Research Leadership

Abstract

This chapter looks at Colin Clark’s work as Director of the Agricultural Economics Research Institute at Oxford, his observations about the British economy but also his continuing interest in Australia. In his seventeen years as Director of the Institute (1953–1969), Clark interpreted his research duties very broadly, looking at wider issues of demand, prices, international trade, resource allocation and the location of economic activity and human settlements. His position furthered his understanding of the processes of economic growth, more particularly the role of agricultural sector in that process, as well as the economics of irrigation and the dynamic interaction between food supplies and global population. Under his leadership, the Institute expanded its interest in the field of development economics without neglecting its basic research task. As well as journal articles, reports and essays, Clark published four major academic works in the 1960s spanning demography, irrigation, subsistence agriculture and economic development. He had returned to work in Britain at a critical period in its economic history with great concern about inflation, the balance of payments deficit and anaemic rate of economic growth. By this time, Clark had become one of the first radical conservatives, later describing his philosophy as classical economic liberalism. He spoke out against the post-war Keynesian consensus and assisted in the creation of the Institute of Economic Affairs.