Staff:

2 I· g. Jg

29/1981 8.12.80

THE AUSTRALIAN NATIONAL UNIVERSITY

rA CU LTY OF ECONOMICS

DEPARTMENT OF ECONOMIC HISTORY

ANNUAL REPORT 1980

Professor and Head of Department to May 1980: G.S.L. Tucker, B.Com.(Melb.), Ph.D.(Cantab.), FASSA.

Reader and Acting-Head of Department from June 1980:

C. Forster, B.Com.(Melb.), Ph.D.

Senior Lecturers: R.V. Jackson, B.Ec.(Syd.), Ph.D.(Syd.) S.H. Cornish, B.Ec.(W.A.)

Lecturers: A. Martina, B.Com.(Rhodes), M.A.(Essex), Ph.D. J.E.S. Gagg, B.A.(Manchester) H.M. Boot, B.Sc. (Econ.) (Lond.), Ph.D. (Hull)

Research Assistant: Ms. Paula Harris, B.Ec.(W.A.), M.A.(Dev.Econ.)

(East Anglia) to November 1980.

The department offers courses dealing chiefly with modern periods of economic development, beginning in the mid-eighteenth century or later and coming forward to the years since the end of the Second World War. Except in the first-year unit, economic history must be studied in association with economic theory. The main areas at present covered are the U.K., U.S.A., Australia, Japan, India, Russia, and some selected European economies.

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The department's research interests lie mainly in Australian economic development and the history of English economic thought and policy.

Staff Matters:

On 29 May 1980, Professor Graham Tucker died in Canberra Hospital following brain surgery. Professor Tucker's untimely death represented a great loss to the Department. Dr C. Forster was appointed Acting-Head of the Department.

Dr R.V. Jackson continued to serve as Associate Dean of the Faculty of Economics.

Dr A. Martina was granted sabbatical leave from December 1979 to June 1980. The first half of his study leave was spent in En9land, and for the remainder of the period he was at the Department of Economics in the Research School of Social Sciences, A.N.U.

Review:

As part of the review of the departments of the Faculty of Economics, a Department of Economic History Review Committee was established. The Committee first met on 1 August, and its draft report was circulated to members in November.

Courses:

Teaching was conducted in three full-year units (Economic History I and II and History of Economic Thought) and four advanced semester units (Recent Economic Experience in Europe and North America, Economic Analysis of History, Economic Experience of Modern India, and Russian Economic History). There were two part-time candidates and one full­time candidate for Economic History IV Honours.

In 1981 the Department will introduce two new first-year units. Economic History A, which replaces Economic History I, aims to qive historical perspective to the economic development of the modern world. Economics for Historians, which will be presented in the Faculty of Arts, is designed to introduce ' economics to students of history and related disciplines.

Enrolments and Examinations:

Total undergraduate unit enrolments in full-year units and first semester units were 203, representing an increase of 13.4 per cent compared with those in 1979. Enrolments in the department's first-year unit were 131. This was a marked increase on the 1979 figure (99) .

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Examination statistics are shown in a separate sheet. In Econo111i c Hi story I a failure rate of 8/;' and a withdrawal rate of 16 were very close to the rates for 1979. The completion rate in 1980 of 76% compares with the 1979 rate of 77~. Similarly, in Economic Hi s tory II the completion rate of 74 was very close to the 1979 figure of 76%. There were only two failures in third-year units.

One part-time honours student completed her degree at the end of first Semester gaining the result of 2A Honours, the other two honours students, one full-time and one part-time, completed their degrees at the end of the year with a lst and a 2A result.

Student Participation:

The Departmental Committee, which includes two undergraduate student participants met on three occasions during the year.

Surveys of student opinion of course content, methods of assess­ment, lecturers, and tutors were conducted in most lecture classes toward the end of a course. Results of student evaluation of course content and methods of assessment were published on the department's notice board.

Research:

H.M. Boot: the British economy of the 1840s (monograph in preparation for publication by the University of Hull). S.H. Cornish: the making of the British White Paper on Employment Policy (final drafting of manuscript); aspects of economic policy in Australia between 1930 and 1950. C.Forster: engineering wages in Melbourne 1890-1939; economic effects of basic wage fixation. J.E.S. Gagg: Australian commodity policy in the interwar period. R.V. Jackson: shipping to Australia in the nineteenth century; public-private sector relationship in Australia 1860-1890. A. Martina: welfare economic theory and its application to particular problems in economic history.

Pu blication:

Forster, C., "Indexation and the Commonwealth Basic ~Jage 1907-22", Au.·tralian t:conornie llislor>y Review , XX:2, September 1980.

Jackson, R.V., "The Decline of the Wool Clippers", The Gr>eat Circle : Journal of the Aus tralian Association for> Mar>itime Hi s tory, Vol. 2, No.2, October 1980.

C. FORSTER

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THE AUSTRALIAN NATIONAL UNIVERSITY

DEPARTMENT OF ECONOMIC HISTORY ANALYSIS OF STUDENT PERFORMANCE

Percentage of Number Percentage of Number Sitting

2 Enrolled j 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Enrolled ~Q.stage Pass Subject as at Sitting i . e. Failure Sitting High Dist- Credit with Pass Fail or Unit 30.4.79 2-3) Distinction inction Merit*

No. % No. % No. % No. % No. % No. % No. % No. % No. % No. % No. %

Economic History I 131 ( 100) 110 (84) 21 ( 16) 11 (8) 110 ( 100) 2 ( 2) 7 (6) 11 ( 10) 79 (72) 11 ( 10)

Economic History II 38 ( 100) 31 (82) 7 ( 18) 3 (8) 31 ( 100) 2 ( 6) 2 (6) 4 ( 13) 20 (65) 3 ( 10)

Recent Economic Experience in Europe and North America 23 ( l 00) 22 (96) (4) 2 ( 9) 22 ( l 00) (5) 3 ( 14) 16 (73) 2 ( 9)

Economic Analysis of History 2 ( l 00) ( 50) (50) ( l 00) ( l 00)

Economic Experience of Modern India l 2 ( l 00) 11 (92) (8) 11 ( l 00) (9) 3 (27) 7 (64)

Russian Economic Hi story 20 ( 100) 18 (90) 2 ( 10) 18 ( l 00) 6 (33) 2 ( 11 ) 10 (56)

History of Economic Thought 7 ( 100) 7 ( l 00) 7 ( 100) ( 14) 6 (86)

Enro 11 ed Sitting Results (as at 30 April 1979)

Final Honours 3 3 1 s t - 1 ; 2A - 2. Masters Qualifying Masters Degree Ph.D.

* There were no awards of Pass with High Merit

8 December 1980