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Tim Harcourt is a professional economist specialising in international trade and labour economic issues in the Asia Pacific region and in the emerging economies. Tim's passion is Australia's engagement with the global economy and the challenges and opportunities it offers business and the Australian community as a whole.

Tim has broad experience in public policy and in communicating international economic issues widely in the community. He has held senior roles in both the public sector and private sector in Australia and internationally and in the community and education sectors. In Australia he has worked for the Reserve Bank of Australia, Fair Work Australia, the Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU and the Australian Trade Commission (Austrade).

Publication

The Airport EconomistAustralian exporters conquering global markets
Beyond Our ShoresEssays on Australia and the Global Economy By Tim Harcourt, Chief Economist, Australian Trade Commission
Going The DistanceEssays on Australia and the Global Economy: 2004-2008 By Tim Harcourt, Chief Economist, Australian Trade Commission

Entries from April 19th, 2012

Never mind the miners, here’s the bankers

April 19th, 2012 · No Comments · Publications

In Australia’s economic history, there always been tension between Labor and the Banks. My grandfather was an adviser to wartime Labor Treasurer and Prime Minister, Joseph Benedict Chifley, better known as ‘Ben’, in the 1940s. Grandpa thought Chifley was a magnificent Prime Minister until he went too far with Bank nationalization, which together with petrol […]

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Australian unis pulse with a samba beat

April 15th, 2012 · No Comments · Publications

When I went to the University of Adelaide, I received a stroke of luck. Under the Colombo plan, which enabled south-east Asian students get scholarships to Australian universities, the grand old man of Singapore,Lee Kuan Yew, sent a number of very bright Singaporean students, who were meant to go to Oxford to study nuclear physics, […]

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From Rio to Freo – The Airport Economists hits the samba trail in Brazil

April 11th, 2012 · No Comments · Publications

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Out of Africa…..and back in.

April 1st, 2012 · No Comments · Publications

Reporting from Cape Town, South Africa When South Africa emerged from the apartheid era in the mid-1990s it was a common plea for the world not to forget Africa simply because the apartheid battle had been seen to be won. Back then, “not forgetting Africa” had an international aid connotation, strongly associated with events such […]

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