Forsaking Keynes

Alex Millmow

Chapter Chapter 6 in The Gypsy Economist, 2021, pp 85-112 from Palgrave Macmillan

Abstract: Abstract This chapter looks over the first period of Colin Clark’s career in Australia. It was his mentor Hugh Dalton who played a key role in persuading Clark to work there. After a brief and controversial assignment in New Zealand studying her national income statistics, Clark agreed to take an executive position with the Queensland Government. It meant a breach with Keynes and Cambridge. Clark defended his decision, telling Keynes that it was an ideal opportunity to put economic science into action. What also turned his mind was Queensland’s rural and small enterprise economy, its egalitarian distribution of income, generous social services, compulsory trade unionism, absence of strikes and centralised wage fixation. Moreover, Queensland’s political leaders favoured decentralisation which resonated with Clark’s growing interest in Distributivism; a philosophy that advocated a fairer distribution of property, ruralism and rejection of ills of urban life. Clark’s public utterances and occasional disagreements with his fellow economists hinted at a future estrangement with them.

Date: 2021
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DOI: 10.1007/978-981-33-6946-7_6

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