Economic policy, external and internal, and public policy

Abstract

Ross Garnaut delivered a Holmes Lecture superbly crafted to honour Frank Holmes. His economic theory is deployed discreetly. Not only does his lecture have diagrams but no equations, but  also most of the theorising is implicit. It is, however, sophisticated and carefully developed. Perhaps the influence of economic theory is most apparent in the concept of ‘maturation’ of economic growth, the eventually spreading of economic growth across all societies, with an implicit end-point when all have a common real per capita income and rate of growth.