Economic Innovations: Creating New Instruments to Improve Economic Life

This  book is a series of vignettes about changes to Australian institutions,  organisations and systems that have significantly improved economic and  social well-being for Australians. Economic system innovations have had  a profound impact on our lives, from the invention of banking in the  middle ages to the organisations established by the United Nations  post-WWII. However, their intangible nature means that few people  identify these changes alongside physical inventions.

Although  invention is normally an incremental process, with copying and adaption  being the norm, the authors focus on reforms that were principally new  to the world at the time of implementation. The book is not about the  reforms and how well they worked, per se, rather about the people and  the political struggle to get them adopted. The authors have chosen to  focus on the stories where Australia has either taken a global  leadership role or made a considerable advance in a particular new  institution. What these stories show is that leadership in institutional  innovation can come from many quarters: academia, the community,  politics and the bureaucracy. Often the most successful teams combine  people from all quarters albeit with support from the fourth estate. The  work shows how many reforms began with modest beginnings, often an  ordinary person with a vision, and how it takes several attempts to get  change accepted. 

This key volume can be used to  teach students of economics, political economy and politics. It  illustrates the type of networks, actions and advocacy that is needed to  get reform started and implemented and is written in a style to engage  policy and think-tank audiences.