The Economic Importance of Education

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Tags: summer-2012

Doctor Ted Evans AC

Doctor Ted Evans AC

Bachelor of Economics (Honours), ‘68

According to Doctor Ted Evans, he’s never had any great ambitions. He claims his lengthy and impressive career is a result of good fortune, being in the right places and working with the right people.

“In my early life my first love was electronics, and at university I had hoped to study engineering. For various reasons that didn’t happen,” Doctor Evans said.

Instead, Doctor Evans became captivated by an introductory course in Economics and, along with some sound advice, embarked on what would become one of the most influential economic careers in Australia.

Doctor Evans recently received an Honorary Doctorate from UQ and, although in retirement, he still has ideas about Australia’s most current economic issues, including climate change, population and higher education.

“The one economic issue that should come to most people’s mind is climate change,” he said.

“To what extent should Australia be trying to lead the field, and what are the costs for doing so for the Australian people? Population is equally important. Do we want to be undertaking measures to increase or decrease population? There’s no agreement on this and, because there is no agreement, issues like refugee matters are dealt with in a vacuum.”

Holding further honours as a Companion of the Order of Australia and as a life member of Australian Business Economists, his views on education may be his strongest.

“Higher education is extraordinarily important and could be much more so. Education is unlike other resources; it’s renewable, it’s high quality, highly employable and, more importantly, it helps develop relationships with other countries.

“Australia’s education of people from all over the world opens Australians up to understanding diversity and helps people from those countries better understand Australia, and hence improves relations. So I think higher education is the country’s most significant potential industry,” Doctor Evans said.

He says his views on education primarily come from his own experiences and the opportunities university gave him. Following his graduation in 1968 with First Class Honours and a University Medal, Doctor Evans faced two options – go on to complete a PhD or take a position with the Treasury Department.

“Visiting UQ was one of Australia’s greatest ever economists, Professor W Max Corden, and he said go to the Treasury for a few years and learn some economics. I was quite taken aback as I had been studying economics for years and to be told that I needed to go learn some economics was a bit confronting,” Doctor Evans said.

He now gives the same message to young professionals – that as much as students learn tools and techniques at university, the best learning is done on the job.

“Once there, I continually learnt and learnt, by doing different things. It’s just critically important to work,” Doctor Evans said.

Having spent more than 32 years with the Treasury, Doctor Evans held a number of positions, including Secretary to the Treasury and, abroad, the Executive Director of the International Monetary Fund, representing Australia and 12 other countries in Washington DC. He later served on the Westpac board for 10 years and as a director of the Reserve Bank of Australia. Discussing his career, Doctor Evans is reluctant to take credit for major economic accomplishments. However, one of his most noteworthy contributions to Australian’s financial development was as Chair of Heads of Treasuries, a team of economic representatives from each state and territory.

“We used to meet and agree on national initiatives, like the introduction of the GST and deregulating Australia’s financial system,” Doctor Evans said.
While initiatives officially came from Canberra, the team ensured programs gained support from state governments. Remembering his work, he emphasises that the Heads of Treasuries’ success, like the success of many groups he’s worked with, was the result of a highly productive group of likeminded people, working for the good of Australia.

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