LUCKY BOY IN THE LUCKY COUNTRY THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MAX CORDEN, ECONOMIST Warner Max Corden Foreword by Martin Wolf PALGRAVE STUDIES IN THE HISTORY OF ECONOMIC THOUGHT Palgrave Studies in the History of Economic Thought Series editors Avi Cohen York University and University of Toronto Toronto, Canada G.C. Harcourt University of New South Wales Sydney, New South Wales, Australia Peter Kriesler University of New South Wales Sydney, New South Wales, Australia Jan Toporowski School of Oriental and African Studies London, United Kingdom “Max’s determination to get to the bottom of any problem he confronts and then explain how to think about it, rigorously and clearly, is the fruit of a pro­ found diligence – an absolute refusal to be sloppy, confused or misleading. This diligence made him the remarkable teacher and analyst he is.” —Martin Wolf, Chief Economics Commentator, Financial Times Palgrave Studies in the History of Economic Thought publishes con­ tributions by leading scholars, illuminating key events, theories and indi­ viduals that have had a lasting impact on the development of modern­day economics. The topics covered include the development of economies, institutions and theories. More information about this series at http://www.palgrave.com/gp/series/14585 “A running theme of this book which has great contemporary resonance in many countries is Corden’s reflections on what it means to be an immigrant. He reflects on the challenges facing newly­arrived immigrants, how they seek to assimilate to the receiving country’s culture and values and how public policy can best facilitate this process. He draws heavily on his own family experience as refugees to Australia fleeing Nazi persecution. How does it affect the sense of identity? In his case he was much influenced, especially during the War, by Australia’s British culture and education. Politicians and the media who wax glibly about immigration and assimilation would benefit greatly from reading this book.” —John Martin, former OECD Director for Employment, Labour and Social Affairs, and current adviser to the Irish government on employment policy Warner Max Corden Lucky Boy in the Lucky Country The Autobiography of Max Corden, Economist Warner Max Corden University of Melbourne Melbourne, VIC, Australia http://www.maxcorden.com Palgrave Studies in the History of Economic Thought ISBN 978­3­319­65165­1 ISBN 978­3­319­65166­8 (eBook) DOI 10.1007/978­3­319­65166­8 Library of Congress Control Number: 2017954309 © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2017 This work is subject to copyright. 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Cover illustration: author’s own Printed on acid­free paper This Palgrave Macmillan imprint is published by Springer Nature The registered company is Springer International Publishing AG The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland To the memory of … Dorothy My parents, Kate and Rudolf Corden My brother, Gerald Aunt Elli Uncle Willy Harry Johnson Thank You Thank You Alex Millmow Belinda Nemec Daryl Stevens Francesco Mongelli Joe Isaac John Creedy John Nieuwenhuysen Jonathan Thong Hal Hill Henryk Kierzkowski Peter Dixon Philip O’Brien Prema­Chandra Athukorala Rick Batzdorf Sisira Jayasuriya Sarath Rajapatirana Tamar Gazit vii viii Thank You And Especial Thanks To Norbert Conrads Geoff Harcourt John Martin John Black Peter Oppenheimer Ross Garnaut Foreword by Martin Wolf Max Corden—then, as he tells us, Werner Max Cohn—was born in Breslau in 1927 and moved to England in 1938. A lifelong Anglophile, he left for Australia with his family in 1939. There he was to become what he is today: Max Corden, Australia’s greatest living economist. This book tells his remarkable story. I first met Max during his period teaching at Nuffield College, Oxford, between 1967 and 1976. I was a student at Nuffield between 1969 and 1971 and was one of those people lucky enough to learn international trade theory from Max, who was not only one of the world’s leading spe­ cialists but also a superb teacher. The characteristics of Max as a teacher are the same as those of Max as an author—indeed they are very much on display in this autobiography: the maximum of clarity with the minimum of unnecessary complexity. I consider of this lack of pretension as an Australian virtue. But it went with a commitment to ideas that is characteristically Jewish. Max was far and away the best teacher and most lucid expositor I met during my time at Oxford. I think of those qualities as not just intellec­ tual—though, of course, they are—but also moral. Max’s determination to get to the bottom of any problem he confronts and then explain how to think about it, rigorously and clearly, is the fruit of a profound diligence—an absolute refusal to be sloppy, confused, or misleading. This diligence made him the remarkable teacher and analyst ix x Foreword by Martin Wolf he is. And this, more than any particular bit of economics, was the most important lesson he imparted to me. He is an outstanding teacher and economist, because he is determined to perform his tasks to the very best of his abilities. I drew two more lessons of great importance from Max. Since my background at Oxford had been in classics and then Politics, Philosophy, and Economics, I lacked the mathematical skills that were increasingly in demand. As a result, I wondered whether I could find my own niche in economics. Max, who eschewed mathematics in his theoretical work, showed me that I could hope to do so. Economics, it was clear, had many houses. In one of them I could hope to thrive. The second lesson was his ability to underline something I already believed. Economics was a political subject. Its proper aim was to make the world a better place. With his deep interest in practical questions, Max taught me that this was an altogether reasonable ambition. He also taught me something else: as he puts it in the book, “one’s choice of mod­ els must depend on circumstances”. Economics is not a religion; it is a toolbox. At the time I met him, Max was in the middle of what was arguably his most intellectually creative period, when he did his seminal work on protection and trade policy. The interest in trade I learned from him has stayed with me ever since. His book, Trade Policy and Economic Welfare, published in 1974, shortly after I left Oxford is, I believe, his master­ piece. It has had a huge influence upon me and many others. Subsequently, Max moved to work on problems of the international monetary system. In this area, too, his writings were marked by those characteristics of clarity and rigour. He sorted things out and so, when one read his work, one learned how to understand the issues, too. In this fascinating book, Max tells of his entire life journey, starting with Breslau, the arrival of the Nazi in 1933 and his father’s imprison­ ment in Buchenwald, to the family’s very lucky escape to England and then Australia. He puzzles, rightly over the mystery of the demented and murderous anti­Semitism he managed to escape. Max goes on to explain how he became who he is—an Australian and a great economist. Here, too, he enjoyed much luck. As is usually the case, great success requires the timely help of a number of kind and