the business
degrees, many of which were quite
general or liberal in nature.
In many cases, the forerunner of
expansion or development of Bachelor of
Business degrees were the MBAs. At the
beginning of their product-cycle,
MBAs proved to be very popular ± so
popular that they reached the top of their
product-cycle very quickly. Many
departments, such as departments of
management, involved in MBAs,
subsequently looked to Bachelor of Business
degrees as providing an additional
source for their market expansion. In
Australia, the Bachelor of Business
market is still expanding but the MBA
market seems to be stationary or on
the decline. Bachelor of Business
enrolments could follow a similar path
± most optimistically they are likely to
follow a declining growth path in the
near future.
The above mentioned enrolment patterns
had significant impacts on
economics departments in Australian
universities in the 1980s and 1990s.
Economics departments soon found that
an increasing proportion of their
teaching was in ``service'' subjects ±
designed to provide an introduction to
economics for students completing
business and commerce degrees. Many
economics departments found it
increasingly difficult to maintain a specialized
stream of undergraduates in economics.
Some departments of economics were
abolished or merged with management or
business departments, e.g. at
University in Northern .
Early in my career, I recognized the
challenge to economics at university
posed by the development of student
interest in management and business
degrees and that many of the subjects
in such degrees are variations on applied
economics. While head of department at
University (NSW), I moved
to ensure that subjects like
managerial economics were developed and taught
by the Department of Economics. Also,
during my term as dean of the Faculty
of Economics at Newcastle University,
I was responsible for the introduction of
the MBA program and ensured that the
Department of Economics could make
a reasonable contribution to it.
On coming to the University of
and as head of department there,
I moved quickly to develop subjects
and postgraduate programs which would
at least preserve the market share of
economics and not lead to a decline in the
size of the Department of Economics of
the University of . These
programs were successful in that the
economics student body grew continually
and resources in the Department of
Economics expanded throughout the
decade commencing in 1989. So did the
research output of the Department of
Economics.
Very rapid growth in enrolments in
postgraduate programs in economics
occurred throughout this decade under
my influence. This occurred both in
coursework programs and in research
programs (e.g. PhD enrolments). The
Department of Economics at the
University of in the latter part of
the 1990s became the largest single
departmental provider of postgraduate
education in economics in Australia.
Initially, postgraduate coursework
programs in applied economics were
introduced, and simultaneously
promotion was escalated to increase
enrolments in research postgraduate
degrees. Increasingly, strategies were put
in place to capture two types of
consumers:
(1) those wanting to enhance their
academic studies in depth; and
(2) those wanting professional
coursework-based training in economics.
Existing research-type degrees and
first-generation postgraduate coursework
degrees involving coursework plus
dissertation were mostly for the first type of
consumer. Initially, a Postgraduate
Diploma in Applied Economics was
developed for the second type. But
this was not sufficient to tap the
professional-type market and compete
with MBA programs and similar
postgraduate programs in commerce
departments. Subsequently, a successful
three-semester Master of Professional
Economics was introduced. This was
quickly followed by the development of
a three-semester Master of
International Economics and Finance
introduced in 1999. Demand for
enrolment in this degree has much
exceeded expectations. Steady growth in
postgraduate enrolments in economics
at the University of has
occurred for a decade and this growth
received an extra stimulus in 1999 with
the introduction of the degree just
mentioned.
It might be noted that all the
postgraduate degrees introduced so far in
economics at the University of
require some research component. At
the very minimum, this requirement
should help develop the skills of students in
the preparation of reports and so be
useful in their future employment.
As head,my policy has been to develop
or support the development of subjects
and degrees in economics which are to
some extent interdisciplinary in character
but for which economics is the basic
component. Without entrepreneurship in
this way, educational needs may not be
met, or other departments less competent
in economic skills may commence
teaching these subjects or offer postgraduate
degrees deficient in economics content
in the business, commerce and
management areas. Attack is often the
best formof defence.
Some departments of economics in
Australia did not adapt to altering trends
in demand for economics and
competition from subjects and degrees offered by
business and commerce departments and
thereby suffered. As a result, the
survival of many was threatened in the
1990s. Most of those departments
tended to concentrate on neoclassical
economics, emphasized quantitative
methods and provided little
institutional background to students. Many of their
economics courses had become quite
technical or mathematical in nature with
little emphasis on philosophy, or
applied and operational content, or on
alternative points of view and on the
history of the ideas involved. In such
circumstances, it is not surprising
that many students found that economics at
university-level had little to offer,
and turned to other areas of study. There was
little sympathy for departments of
economics in decline. Indeed, there seemed
to be some joy in academic circles
that economists were receiving a taste of
economic rationalism.
4. Administration of research,
teaching and miscellaneous
educational matters
Research is an important activity of
universities and ideally university
teaching and research should go hand
in hand, thereby increasing the diversity
of knowledge transmitted to students
as well as encouraging enquiry and
critical thinking on their part.
Nevertheless, few studies of the nature and
degree of complementarity between
university research and teaching appear to
have been completed. Nevertheless, it
seems likely that tertiary institutions and
departments which concentrate on
teaching to the neglect of research are
largely derivative (``copycats'') in
the material which they teach. This makes for
conformity in the transmission of
knowledge. Diversity of ideas is important
both for the expansion of knowledge
and for the evolution of economic systems.
Universities have an important role in
fostering such diversity.
Furthermore, diversity of ideas and
differing points of view are an excellent
antidote to dogmatism. Those
responsible for the formulation and proposal of
policies need to be aware that their
policies may be failures or have unintended
impacts. Hopefully, this will result
in greater sensitivity in their decision
making when this affects the lives of
others.
Some universities and departments of
economics have established research
priority areas. The rational basis,
however, of such prioritisation is unclear. To
a large extent, it is of a top-down
nature. In my view, a superior approach
basically leaves research decisions to
individuals and rewards those who
succeed. Once again, this fosters
diversity. It is a liberal rather than a
prescriptive approach in the
management of research. It is the approach which
I tried to follow while being head of
department of economics at the University
of . Under this policy, the quantum
research index for the
department climbed to become the
highest in the Faculty of Business,
Economics and Law and one of the
highest of any department in Australia.
Academic staff were provided with
research funding in accordance with their
contribution to the research quantum
index, with new staff being provided
with start-up research funding.
During the decade beginning 1989, I
also made innovations in the support of
teaching. A system of transparent
allocation of teaching loads was continued but
staff were given a time allowance for
the supervision of research thesis,
dissertations and research projects of
students. Previously no such allowance
had been made in staff workloads.
Allowances became especially necessary as
enrolments of postgraduate students in
economics grew. Funding was also made
available at departmental level for
projects which might enhance teaching. The
tutorial system was expanded, for
example, by the use of a peer assisted study
system (PASS) in which undergraduates
who had recently completed a subject
provided tutorial assistance to new
students in these subjects.
Although offerings of coursework
postgraduate programs expanded,
student enrolment in research PhDs
expanded and was encouraged. My own
view is that, while PhDs dependent
entirely or almost entirely on research
results are risky and not suitable for
all higher degree candidates, they
encourage diversity of thought. For
this reason, I have been unsympathetic to
coursework doctorates or PhD programs
which are primarily based on
coursework. I believe that the
coursework programs tend to encourage
conformity in thought ± they act well
like the blinkers on a horse. This is not to
deny that familiarity with techniques
and existing knowledge is needed. Some
of this can be obtained by coursework.
However, much of it should be obtained
by research and reading on the part of
the candidate ± a process liable to put
the candidate in contact with a wide
range of literature providing divergent
views. Different students may explore
or concentrate on different sets of
literature, so providing diversity in
background material.
PhD scholars in research-based degrees
can make an important contribution
to knowledge and raise the research
quantum index of a department through
publications and otherwise. Most of
the PhD students whom I have supervised
have published in refereed journals as
sole authors or in conjunction with me.
In general, I am disappointed with PhD
candidates who fail to publish articles
during their candidature or soon
after. I feel that they have been unable to fulfil
their original academic promise.
Departmental discussion or working
papers provide a useful halfway house
for articles prior to their possible
publication. I have always maintained series
of this nature as a head of department
and the rate of their production has
expanded during my term of office.
Light reviewing results in immediate
feedback to authors. They are rewarded
by their article being in a series and
those who are uncertain of their
abilities can be encouraged to try for more
formal publication. In general, the
presence of such a series appears to
stimulate research output. In addition
to the previous series of Discussion
Papers in Economics, I have recently
commenced a new series, Economic Issues,
to cater for less technical papers
dealing with current issues or critical of basic
concepts used in economic thought.
I also encouraged semi-formal, but not
official university-recognized
research groups to form within the
Department of Economics at the University
of , e.g. the Asia-Pacific Economic
Research Group, Macroeconomic
Management Research Group, and many of
these played a leading role in
organising conferences and symposia
mentioned later. The path to official
recognition of such groups was too
circuitous and inflexible and we found that
much could be achieved by our own
arrangements without official sanction.
Universities should reach out to the
community as a part of their activities. In
this regard, they can perform an
important social mission. There are many ways
in which this can be done. One of my
earliest initiatives in this regard at the
University of was to introduce
the Colin Clark Lecture as a public
lecture in cooperation with The
Economic Society of Australia (
Branch). This is a public lecture
designed to focus on the type of policy issues
that interested Colin Clark and to
remember his contribution to economics.
(1905-1989) spent his last years
in the Department of Economics
at the University of , and had a long
association with .
He was, for example, Director of the
Bureau of Industry for 1938-
1951 (1996). Internationally, he is
probably best known for his book
Conditions of Economic Progress (
1940). was a social economist.
According to (1997, p. 41), ``.
. . his policy advice
encompassed the vision of the `good'
society. It took the form of a society in
which a type of democratic capitalism
prevailed and in which the opportunities
for economic independence were
maximized''. This is not to say that everyone
always agreed with Clark's social
outlook.
In more recent years, a series of
conferences or symposia, often involving a
joint effort with ethnic community
associations or special interest university
student associations, have been
introduced by my department at the University
of . Public attendance at these has
been encouraging. So far these
conferences or symposia have
concentrated on economics and other issues
involving the Asian economic crisis,
Bangladesh, China, Fiji, Indonesia, India
and Sri Lanka on different occasions,
and the proceedings of most have been
published in monographs or books.
Recently, such methods of public
interaction have been given support by
the University of
Economics Alumni Association founded
in late 1997.
5. My recent international activities:
an update
In line with world trends, the
University of increased its emphasis
on internationalisation in the 1990s.
This emphasis is partly motivated by
political considerations (given that
greater globalisation was a popular political
``tune'' in the 1990s; at least, until
the Asian crisis) and partly by the fact that
commercial full-fee paying students
add substantially to the revenue of the
university (see earlier). The pattern
is similar for other Australian universities.
But in some ways this ``new found
mission'' is ironical, because, as I understand
it, universities have always been
supposed to take a universal approach to
knowledge, teaching and research. In
essence, they ought to be international in
character and I have always acted on
this proviso. To a great extent, ``good''
academics are citizens of the world.
Universities are to a large extent globaltype
institutions (or ought to be) and many
of their outputs, particularly their
additions to knowledge, involve the
supply of global public goods.
Throughout my academic life I have
acted on the assumption that the
academic community is essentially an
international one involved in the quest
for knowledge (often for its own sake)
and in the transmission of such
knowledge. The common cause of this
community is (or should be) to know or
understand the essential nature of
things.
As pointed out in (1998b), the life of
an economist can be quite varied,
especially as a result of
international contacts. Economists need not be tied to
desks and computers and it is
important that they should not be. This is
particularly so for economists
involved in the application of economics to the
environment, development, natural
resources and social issues. If for no other
reason, observation is important in
establishing social empathy. Furthermore,
as one of my friends in China once
said to me, ``One look is worth more than a
thousand words''.
Naturally my international contacts
did not stop with my 1998 publication
( 1998b) which was written toward the
end of 1996. A number of the
``outreach'' conferences or symposia
organized by my department (mentioned
above) involved visits by persons from
overseas, the most recent of which
involved a visit by Professor
Lakshman, vice-chancellor of Colombo
University, for the purpose of
contributing to the symposium on the economic
development of Sri Lanka, since
independence.
In December 1996, I visited Nagoya to
contribute to a workshop on ``Current
issues in regional economic
development and international cooperation''
organized by the United Nations Centre
for Regional Development (UNCRD).
This centre is based in Nagoya and
partially funded by local government in the
Nagoya region. The workshop focused
mainly, but not exclusively, on Asian
issues and I concentrated in my paper
mainly on regional environmental issues
in Asia. I found that the center has a
strong focus on social issues and
dimensions, which gave it a rather
different character from those international
institutions firmly focused on
economics, especially those with an outlook
based on economic rationalism. I
appreciated this different perspective, which
may reflect a Japanese or Asian
attribute.
I was fortunate in that my connection
with the UNCRD continued and I was
asked to contribute a paper to a UNCRD
workshop organized in Beijing in
March 1998 on ``Challenges of
transformation and transition from centrally
planned to market economies''. I
prepared a joint paper on ``Unemployment and
employment in China's transition''
dealing with recent and emerging social
transformation of China into a market
economy and the growing
internationalisation of its economy.
My visit to Beijing was my first visit since
1989 where I witnessed some of the
demonstrations in Beijing. In 1989, I left
Beijing on the day that martial rule
was declared, just a few days before the
shootings in and around Tiananmen
Square.
My impression was that Beijing had
become much more commercialized
since 1989. Many excellent
supermarkets had sprung up, displaying
commodities in a similar way to the
West and retailing along similar lines. A
wider variety of goods was available
(including imports with ``designer''
nametags) and some luxury goods
(beyond my normal range) were available
which could only be afforded by the
rich ± China's new rich. There was also the
dishonest taxi-driver who brought me
from Beijing airport to my hotel. His
meter registered about five times the
correct fare, which fortunately I knew.
After some argument, I paid him only
the correct fare. Judging from Beijing,
market transformation had continued
its ``great march forward'' as Deng
Xiaoping had promised it would in late
1989, following the Tiananmen tragedy.
While I was in Beijing in March 1998,
there was further evidence of
continuing economic reform. At the 9th
People's Congress, which met during
my visit, it was announced that the
number of government ministries and the
size of the public service was to be
drastically cut and that China was to press
ahead quickly with the corporatisation
(``privatisation''?) of state enterprises.
But this part of China's economic
transition is fraught with social and political
risks ( 1998). Much of China's
economic growth since it began
its economic reforms can be attributed
to its town-and-village enterprises
(1993). Reform of state enterprises or
their privatisation is a more
difficult task, as is apparent from
the Russian experience.
While I was kept busy with the
workshop in Beijing, I did have a little spare
time for strolling and some time for
meeting with Chinese friends not involved
in the workshop.
Spring came early to Beijing in 1998.
During my visit, buds were just
waiting to burst open on the peach
trees and on a rainy day I decided to walk to
and in Behai Park and nearby Jing Shan
(Coal Hill) Park from the Dongsi area
where I was staying. The hills in
these parks (which I climbed) are man-made
and are built from soil taken from the
large artificial lake constructed in Behai
Park in imperial times. From the top
of Jing Shan, I enjoyed magnificent views
of Central Beijing and the Forbidden
City.
My greatest delight while strolling
was, however, to see Chinese enjoying
themselves in civilized pastimes. Near
the first street corner a colourful
traditional outdoor theatre was in
progress and had attracted a large
appreciative audience. Not far from
Jiang Shan in a small park-like alcove on a
side street, older men were sitting
and talking, having brought their pet birds
with them in cages to enjoy the spring
air and comparing them with other
birds. The whole area resounded with
bird songsters as they tried to outdo one
another in their songs. And so to
Jiang Shan Park.
The park makes a refreshing contrast
with the bustle of the passing street. It
is one of the green oases in central
Beijing. Just through the main gate a well coordinated
group was practicing Tai Chi,
oblivious to the passing throng. Near
another entrance to this park I came
upon a group enjoying an outdoor dancing
sessionmaking use of taped music.
Their repertoire seemed to include quick-step
and rock-and-roll. Anyway, they were
thoroughly enjoying themselves and did
not seem to mind in the least that
there were not enough men to go around ±
female couples dancing together seemed
to be equally into the swing of things.
Many Chinese just enjoyed the walk in
the park. At the summit of Jing Shan
some Chinese were doing slow
complicated individualistic exercises, others
were getting photos taken, purchasing
snacks, or using the giant telescope to
get a closer view of the surrounding
scene.
Then down Jing Shan (much easier than
coming up with the bonus of
continual views) and off to Behai Park
past lots of fascinating street stalls selling
all sorts of items that might interest
Chinese tourists (and me). Once again a
further climb uphill to theWhite
Dagoba. Nearby I made contact with a Chinese
family and asked them to take some
photos of me at that spot. Despite the fact
that we communicated in sign language,
we managed very well and they also
wanted to have some photos taken with
me sitting on the large statues of
mythical turtles in that part of the
park. I obliged. After that friendly encounter, I
walked down to Behai Lake, enjoyed
visiting a Buddhist temple there, became
temporarily lost before heading back
to my hotel in Dongsi, buying some
souvenirs at stalls on the way. I had
been invited for lunch by Dr
Dr who studied for her PhD under
the supervision of the late
Associate Professor in New
Zealand (both of whom
contributed to these essays in my
honour) had joined UNCRD and was in
Beijing for the workshop. I was
invited to join her and her family at a nearby
Chinese hotel along with a few other
participants in the workshop for lunch (a
banquet). Her son was there and her
father had travelled from Inner Mongolia
for this family reunion together with
his new wife (Liqun's mother had passed
away a few years before, due to
cancer). It was a friendly occasion and I was
invited to visit Inner Mongolia on a
future trip.
My route back to my hotel after lunch
took me past the National Art Gallery
of China. I had noted earlier in the
day that there was a special exhibition on
Chou En Lai to celebrate his birthday.
I decided that I must see it.
I was very pleased to see the
paintings of Chou En Lai. After all, I had visited
his old school, Nankai High School in
Tianjin, in 1989, and his friend and fellow
student, had been instrumental
in arranging my first visit to China
in 1989. Such a visit had never
occurred to me before I met nor had I
ever thought before then that I would
write so much on China. I first met Mao
Yushi at the World Congress of Social
Economics held in Toronto and our
interaction after this meeting
eventually resulted in my first visit to China.
During my 1989 visit to China, I had
the pleasure of being invited to
Professor Mao Yushi's home in Beijing
for dinner. holds Chou En
Lai in high regard. The portrait of
Chou En Lai displayed on the wall of Mao
Yushi's living room is one sign of
such regard. Chou En Lai was a political
moderate and always maintained an
interest in scholarly pursuits. Many of his
paintings and poems in calligraphic
form were on display at the Art Gallery.
The respect for Chou En Lai was
clearly deserved. In addition, Chou En Lai's
influence helped to put China on a
moderate political and economic path and
his meeting with President Nixon marks
a major turning point in recent
Chinese and American history.
Apart from the special exhibition of
the National Art Gallery on Chou En Lai,
there were also several other
exhibitions which I viewed. There was, for example,
a major one forWomen's Day.Many of the
paintings were modernistic and some
erotic. Political messages (socialist
realism) seemed to be absent. The art
exhibition indicated tome the growing
cosmopolitan nature of China.
One of the main messages I took away
from the workshop in Beijing was
that of growing social problems in
transitional economies. In particular, social
problems have increased in the many
east European countries and in Russia
since transition has begun. For
instance, the availability of social services for
children and for women appears to have
been greatly reduced. Economic and
social inequality is on the increase.
Greater economic and political freedom has
been purchased at some cost, but it is
not possible to discuss this matter here,
( (1998) and (2000)).
Unfortunately, due to the short period
of my March 1998 visit to Beijing, it
was not possible for me to visit
However, I did manage to visit my
friend, Professor of the
Department of Economics, the
University. He had come to the
University of in the early 1990s as a
visiting fellow for one year and I
helped supervise his research for his PhD at
the People's University. On his return
to China, he progressed very well in his
university and was awarded a
professorship at a young age. I came to the
People's University by taxi to visit
him and his family in their apartment. It
was nice to see them and we had a
pleasant evening. His wife is a demographer
and they have a daughter ± a single
child family.
One of the topics we discussed was the
one-child policy. Although this policy
has an important social goal, it can
result in individual hardship (
1998). For example, in later life,
their daughter may have quite a burden
in providing support or care both for
her parents and for those of her future
husband ± a social consequence of the
one-child policy.
Another friend with whom I was able to
make contact was Zhu Xiang. We
had first met in Caracas, Venezuela,
following an address which I gave to a
plenary session of IVth World Congress
on National Parks and Protected Areas
organized by the IUCN. Afterwards, Zhu
Xiang came to me and said that he
enjoyed my address and the Chinese
delegation hoped to invite me to China in
the future, Zhu Xiang was acting as
interpreter for the Chinese delegation in
Venezuela. Having completed
postgraduate studies in zoology in China, he had
been to the University of Glasgow for
a year as a research fellow. In fact, my
visit to China did materialize and I
cooperated with Zhu Xiang in a research
project examining the difficulties of
reconciling nature conservation and
economic development in a part of
Yunnan Province, and accompanied him on
field work there. When the project
began, he was located at the Southwest
Forestry College in Kunming, but later
was relocated to Beijing to the Ministry
of Forestry to participate in the
management of the World Bank Forestry Loan
Project. I therefore met with him and
his colleagues at the Ministry in Beijing.
The Ministry of Forestry was to have
its status changed to become an
administrative organisation within a
super-ministry. This was one impact of
the reforms mentioned earlier. This
was one topic of conversation. Another was
the requirement that public servants
buy their housing ± the privatisation of
housing. These were all further signs
of continuing economic reforms in China.
Zhu Xiang and his wife took me for
some sightseeing and to some
supermarkets for purchases, following
a banquet hosted by the Ministry of
Forestry. We visited a very modern
shopping complex replete with fast food
outlets now quite common in Beijing
such as KFC, McDonald's and Domino's (a
pizza chain started by a
entrepreneur). Since time was limited after
our banquet and shopping expedition,
we only had time in the afternoon to visit
the Tibetan Buddhist Temple,
Yonghegong.
My meeting at the Ministry of Forestry
was followed up in October 1998 by
a visit to of a Chinese forestry
delegation sponsored by the
Forestry World Bank Project. I acted
as host for this visit and in conjunction
with my colleague, Dr Steve Harrison,
organized and participated in field trips
for this delegation. Zhu Xiang came as
a translator for the group, the main
purpose of which was to study softwood
forestry plantations in southeast
, forestry bodies and private
landholders. Especially, as a result of
the assistance provided by the
Department of Primary Industries,
this plantation tour and associated
fieldwork was a success. Most forests in
are under state control and the
Department of Primary
Industries is the main body
responsible for these forests.
As in the case of a similar tour which
I hosted early 1997, I learned a great deal
from it myself about forestry in this
part of Australia. One feature I noticed was
the rapid change in forestry practices
in the span of a little over 18 months. In the
latter period, compared to the former,
there was much greater emphasis on
sustainable forestry practices, e.g.
retention of forest residue on harvested forest
plots (rather than the burning of it),
so as to increase recycling of nutrients,
widespread use of windrows of
trash-material on steep slopes to reduce soil
erosion and, at the same time, enhance
nutrient recycling, and monitoring
stations to check on herbicide
run-off.While environmental concerns had already
had a significant impact on forestry
practices in the earlier period, an even greater
impact was evident in the second
period.We visited forest nurseries, and several
plantations both of exotic and of
native softwood species. This was enjoyable and
generated a lot of ideas, but I was
left with no time to write these up in 1998.
In February 1997, I commenced a
semester of study leave, my first period of
study leave (SSP) since joining the
University of in 1989. Mariel,
my wife, also had SSP so we
coordinated our programme as far as was
practical. We were to go on a
round-the-world journey, my first such journey
since 1965 when I was a visiting
fellow at Princeton University and a visiting
scholar at Stanford University.
We left Australia in February for Los
Angeles, which was to be our base for
Southern California. This was my first
visit to Southern California, an area
completely dominated by the motor car
to an extent that I could hardly
imagine. I had, for example, to give
seminars at the University of
(Riverside) and at State University
(Long Beach) and then visit Dr
at the Southwest Fisheries
Institute, La Jolla, near San Diego. I
was told that there was no realistic
way to do these visits except by motor car.
So I ventured on to the Southern
Californian freeways not knowing quite how I
would survive, being used to driving
in Australia on the left-hand side of the
road. But I did survive to tell the
tale, and I did not have any ``near misses''.
I went to Riverside mainly because of
my previous contact with
and to Long Beach because of my
contacts with .
was interested in development issues
and the Halls in environmental
issues. I had also had contact with
Dale Squires over many years, as a result of a
mutual interest in some marine
resource problems. Southern California was
beautiful at this time of the year.
Riverside was without smog and there was only
a limited amount of smog near the
Californian coast. But one could imagine how
bad smog in these areas could become ±
even then there was an ominous haze in
Los Angeles. Furthermore, rapid
population growth was very evident in Southern
California and therefore some
dimensions of its pollution problems, e.g. from
automobile exhausts, seem destined to
get worse. It is a shame that beautiful little
towns such as Riverside are afflicted
by air pollution for a part of the year.
Our stay in California was to be
relatively brief because Mariel had an
international conference to
participate in in Recife, Brazil. We flew to Recife, via
Santiago, Chile spending two nights
there, enough to see the city and get some
idea of its flavour. In Brazil, we
cleared customs at Rio de Janeiro and directly
transferred to a domestic flight to
Recife. Since we arrived in Rio de Janeiro at
siesta time, the officer checking
passports was quite grumpy, having been
deprived of his nap, and all the
customs officers were fast asleep and therefore
did not bother to check our bags.
We arrived in Recife late at night,
and went by taxi to our hotel. In the night
time, the area seemed very ``seedy''
but it might have been our imagination.
Americans having Brazilian connections
had warned us in California of the risks
for travellers in Brazil and one
indicated that Recife could be particularly
dangerous. Furthermore, just a
fewmonths before a scientist from the University
of had been shot in the stomach
in Recife and some of his
possessions stolen as a result of
accidentally wandering into an undesirable area.
We were relieved next day to find that
our hotel was overlooking the beach and
that the area was not a slum. Indeed,
our stay in Recife was a very pleasant one.
I made contact with members of the
Department of Economics at the
University of Pernambuco, Recife, and
gave a seminar there. As it turned out, Dr
Francisco de Ramos, who had completed
his PhD at the University of
Louvain, and Dr (Lamartine) had a
strong interest in
environmental economics. Many of the
environmental and resource-use aspects
of the State of Pernambuco interested
me and I could see parallels with the
situation ± sugar cane, tourism
and beef production were important
and the interior is dry. There were
also differences compared with ±
greater inequality of wealth, lower
incomes in Pernambuco with fewer
environmental controls, the presence
of poverty, slums (favelas) and children
begging or trying to earn some income
as pedlars on the streets or beach.
Given my interest in the study of
tourism, I also decided to make contact
with the new centre for tourism
studies of the University of Pernambuco. I met
with the director, Professor who
proudly showed me over
the new center. He said he would
invite me back to Recife at the end of the year
for a special conference on tourism,
and he did. I found Brazil fascinating and
diverse, at least my sample of it.
Immediately after Easter we flew to
the UK and took the train to York. Visits
were made to York University, where I
had spent two substantial periods on
study leave previously in the 1970s.
But this was only to be a brief visit because
the University was in recess.
Nevertheless, arranged a special
seminar for me and while I was there
my friend Professor
returned from vacation and took Mariel
and myself for a day's outing in the
Yorkshire moors and to Whitby. The
daffodils were just starting to bloom. So
York and the countryside was at its
best. and I discussed a new edition of
our book on Microeconomic Policy. We
had (have) a publisher but neither of us
had been able to find enough time to
make progress with the project. We now
plan to complete the revised edition.
From York, we went to Manchester where
I met with Professor Stan Metcalfe,
OBE, to discuss mutual interests in
technological change, science and technology
policy, and economic diversity and
economic evolution ± interests which we have
shared for about 25 years. A side-trip
was made to the University of where
participated in a conference on
languages and I made contact with John
Proops in economics. The village of
Keele looked delightful in the springtime in
its rural setting. Keele University
has a rural setting and is located in
Staffordshire not far from
Stoke-on-Trent, famous for its fine pottery. During my
journey I remembered how my family had
started in Australia as a result of
Tisdell being transported from
Staffordshire to Australia (1997).
We returned briefly to Manchester to
prepare to fly to Germany. During the
time we were in Manchester, begging
was widespread and the elections were
imminent in which the Labor Government
was to come to power. Furthermore,
the IRA was active, so security at
Manchester Airport was very tight. From a
social point of view, the UK did not
make a very favourable impression on me
on this occasion.
We arrived in Germany in April and
went to Duisburg. This was to be my
first real interaction with the German
academic system, and I found it
stimulating. I gave seminars at the
universities of Duisburg, Kiel, Greifswald
(in former East Germany) and at the
German Science Centre in Berlin. My host
at the latter center was Professor Udo
Simonis, a member of the editorial board
of the International Journal of Social
Economics. Visits were also made to the
Wuppertal Institute, University
and the Essen Economic Research
Centre arranged by my host at Duisburg
University, Professor. In
Wuppertal, we also visited the
Friedrich Engels Museum located in the Engels
family home. Friedrich Engels' father
had a substantial textile manufacturing
business in Wuppertal and his home,
which is in the same grounds as the
museum, is now used for civic
functions by the Wuppertal city authority and
open to the public for inspection. I
was able to obtain many different
impressions in Germany, e.g. about the
redevelopment of the former GDR, but
it would require another essay to do
justice to these.
In early May, I travelled by train and
ferry to GoÈteborg University, then on
to Uppsala where I gave a series of
lectures at Uppsala University of
Agricultural Sciences. My host in
Uppsala was Professor and
we are now jointly editing a book on
economic globalisation and agricultural
sustainability which incorporates
essays of an international list of contributors
plus material used for my Uppsala
lectures.
Towards the end of May, I flew from
Sweden to Brunei via Calcutta to carry
out my duties as external examiner in
economics for the University of Brunei
and to present a public seminar. The
seminar was on the development of
Brunei's economy. A revised version of
the paper prepared for it is being
published in the Journal of
Asia-Pacific Economies (1998c).
From Brunei I returned to Calcutta in
early June 1997 (to meet up with )
to travel to Bhubaneswar in Orissa to
participate in an international seminar on
tourism and economic development
organized jointly by the International
Institute of Development Economics,
Utkal University and Department of
Economics of the University of . The
weather was trying because
Eastern India was approaching the end
of its dry season and the monsoon was
due, actually somewhat overdue. Days
and nights were hot and humid. But the
conference was a success and two
edited books have been published based on its
proceedings (1998; 1998).
Furthermore, there was an opportunity
to experience the rich cultural and
historical tradition of India as
displayed in Orissa. Visits were arranged to Karnak
and Puri, and Bhubaneswar also had its
own attractions. Not far from
Bhubaneswar, Ashoka was converted to
Buddhism after a bloody battle, thus
ensuring the spread of
Buddhismthroughout his considerable empire. Itwas to this
area that early Chinese scholars came
to take back Buddhism to China, to China's
then cultural center in Xian. Today, a
number of Japanese Buddhists come to this
area for pilgrimage and retreat; an
area set amongst villages and rural landscapes
which appear to have changed little
with the passage of time. The bullock, the
buffalo and the laborer dominate this
rural scene, rather than the tractor.
After this it was time to return to
Calcutta by train and then to Australia and
the University of .
Even though I would have been
satisfied to have remained settled, I did have
international obligations to follow up
later in 1997. Professor von Braun, who
had hosted my visit to the University
of invited me to chair a plenary
session of the World Congress of the
International Association of Agricultural
Economists to be held in Sacramento,
California and help organize that session.
I was eager to do so given that his
focus was on agriculture and its natural
resource constraints, including
environmental constraints. So in August 1997, I
visited Sacramento, the state capital
of California. The weather was excellent
and I gained a very favourable
impression of Sacramento and its surrounding
area. Unlike Los Angeles, Sacramento
is not the slave of the automobile ± it
appears to be more accommodating to
the variety of human needs. However, I
must say I was a little surprised at
the local post office when my carry bag had
to be searched before I could buy
stamps. But the post office is a federal body ±
federal buildings had been subjected
to bombings in the USA by extremists
wishing to reduce the role of
government.
My next journey in 1997 was in
November to Recife, Brazil. As mentioned
above, during my earlier visit in
1997, Professor said that he
was planning an international
conference on tourism and wanted to invite me. It
was a most interesting conference
consisting of a variety of invited speakers;
some from Germany, America, Portugal,
Italy and Brazil. I was asked to speak
on ecotourism and a revised version of
that paper will soon be published (
1998c). The workshop was
multidisciplinary and covered a variety of topics ±
particularly the papers on sex tourism
created a deal of controversy and interest.
Furthermore, I had an opportunity to
see some of the scenery south of Recife on
this visit ± the beaches there were
much cleaner and more inviting than the long
beach at Recife. At one point,
however, a capitalistic tourist resort had been
developed in a fishing village. Its
environmental impact on the village appeared
to be disastrous. The landscape had
been bulldozed to create a golf course and
changed for ``beautification''. So the
fishing village now looked like an isolated
island on the landscape. Given the
artificiality of the situation and the lack of
natural harmony in the landscape, one
could not help thinking about adverse
social consequences for the fishing
village. The tourist resort was built, it seems,
by a German consortiumwith the
assistance of considerable Brazilian subsidies.
I returned from Brazil to Australia
via the South Polar route, flying via
Argentina. I had also come via this
route. On the way across, the journey from
Auckland, New Zealand to Buenos Aires
is relatively fast due to tail winds, but
the reverse is the case on the return
journey. Indeed, the plane must stop in the
far south of Argentina at Rio Gallegos
(Patagonia) to refuel so as to have
enough fuel to struggle against the
winds of the ``roaring forties'' on the way to
Auckland. Owing to bad weather in
southern Argentina, my return flight was
delayed 12 hours in Buenos Aires.
The airport at Rio Gallegos appeared
to be designed not just for civilian
aircraft, but for the air force. I
wondered what role it had played in the Falkland
Islands battle. Even though the season
was approaching the southern summer,
the weather in Rio Gallegos was quite
cold and nisty. It felt as though the
region was under the influence of
Antarctica. Few, if any, trees or shrubs are to
be seen in this windy place, where
sheep farming seems to be the main activity.
Such a contrast with the tropics at
Recife in Brazil where I had recently been.
1998 was also a very busy year for me
internationally, but my overseas trips
were mainly confined to the first part
of the year.
In January 1998, I participated in the
Asia-Pacific Economics Conference
organized in Bangkok partly by the
Western Economic Association. By this
time, the Asian economic crisis had
taken hold. While I was in Sacramento in
August 1997, news of Thailand's
financial crisis came to hand. A panel at the
Bangkok conference discussed this
crisis.
On the whole, the panel was critical
of the role of the IMF in ``managing'' the
Asian crisis and Japanese speakers in
particular thought that the policy actions
of the IMF helped to deepen the
crisis. At a more general level, Michael
Intriligator was quite critical of
IMF's policy in relation to Russia and its lack of
consideration of institutional
factors, a factor which, in his view, added to
Russia's dismal economic performance
in transition.
My visit to Bangkok also provided an
opportunity for me to see more Thai
culture, e.g. classical Thai dancing,
to meet with some former students and
enjoy a special fish banquet with
them. I had a magnificent view of the Chao
Phraya river from my hotel, from which
it was fascinating to see the variety of
passing boat traffic ± river taxis
with spurting plumes, ferry boats, tugs pulling
several barges filled with different
produce, tourist boats and so on. A colorful
parade passed along the river every
day, contrasting with the vehicle-choked
streets of Bangkok itself.
My next visit was in February to
University, Kingston, Canada.
Professor , Professor of Sociology at
, had sponsored me for
a Queen's University Visiting
Fellowship. In return, I was to give a series of
guest lectures in sociology, political
science and international relations,
management, economics and ecology.
and I had completed our PhDs
at the National University and
have remained in contact since then.
Mariel accompanied me and we stayed
with the Pikes.
It was a matter of going from the hot
Australian summer to the Canadian
winter. What a contrast! Snow covered
the ground in Kingston and the nearby
lakes were iced over, and enthusiasts
were out skating on the lakes. Fortunately,
the weather was relativelymild and
sunny for our visit and we enjoyed it greatly.
Had we arrived a week or so before, we
would have experienced ``ice-rain'', which
caused electricity pylons to buckle
and crash to the ground, cutting off electricity
in Kingston and creating an
emergency.We were lucky!
University has in its policy
that all senior academic administrators
should engage in research and some
teaching. Regular time periods are set
aside for them for research. This
contrasts with the current situation in
Australia; an aspect which I
criticised earlier in this essay.
My visit to was worthwhile
academically and it was also a pleasant
opportunity to see the Pikes again.
But I have yet to follow up my lectures at
with publications, because I
became increasingly busy with
administration on my return from
Canada.
I did not, however, return to
Australia immediately but came back via Las
Vegas; but not for gambling purposes.
A world congress on aquaculture was to
be held in Las Vegas and I had been
asked by Professor of the
University of Hawaii to contribute to
a session on the socio-economics of
aquaculture and did so. At an
internationalmeeting held in Taiwan several years
earlier which I attended, it had been
decided to form an International Association
of Aquaculture Economics and
Management (IAAEM). Professor Shang was the
founding president. I was requested
along with Professor PingSun Leung
(University of ) to be joint editor of
its journal, Aquaculture Economics and
Management, which was to be published
by Blackwell Scientific Publishers. I
had first met through joint research
studying the economics of
the aquaculture of giant clams, and we
subsequently had a joint project together.
At the request of Professor Shang, I
am organizing an IAAEM-sponsored session
at the congress of theWorld
Aquaculture Society, held in Sydney in 1999. In fact,
I presented two papers at the
conference in Las Vegas. One was a paper with Dr
of French Polynesia on pearls.
Aquaculture has quite a lot of
interesting socio-economic facets to
it and dovetails well with my interests in
ecological economics.
As mentioned above, in March 1998 I
went to Beijing to participate in a
UNCRD jointly organized workshop on
transitional economies and was pleased
that I did, despite my crowded
schedule. I was pleased, however, to have a
break now from overseas travel. My
only overseas trip for the remainder of the
year was to Fiji in November to act as
External Advisor in Economics to the
University of the South Pacific (USP).
Owing to my examination marking
commitments in Australia, the visit was
kept to a little over a week. So I had
to make a considerable effort to prepare my
report in this time, complete
meetings, necessary interviews and read
appropriate material. Furthermore, the
weather was hot and humid and USP is
without air conditioning.
Despite this, the visit was very
worthwhile. All at USP were helpful and
friendly despite rather trying
conditions. Professor head of
department at USP (on leave from the
University of , Scotland),
provided me with required background
material and was most hospitable. It
was also pleasant to meet my former
PhD student, Dr who went
to no end of trouble to invite me for
dinners etc. ± at one dinner I met the longest
serving political prisoner in Fiji.
He was an Indian Fijian lecturing in
literature at USP and reviewed a book
by Colonel Rambuka, who had been
responsible for an armed coup in Fiji. The
book review did not please the
colonel. The Indian Fijian scholar was placed in
gaol for a week and then under house
arrest for one year according to my
informants. Eventually the Australian
High Commission in Fiji arranged for
this critic to migrate to Australia.
During my visit, he had temporarily returned
to Fiji, the political situation in
Fiji now being relatively normal.
It was also pleasant to have lunch
with Vina Ram-Bidesi who had contributed
to my earlier project on the economics
of aquaculture of giant clams. She is now
lecturing in the School ofMarine
Science at USP and showed me the magnificent
new building for this school
constructed by Japanese aid. The building was fully
designed in Japan and most of its
components appear to have been supplied by
the Japanese. However, it had not been
exactly designed to meet Fijian
requirements and now Fiji would have
to maintain it. It is quite common with
foreign aid to have capital supplied
without provision for itsmaintenance.
I could write much more about Fiji,
but I shall desist from that now since this
essay is already very long. However, I
should point out that USP is a special
university in that it serves several
scattered island nations in theWestern Pacific.
Many of these nations possess
different cultures and languages. Consequently,
English (the language of instructions
at USP) is not the mother tongue of most of
its students. The island nations
served by USP include the Cook Islands, Fiji,
Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Nauru,
Niue, Solomon Islands, Tokelau, Tonga,
Tuvalu, Vanuatu, and Western Samoa.
Geographically these nations are very
scattered and so considerable distance
education must be provided by USP. In
the future, I will visit USP again as
External Advisor in Economics.
Apart from my travels abroad, some
travellers from overseas came to visit
me in 1998. For example, Drvisited
from the University of ,
Switzerland for the purpose of joint
research on ecological economics.
Furthermore, the Chinese forestry
delegation which I have already mentioned
visited in October. In December,
Professor Lakshman, vice-chancellor of
Colombo University, visited for a
symposium on Sri Lanka and to edit jointly a
book with me dealing with Sri Lanka
since independence.
In 1999, I expect to do less
international travel, but I certainly intend to come
to San Diego for the conference of the
Western Economic Association and the
associated proceedings of the
International Association of Social Economics.
Although I would like to do less
international travel in 1999 in order to leave
more time for writing, this may turn
out to be difficult given my new emerging
(funded) research projects, e.g. one
on gender issues in rural India, possibly one
on environmental issues in China and
its international trade and globalisation,
and another on the economic
experiences of South Pacific island economies in
relation to globalisation and
market-extension processes as encouraged by
structural adjustment policies.
However, as mentioned so long ago,
what happens in the future is partly a
result of chance and partly a
consequence of design. I feel that so
far chance has been more than kind to me.
6. Essays in honour of Clement Allan
Tisdell
When Professor let me know in December
1994 that he
would like to edit a series of essays
in my honour, it was a most extraordinary
and unexpected honor. I was not an
academic high-flying economist rubbing
shoulders with the great economists in
my profession, but rather a hard-working
economist from down under, not seeking
the limelight ± just plugging away in
my own way with economics, mostly for
the love of it and in the hope that some
social betterment might be inspired,
at least in a small measure, by my writings.
At least, I hoped thatmy writings
would inspire ameasure of humility.
In any case, I have, as a result of
Professor suggestion, been
honored over and over again by the
unimagined large number of essays which
have been contributed in my honour. I
wish to thank everyone who has
contributed an essay to this series.
The collection is a fine one, of which I am
proud, and represents a substantial
contribution to the body of knowledge.
Nevertheless, I am sure that the
publisher of the International Journal of
Social Economics despaired at times as
to whether this series of essays would
ever stop and/or allow space for the
regular issues of the Journal. So I need to
thank as well all those involved in
the physical production of these essays for
their efforts and, at times,
forbearance.
However, I must reserve my greatest
praise for Professor
, who not only initiated this project,
but also has seen it through ``thick
and thin''. The organizational side of
such a project is a major one and, singlehanded,
he has kept in contact with all
contributors, and guided the project,
making his own intellectual
contribution and acting in a compassionate way.
To a considerable extent, these essays
are a tribute to him and to the standing
which he has given to the
International Journal of Social Economics. He has
made this Journal what it is today: a
truly international journal which
emphasizes the institutional, human
and ethical dimensions of economics.
I have always believed in the
importance of such an approach. For example,
in 1972, I concluded Microeconomics:
The Theory of Economic Allocation as
follows:
Economic efficiency or economics
narrowly perceived is not an end in itself. We
have to look to wider ethical
dimensions.
Another theme which has been quite
common in my work since the early
1960s has been the diversity of human
behaviour and the need to accommodate
it in economic thought. For example, I
tried first to do that for human behaviour
in conditions of economic uncertainty
( 1968) and I continued with this
theme in relation to other issues,
eventually making connections with
evolutionary economics and managerial
efficiency. From an ethical point of
view, my outlook on diversity reserves
can be an economic role for all ± not
only those at the ``cutting edge'' or
on the frontier. In fact, a society which is
super-efficient may not really be
efficient at all (1996).
7. Concluding comments
This essay has turned out to be much
longer than I planned despite my pruning
± wanted more on my international
pursuits following my last
essay. Only now that I am writing down
events do I realize how much has
happened in the last two years. In
addition to this, I needed to say a few words
about other aspects of my university
life, including economics and departments
of economics, and administration and
management of universities in which I
have played a part for most of my
university life, but which I shall hopefully
have a spell away from for the next
few years. This should give me more time
to concentrate on teaching, research
and writing and on tidying up material in
my office which has increasingly
become disordered. However, I have not yet
resorted to leaving papers on the
floor.
Throughout my academic career, I have,
even when I have had considerable
loads of administration, continued
with my research and teaching activities. I
am therefore sympathetic to the system
(mentioned above) which prevails in
University, Canada. On the other
hand, I am somewhat hostile to the
ethos of managerial professionalism,
which has crept into Australian
universities in the name of efficiency
and which discourages continuing
research and teaching by academics
involved in administration. This attitude
appears to be based upon the corporist
idea that a university should be
operated along similar lines to a
factory by the top-down management. It
ignores the fact that many commercial
corporations are not operated in this
way, and that the products of
universities are very different from those of the
commercial world. The present formula
for managing Australian universities
is hardly one that would be supported
by
. It could stifle the realization of
human potential and act as a
barrier to long-term economic
development.
s
continued interest in science and inventions, and on how his inventions helped
the world. 
