Listener 29 January 1994.
Keywords: Growth & Innovation; History of Ideas, Methodology & Philosophy;
Economics is a profession where 40-year-olds usually give up serious research,proclaiming platitudes instead. But Bryan Philpott is still an active researcher, six years after retirement, His greatest love, which goes back to the 1950s when he worked for the Meat and Wool Economic Service, is the determinants of economic growth. The farm accounts series from the 1920s, which he and associates derived in the 1920s, which he and associates derived in the 1960s, is still definitive. Even more valuable is the economy-wide comprehensive database from the 1950s, filling in gaps in the official series. More recently, students under Philpott’s supervision have been extending his unique capital series back to the last century.
