Australia and the University of Western Sydney have been very good to me for the last 20 years. I have been able to develop a unique monetary dynamic approach to economics “under the radar” out here, with the support of four consecutive Heads of School who have favored a pluralist approach to economics.
But it may be time for a change. Did you see the blog post I put up just this week about needing an Australian Industry Partner for an application to the Australian Research Council for a Linkage Grant?:
Australian Industry Partner needed
That, it seems, may have been wishful thinking. Though I have had one positive response, it seems that the entire scheme may be about to go–or at best be drastically curtailed–because of the Australian government’s obsession with returning to a budget surplus. Today we received the following email from UWS’s research unit:
Dear Researchers, We are extremely dismayed by the ‘funding freeze’ that the ARC is experiencing. The ARC are unable to say anything on this matter and despite our queries, they cannot even give us a date as to when any announcement will be made. The only news we have heard is from the newspapers! Funding freeze halts research Judging by the latest news article (above), we might expect to hear something around the time the federal budget is updated early next week. We regret we do not have any more definitive information for you and don’t know if the Linkage Projects round is to continue, be delayed or even cancelled. As soon as the ARC make an announcement we will let you know.Though I won’t go into detail, the news in terms of internal university funding is no better. Perhaps it’s time for me to see whether I can find a position in another country–and hopefully one that will mean my travel to most conferences no longer requires an intercontinental flight.
The difficulty here of course is that, as a well-known critic of Neoclassical economics, there are no advertised jobs for which I can apply–and certainly not at highly ranked institutions where, without fail, Neoclassical economics dominates the curriculum. For instance, the American Economic Association maintains a very good database of job openings for economists called JOE. A search of the October listing restricted to “Heterodox Approaches” yielded just 11 jobs worldwide–several of which were non-academic posts, and none of which were at Professorial level. In contrast there were 142 positions for “Microeconomics”, including several Professorial appointments, 124 for “Macroeconomics”, 127 for “Mathematical”, and so on.
Of course, what I do clearly covers those other fields as well, but it’s not recognized as such because my work is non-Neoclassical, and I don’t have publications in leading journals where Neoclassical assumptions are required for entry.
My application for any such position would also be a “red rag to a bull” to Neoclassicals in such departments, as indicated by posts on the blogosphere (like this one, and this one), so there’s little point trying anyway.
The only remaining possibilities are (a) that a more adventurous department somewhere might want to bring me aboard or (b) that a University President somewhere feels that economics needs a shakeup, given the failure of the mainstream to see this economic crisis coming.
Hence this post. If you’re in such a Department, or you’re such a University President who thinks that your Economics Department needs a shake-up, drop me a line (at debunking@gmail.com). I’m open for offers.
