A conversation with Murray Kemp

History of Economics Review, Wntr, 2005 by William Coleman

Abstract: Murray Kemp recalls his decision to study economics, his acquaintance with some founders of Australian academic economics at Melbourne University in the 1940s, his original intellectual influences, his choice of graduate school, his experiences at Cambridge, his difficulties in returning to Australia, his original Keynesian affiliation, the role of Haberler's writings in his 'conversion' to neoclassical economics, his dissatisfaction with the revival of partial equilibrium trade theory, his mathematical style, his research that he judges to be the most successful, and his views on Australian academic life.

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Murray Kemp was born in rural Victoria in 1926. After securing a B.Com. and MA at the University of Melbourne, he obtained a Ph.D. from Johns Hopkins University in 1955 (Long and Wan 1998). He was appointed Professor of Economics at the University of New South Wales in 1962, and over the subsequent decades established a formidable reputation as Australia's pre-eminent economic theorist. Over a period of 54 years he has published, by one count, 237 papers and 17 books. By the ISI Web of Science measure of citations, he has been cited more in the post-1980 literature than any other Australian economist. These quantitative dimensions are matched by an interesting diversity of research. Kemp has published on very pure theory, as well as more topical problems. He is well known for his extensive work on neoclassical theory, but he has also made contributions to Post Keynesian theory. He has been credited with mathematising the syllabus of international trade, and yet one of his most discussed papers, and his most republished paper (Kemp and Wan 1976), contains not a single mathematical symbol.

He was interviewed in his Sydney home on 25 September 2003.

William Coleman: I wonder if I might begin at the beginning with your grandfather's grandfather. Anthony Fenn Kemp: Rum Rebellion rebel, Church elder, republican, monopolist, chronic stirrer, father of 18 children, acquaintance of George Washington, who amazingly lived to the age of 95. How would you summarise the character of this ancestor of yours?

Murray Kemp: I've always thought he was a bit of a rascal, but probably most members of the Rum Corps were of the same cut. He certainly wasn't an easy man to get along with, if we could believe even half of the anecdotes--and that's all they are--that have been handed down, a rascal.

Coleman: Could we talk about your immediate family then, your father, your mother--where you were living?

Kemp: My father and mother grew up in Melbourne. My father was the son of a schoolteacher, two schoolteachers in fact--father and mother. We moved about--country town to country town, as bank managers do, working their way up. For a year I went to Williamstown High School, then my father moved me into a private school--Wesley College (St Kilda Rd).

Coleman: A Methodist college. Were you a Methodist family?

Kemp: No, that didn't count for much at least in those days. I was only there for a year when the school was taken over by the airforce.... end of 1941 probably. We were invited by Scotch College to share their playing fields and classrooms.

Coleman: You speak about sport; was that your orientation, rather than academic?

Kemp: My father had been an elite footballer, AFL--played with Essendon. He'd been an army boxing champion. He played tennis, cricket and golf. I've taken up most of them, I've added a few--squash in Canada, surfing in Australia. Yes, we were taught at a very early age to play one sport or another.

Coleman: So in your youth you were a keen sportsman, and your web page tells us that you have remained a 'fierce adversary' on the tennis court. I wonder if you have any thoughts on the connection between creativity and aggression? Apart from being a prolific co-author, a very sociable person (you've never been a solitary), is there some aggression there which helps you in your creativity?

Kemp: You used the word 'aggression'. Could I substitute 'ambition'? Yes, once I realised I had a minor talent as a theorist I wanted to develop that talent as far as I could take it. I had felt the same way about sport, you're right--I wanted to be a good tennis player.

Coleman: Not just to have fun or divert yourself--you wanted to become number one, at least you wanted to aim for that.

Kemp: Not necessarily. I wanted to improve. Sport was never a full-time interest. My father had been fairly good as a sportsman. I enjoyed it. But I play still with colleagues--we even play to win.

Coleman: Yes, but at school, you came first without bothering much about it.

Kemp: In terms of academic work?

Coleman: Yes, that came easily.

Kemp: It did. I don't know how it happened. I was encouraged by the teachers, something to be gained by going to a private school. Teachers would see a spark. (My English teacher was A.A. Phillips. Ever heard of him? He coined the phrase 'cultural cringe'. That was the way he taught--'You can do anything that an Englishman can do. Do it!'). At school, the masters continually referred to the time when I would go to 'the shop' [the University of Melbourne]. I was beginning to do well without really making a fuss about it. My brother and I both won the prize called Dux. Somehow we managed to drift to the top. So eventually I drifted off to the university. What should I study? I thought of medicine. I quickly found I wasn't qualified to study medicine. I thought of law. Same problem--lack of Latin. You wrote prescriptions in Latin in those days and law required Latin, too. Finally I opted for economics, commerce, which I'd studied to some extent at school.