Academy Fellow

"Economist, policy adviser and academic. Gerard Gill Firth was born in Leeds, England in 1916 and was educated at University College, London where he took a degree in Economics. He emigrated to Australia in 1938 to take up a research assistant position at the University of Melbourne with economist L.F. Giblin. During World War II Firth moved to Canberra where he worked with economist Roland Wilson in the Reconstruction Division of the Department of Labour and National Service. He played an active role in the formation of national economic policy and was involved in drafting the White Paper on full employment that became central to the post-war economic policy of the Chifley government. Firth returned to academic life after the war ended and in 1947 he moved to Hobart to become Professor of Economics in the University of Tasmania. He retired in 1978. Firth died in Hobart in 1999."

NLA