Heinz Wolfgang Wolfgang Arndt

Background

Heinz Wolfgang Arndt was born in Breslau, Germany in 1915, the eldest son of Fritz Georg Arndt (1885-1969) and Julia (née Heimann).

Education

Bachelor, University of Oxford, 1936; BLitt, University of Oxford, 1938; Master of Arts, University of Oxford, 1940.

Career

Arndt gained two degrees at Oxford and taught at the London School of Economics and Manchester University before settling in Australia in 1946. In 1950, he took up a chairmanship in economics at the then Canberra University College. He became head of the department at the Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies (RSPAS) at the Australian National University (American National University) in 1963.

He held this position until retiring in 1980.

One of his main activities as head of the department was his establishment and management of the Indonesia Project which sponsors research on the Indonesian economy. As part of his activities with the Indonesia Project he established the academic journal Bulletin of Indonesian Economic Studies (BIES).

Arndt died in a car crash in Canberra in May 2002. Arndt was President of the Economic Society of Australia and New Zealand, and President of Section G (Economics) of ANZAAS. He wrote or co-wrote seven books, edited two collections of articles by various authors on the Australian economy, published six collections of his own essays, and produced more than a hundred articles, reports, book reviews and published lectures.

He also acted as an adviser on various occasions to international inquiries and committees.

In 1979 he was appointed as chair of group of experts to prepare a study for the Commonwealth on factors restraining global economic growth at the beginning of the 1980s. Arndt was also editor of the magazine Quadrant. Arndt had three children, Christopher, Nicholas and well known sex therapist Bettina Arndt.

Achievements

• Heinz Wolfgang Arndt has been listed as a noteworthy Economics educator by Marquis Who's Who.

Works

More photos

• book

  • Economic Development: The History of an Idea

    ( "Economic Development makes an important contribution o...)

  • The economic lessons of the nineteen-thirties,

    (This title, first written as a report for the Chatham Hou...)

  • Importance of Money: Essays in Domestic Macroeconomics 1949-1999

    (A collection of essays written by H.W. Arndt, over a 50 y...)

  • The Indonesian economy: Collected papers
  • The Australian Trading Banks - Third Edition
  • The Australian trading banks
  • Economic Development: The History of an Idea by H. W. Arndt (1989-08-15)
  • 50 Years of Development studies
  • The Rise and Fall of Economic Growth: A Study in Contemporary Thought

Views

After writing The Economic Lessons of the Nineteen-Thirties during World World War II, guided by Paul Rosenstein-Rodan, I taught macroeconomics and wrote about some issues in international monetary theory and policy. In Australia, I concentrated for some years on studies of the Australian banking system and capital market. Increasing interest in economic development problems, reinforced by a spell in India, led to almost twenty years of specialisation on development issues in Southeast Asia, especially Indonesia.

But some work, both theoretical and applied, went on side by side on domestic and international macroeconomics. In recent years, a major interest has been the history of thought about the ends of economic policy, changing emphasis on economic growth in DCs, and changing meanings of ‘development’ for and in LDCs.

Membership

External examiner in economics Universities Malaysia and Singapore, 1968-1970, Singapore, 1976-1980. Member governing council United Nations Asian Institute for Economic Development and Planning, Bangkok, 1969-1975. Member expert group on World Employment Conference, International Labour Office, 1975.

Member expert group on economic development planning United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and Pacific, Bangkok, 1975, 77. Deputy director country studies division Organization of European Cooperation and Development, Paris, 1972. Committee Australia-Japan Research Center, Australian National University, since 1972.

Member Economic Society Australia and New Zealand (president 1957-1959), Social Science Research Council Australia (honorary secretary 1957-1959), Academy Social Sciences Australia (fellow 1959-1997), Australian Association for Cultural Freedom (president 1977-1986).

Interests

• 310 Domestic Monetary Theory and Institutions. 112 Economic Development Theory. 121 Economic Studies of LDCs.

Connections

Married Ruth Strohsahl, July 12, 1941. Children: Christopher, Nicholas, Bettina.

Father:

Fritz Georg Arndt

Mother:

Julia (Heimann) Arndt

Spouse:

Ruth Strohsahl

child:

Nicholas Arndt

child:

Bettina Arndt

child:

Christopher Arndt