A W H Phillips

A W H Phillips

This is my first blog for 2018, and it is about a New Zealander called Alban William Phillips, the famous author of the celebrated Phillips curve (the relationship between inflation and unemployment). I want to tell you a little story. It is not about the Phillips curve per se, but about the 'H' in the A W H Phillips Memorial Lecture at the New Zealand Association of Economists (NZAE). 

As the president of the NZAE in 2003, I wanted to establish an annual Phillips lecture. The idea was discussed and voted on at an NZAE meeting. The council decided to get the permission of Phillips family. My good friend and vice president then, Grant Scobie, suggested that we solicit the help of Professor Brian Silverstone of Waikato University to locate the family. Brian, so smart, found the Phillips sisters address from voting rolls and we wrote to them. From my distant memory, a short letter of two small-cut white papers arrived in the mail shortly, and I recall Grant Scobie reading the letter to the council in the following meeting.

The letter said that the sisters and Phillips daughter held a meeting and decided to accept the NZAE idea of establishing a memorial lecture in his name on one condition. The condition was that to add his middle initial 'H' to his name. No one knew about his middle initial then. We learned that the H stands for Housego, hence Alban William Housego Phillips. Professor Patrick Minford gave the NZAE first memorial lecture, and could be found online. Thanks to all those involved in setting up the lecture. I would also like to thank Professor Mark Holmes of Waikato University for correcting the record on the NZAE website.