Academy Fellow

Obituary - Emeritus Professor Ann Harding AM, ASSA, Economist

Ann Harding, who died in Canberra on 30 January 2023, at age 64, is best known as the founding director of the National Centre for Social and Economic Modelling (NATSEM), a flagship organisation, at the University of Canberra. At age 34 she became Professor of Applied Economic and Social Policy from 1993 until 2009. 

After Ann graduated from the University of Sydney with honours in economics, she worked as a journalist for the National Times newspaper from 1979-1981, whereupon she joined the Parliamentary Library. From 1982, as policy analyst and adviser in the Department of Social Security, Ann made critical input to the Social Security Review and to the Hawke government’s child and family poverty policy reforms. In 1987 she went to the London School of Economics where she completed her PhD, ‘Lifetime income distribution and redistribution in Australia: applications of a dynamic cohort micro simulation model’. 

In 1993 Ann achieved the enormous coup of being awarded $8m by the Federal government to establish NATSEM. Ann had a compelling vision of a policy research centre which would allow policy actors to see how their potential and actual policy changes would affect the living standards of Australians. Ann was particularly concerned to have the Centre outside of government so that its research could be accessible to all Australians. In establishing and leading the research program at NATSEM, Ann not only pioneered the use of microsimulation in Australia, but she established long-term collaborations with many policy makers who used NATSEM’S policy and research, and in that way made a significant contribution to evidence based economic and social policy.  

Ann’s unique blend of research, policy and communication skills enabled her pioneering and pathbreaking work to transform tax and social security analysis, in particular. Over time, NATSEM’s sophisticated quantitative decision-support tools work were extended to assist policy makers in areas such as: health, aged care, housing, and regional issues. Twenty-two government agencies partnered with NATSEM on Australian Research Council grants, many of them as repeat research partners. Ann published widely on income inequality, poverty and the distributional impact of government programs. 

During Ann’s 16 years as Director of NATSEM she established a wonderful legacy for NATSEM’s researchers to build upon and developed an enormous profile: not only for NATSEM and the University of Canberra but also research that has been recognised both in Australia and internationally.

Ann’s role was extended to the international stage in December 2003 when she was elected as the inaugural President of the newly established International Microsimulation Association (IMA). At the 2011 annual general meeting of the International Microsimulation Association, members unanimously endorsed Ann as their President for a third term.

Ann became an Emeritus Professor at the University of Canberra in 2014 and was awarded the Order of Australia in 2016 for distinguished service to education in the field of applied economics and social policy analysis, as an academic, researcher, and to professional organisations’.

*Obituary written by Professor Meredith Edwards

In 2016 Ann was appointed an Officer of the Order of Australia (AO) in the Australia Day Honours for “distinguished service to education in the field of applied economics and social policy analysis, as an academic, researcher and author, and to professional organisations”.

Over the course of her career, Ann won numerous scholarships and prizes, including a British Council Scholarship to undertake her PhD at the London School of Economics.

For both more recent and earlier publications search on the website at www.natsem.canberra.edu.au under 'Search for Publications', select 'author', and then 'Harding' and then click to sort by 'date'.

• Harding, A. and Gupta, A., 2007. (eds) Modelling Our Future: Population Ageing, Social Security and Taxation, International Symposia in Economic Theory and Econometrics, Vol. 15, Amsterdam, Elsevier B. V.
• Gupta, A and Harding, A, 2007, (eds.), Modelling Our Future: Population Ageing, Health and Aged Care, International Symposia in Economic Theory and Econometrics Volume 16, Elsevier B. V., Amsterdam.
• Zaidi, A, Harding A. and Williamson, P., 2009, (eds), New Frontiers in Microsimulation Modelling, Ashgate, London.
• Harding, A., Kelly, S., Percival, R. Keegan, M. 2009. ‘Population Ageing and Government Age Pension Outlays: Using Microsimulation Models to Inform Policy Making’, Prepared for the Economic and Social Research Institute, Cabinet Office, Government of Japan, March. (published at http://www.esri.go.jp/jp/workshop/0907/a_02_01.pdf.)
• Tanton, R. McNamara, J. Harding, A. and Morrison, T. 2009, ‘Rich suburbs, poor suburbs? Small area poverty estimates for Australia’s eastern seaboard in 2006’. In A Zaidi, A Harding and P Williamson, New Frontiers in Microsimulation Modelling, Ashgate, London
• Brown, L., Harris, A., Picton, M., Thurecht, L., Mandy, Y., Harding, A., Dixon, P. and Richardson, J., 2009, ‘Linking Microsimulation and Macro-Economic Models to Estimate the Economic Impact of Chronic Disease Prevention’, In A Zaidi, A Harding and P Williamson, New Frontiers in Microsimulation Modelling, Ashgate, London
• Tanton, R., Harding, A., and McNamara, J. 2010, ‘Urban and Rural Estimates of Poverty: Recent Advances in Spatial Microsimulation in Australia’, Geographical Research, Vol 48, No. 1, pp. 52-64
• Tanton, R., Harding, A., Daly, A., McNamara, J. and Yap, M., 2010, Australian children at risk of social exclusion: a spatial index for gauging relative disadvantage, Population, Space and Place, Vol. 16, No. 2., pp. 135-150
• Nepal, B., Tanton, R., Harding, A.,2010, Measuring housing stress: How much do definitions matter?, Urban Policy and Research, Vol 28, No 2, June, pp 211-224
• Harding, A., Keegan, M and Kelly, S., 2010, ‘Validating a Dynamic Microsimulation Model: Recent Experience in Australia’, International Journal of Microsimulation , Vol 3(2), Autumn., pp 46-64
• Harding A, Vidyattama Y, Tanton R, 2011, “Demographic Change and the Needs-Based Planning of Government Services: Projecting Small Area Populations Using Spatial Microsimulation” The Journal of Population Research, Vol. 28, No. 2-3., pp. 203-224
• Gong, H. C., McNamara, J., Vidyattama, Y., Miranti, R., Tanton, R., Harding, A., & Kendig, H., 2012. ‘Developing Spatial Microsimulation Estimates of Small Area Advantage and Disadvantage among Older Australians’, Population, Space and Place, Vol. 18, No. 5, pp. 551-565
• Rahman, A., Harding, A., Tanton, R. and Liu, S., 2012, Simulating the characteristics of populations at the small area level: new validation techniques for a spatial microsimulation model in Australia, Computational Statistics & Data Analysis, Vol. 57, No. 1, pp. 149-165
• Clarke, G. and Harding, A., 2013, 'Background, Chapter Summaries and Future Research Directions', in R. Tanton and K Edwards, Spatial Microsimulation’, Microsimulation: A Reference Guide for Users, Springer
• Harding, A. and Tanton, R., 2013, ‘Policy and People at the Small Area Level: Using Microsimulation to Create Synthetic Spatial Data’, in R. Stimson, Handbook in Spatially Integrated Social Science Research Methods, Edward Elgar, Sydney