The Learning State: Building Experimentation into Australian Government
In memory of Edward Shann, each year the UWA Business School hosts the Shann Memorial Lecture, one of Australia's longest-running public lectures on economic policy.
The Shann Memorial Lecture honours the memory of the Foundation Chair of Economics and History at UWA, Edward Shann. A collaboration between the UWA Economics Department and the Economic Society of Australia (WA Branch), it has been running continuously since the 1960's. The lecture features an esteemed guest speaker, as well as an opportunity following the lecture for questions and discussion.
About the speaker
Andrew Leigh is the Assistant Minister for Productivity, Competition, Charities and Treasury, and Federal Member for Fenner in the ACT. Prior to being elected in 2010, Andrew was a professor of economics at the Australian National University. He holds a PhD in Public Policy from Harvard, having graduated from the University of Sydney with first class honours in Arts and Law. Andrew is a past recipient of the Economic Society of Australia's Young Economist Award and a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Social Sciences.
His books include Disconnected (2010), Battlers and Billionaires: The Story of Inequality in Australia (2013), The Economics of Just About Everything (2014), The Luck of Politics (2015), Choosing Openness: Why Global Engagement is Best for Australia (2017), Randomistas: How Radical Researchers Changed Our World (2018), Innovation + Equality: How to Create a Future That Is More Star Trek Than Terminator (with Joshua Gans) (2019), Reconnected: A Community Builder's Handbook (with Nick Terrell) (2020), What's the Worst That Could Happen? Existential Risk and Extreme Politics (2021), Fair Game: Lessons From Sport for a Fairer Society and a Stronger Economy (2022), The Shortest History of Economics (2024), Battlers and Billionaires: The Updated Story of Inequality in Australia (2024) and The Shortest History of Innovation (2026).
Andrew is a keen Ironman triathlete and marathon runner, and hosts a podcast called The Good Life: Andrew Leigh in Conversation, about living a happier, healthier and more ethical life. Andrew is the father of three sons - Sebastian, Theodore and Zachary, and lives with his wife Gweneth in Canberra. He has been a member of the Australian Labor Party since 1991.
About Edward Shann
Edward Shann (b 1884) was one of Australia's leading pre-war economists making significant intellectual contributions to economics and economic policy, championing free-market thought in public forums and mentoring a new generation of economists.
A graduate of Melbourne University and LSE, he was UWA’s Foundation Professor of History and Economics in 1931, inaugural Professor of Economics from 1931 and Vice-Chancellor from 1921 to 1923. Shann is credited with building an economics discipline on the UWA campus, advocating for free markets and flexible prices, small government, fiscal prudence and flexible exchange rates.
Shann foresaw the Great Depression, describing the looming conditions in his paper ‘The Boom of 1890—and Now’ (April 1927). He coined the phrase ‘it’s a fine country to starve in,’ a metaphor for the government’s optimism that they could increase debt without regard for increasing productivity. He then played a key role in Australia’s recovery from the Great Depression, advocating for devaluation and monetary policy.
Shann’s students included many post-war nation builders, most notably - H.C Coombs, who was the first Governor of the Reserve Bank of Australia, and Arthur Tange, who is credited with the creation of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade - the modern structure of Australia’s civilian and uniform defence services. Shann died tragically in 1935. The sundial in UWA’s Sunken Gardens is dedicated to the memory of Edward Shann.
