Leading economist appointed to Research Centre

Leading economist appointed to Stout Research Centre

Distinguished economist and social statistician Dr Brian Easton has been appointed as the 2008 J. D. Stout Research Fellow to Victoria University's Stout Research Centre for New Zealand Studies.

A well-known public commentator on a wide range of economic and social topics, most notably as the economic columnist of The New Zealand Listener, Dr Easton will use the fellowship to write a history of New Zealand from an economic perspective.

Funded by the Stout Trust, the J. D. Stout Fellowship is awarded yearly to a scholar of high-standing in order to foster research in New Zealand society, history and culture by providing the Fellow with an opportunity to work within an academic environment for the year of tenure.

Centre Director Professor Lydia Wevers says the Centre is delighted to welcome Dr Easton, as an independent scholar with a prolific publication record spanning four decades. He is a Distinguished Fellow of the New Zealand Economics Association (2006), a Fellow of the Royal Statistics Society, a Chartered Statistician, an Honorary Fellow of the Centre for Social and Health Outcomes Research and Evaluation at Massey University, and an Adjunct Professor of the Institute for Public Policy at the Auckland University of Technology.

Some of his more recent works include: Globalisation and the Wealth of Nations (Auckland University Press 2007); The Nationbuilders (Auckland University Press, 2001); In Stormy Seas: The Post-War New Zealand Economy (University of Otago Press, 1997); Towards a Political Economy of New Zealand: The Tectonics of History (Hocken Library, 1994).

He features in Laurence Simmons’ (editor) recently-published book Speaking Truth to Power: Public Intellectuals Rethink New Zealand (AUP), which is centred on eleven interviews with leading New Zealand intellectuals including James Belich, Jane Kelsey, Nicky Hager, Marilyn Waring and the late Michael King.

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