Giblin, Lyndhurst Falkiner (1872–1951)

Abstract

Giblin was born and died in Hobart, Tasmania. Trained in mathematics and statistics at King’s College, Cambridge, he became teacher, gold-miner, fruit-grower, Labor politician in Tasmania, and soldier before beginning his career as statistician/economist in 1919. In his official positions as Tasmanian Government Statistician (1919–28), Acting Commonwealth Statistician (1931–2), Ritchie Research Professor of Economics at the University of Melbourne (1929–39), member of the Committee of Enquiry into the Australian Tariff (1927–9), of the Commonwealth Grants Commission (1933–6), the Commonwealth Bank Board (1935–42) and chairman of the Finance and Economic Policy Committee (1939–46), he exercised significant influence on economic policy-making in Australia. He shepherded the small band of Australian economists to preserve cohesion within the profession, provided links with governments, and endeavoured to raise public awareness of the nature and dimensions of economic problems.

This chapter was originally published in The New Palgrave: A Dictionary of Economics, 1st edition, 1987. Edited by John Eatwell, Murray Milgate and Peter Newman