It is with great pleasure the Association honours Grant Scobie with the award of life membership of the NZ Association of Economists. Grant, a multi-university attender, graduated in three countries (New Zealand, Australia and the USA) culminating with a PhD from the North Carolina State University. He has been, and still is, an active member of the
Association. His professional life has been varied; with longish spells of academic research and teaching broken up by time as a dedicated researcher and manager. He is currently a Principle Advisor with the Treasury a role that combines his interests in both research and policy.

He has made valuable research contributions over a sustained career, including publications on exchange rates, protection policy, agricultural productivity, and research and development. Recently he has been among the small group of analysts bring reason and empirical findings to bear on that most contentious of New Zealand public debates – retirement policy. In making this award we wish to honour Grant for his service to the profession, the wider New Zealand public, and the Association in particular. To all of these groups Grant has made numerous high quality contributions over a long period.

Grant has:

1. Provided numerous acts of high quality service to the Association. He has refereed journal articles of New Zealand Economic Papers, and he has served on judging panels for a range of prizes including the NZIER Economist of the Year Award.

2. Organised and facilitated conferences of the Association. Notably he was the instigator, co-chair and (informally) lead sponsorship “drummer” for the highly successful 2008 NZAE/ESAM Conference in honour of AW Phillips in Wellington, the largest gathering of economists in New Zealand.

3. Provided service and leadership to the Association by serving as Council Member (2001 to the present), Vice President (2003) and President, (2004 to 2007).

Grant’s infectious enthusiasm and dry wit have provided the platform for him to promote the image and interests of economics widely. Within the profession he is a natural team player whose work is characterised by many instances of joint authorship, and the active encouragement and promotion of more junior colleagues. His own achievements have been marked by the New Zealand Institute of Economic Research Economics Award for 2004. He joins a small but select group who have received this prestigious award. This width of professional engagement means he is a natural model and mentor to many New Zealand economists.

The Association honours Grant for his broad economic citizenship and has pleasure in awarding him life membership of the Association.

March 2009