ABSTRACT

When we were approached separately to contribute to Geoff Harcourt’s sixty-fifth birthday Festschrift we had a like-minded response. Why not write about his impact on Australian economics and policy? This, it seemed to us, would redress the balance which had emphasized his work in Cambridge and his own description of himself as a ‘Cambridge economist’ (Harcourt 1992a). Of course he has always stressed, sometimes to the irritation of his more stuffy colleagues, that despite living for many years in Cambridge he remains an ‘Australian patriot’ (Harcourt 1995a), and one who has aggressively retained his interest in Australian politics, economics and sport and the Australian accent to go with it.