Dr Geoffrey Harcourt (1931 - 2021)

We are greatly saddened to hear that Dr Geoffrey Harcourt (AC LittD FRSN FASSA) died on 7 December 2021, and we offer his family our deep condolences.

Born in Australia, Geoffrey studied economics at the University of Melbourne and then moved to the University of Cambridge, where he received his doctorate. After visiting to lecture in 1964-1966, 1972-1973 and 1980, he decided to move to Cambridge on a more permanent basis from 1982 to 1998.

Geoffrey was a University Lecturer from 1982 to 1990 and Reader in the History of Economic Theory from 1990 to 1998 in the Faculty of Economics at Cambridge, and a Fellow and College Lecturer in Economics at Jesus College from 1982 to 1998. He was President of Jesus College from 1988 to 1989 and 1990 to 1992.

Geoffrey became an Emeritus Fellow of the College on his retirement in 1998. In the 2018 Queen’s Birthday Honours list he was awarded a Companion (AC) in the General Division of the Order of Australia, for eminent service to higher education as an academic economist and author, particularly in the fields of post-Keynesian economics, capital theory and economic thought. Geoffrey made major contributions to the understanding of the ideas of Keynes, Joan Robinson, and other Cambridge economists. He also made important contributions in his own right to post-Keynesian and post-Kaleckian theory.

He made a life-long commitment to work toward alleviating poverty and against social and racial discrimination, and became one of Australia's most eminent economists. He lived in Sydney in the last years of his life, although he continued to return to visit Jesus College.

A full obituary will be published in the College’s Annual Report.