Michael Ward (economist)
Encyclopedia
Michael Ward was a British
economist
and statistician
who contributed significantly to the evolution of the international statistical system in the post-war
period.
in statistics and economics at the University of Exeter
in 1958 and was later awarded his Master of Arts at the University of Cambridge
. In 1965 he was elected fellow
of Selwyn College, Cambridge
and worked as Director of Economic Studies. He served as dean
of the college from 1970 to 1972. In 1975 he was appointed Director of the Statistical Program at the Institute of Development Studies at the University of Sussex
.
At both at Cambridge and Sussex he worked with some of the foremost development economists
of the time, including Richard Jolly, Graham Pyatt, Dudley Seers
, and Richard Stone
—people who, as Ward observed in his book Quantifying the World, "abhorred any suggestion that facts be fit to theory and spent their lives building theory around observed facts and creating frameworks that more usefully depicted how the real world worked."
Ward worked in many developing countries and gained wide experience of statistics and their use in framing policies for economic
and social development. He started work in 1961 in Salisbury
, Southern Rhodesia
(now Harare
, Zimbabwe
) in what was then the Statistical Office of the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland
. A few years later he worked in the statistical office of Lesotho
and from there moved to Fiji
, where he was Head of the Government Statistical Service. From 1972 he worked for UNESCO
as a regional statistical advisor in southern Africa
, an assignment that took him to Lesotho, Botswana
, Malawi
, Swaziland
, South Africa
, Uganda
, Zambia
, and Zimbabwe. From 1999 to 2000 he worked in Phnom Penh
as Director of Rehabilitation and Economic Advisor in the UN peacekeeping mission to Cambodia
.
During his career, Ward worked with other international agencies including the Food and Agriculture Organization
, International Monetary Fund
, Asian Development Bank
, World Bank
, and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development
.
His links with the OECD began in the early 1970s. He participated in workshops on statistics in developing countries at the OECD Development Centre. In 1975, between the UNESCO assignments and the post at Sussex University, he worked for a few months as consultant for OECD on the measurement of capital. In 1982, Ward joined the OECD full-time and made the first OECD-Eurostat
purchasing power parity
calculations for 1980.
In 1985, Ward worked as Principal Economist at the World Bank. In 1995 Ward was appointed head of the Bank's Statistical Advisory Services and in this capacity he worked the OECD's Development Aid Committee in drawing up a set of international development targets which later became the Millennium Development Goals
, addressing a range of economic, social, demographic and environmental concerns. Ward retired in 2000.
After retirement, Ward's expertise and advice continued to be sought by international agencies as well as by national statistical offices including those of China
and India
. The 2004 publication Quantifying the World, part of the UN's Intellectual History Project, was one of his major achievements in this period. It reviewed the achievements and failures of the United Nation statistical services over the previous 60 years.
and an active member of the International Statistical Institute
and the International Association for Research in Income and Wealth. In 1999 he was awarded the Henry Willem Methorst Medal of the International Statistical Institute for "outstanding contributions to international statistics." In 2000, he was elected Chair of the International Association for Research in Income and Wealth and he served for several years on the Statistical Advisory Panel for the United Nations Development Programme
Human Development Report
.
His contributions to edited volumes included the Encyclopædia Britannica (on economic forecasting and international comparisons); Indicator Systems for Political, Economic and Social Analysis (Taylor); Development in small countries (Selwyn); Development Planning in Developing Countries (OECD); Surveys and Social Statistics (Bulmer); International Comparisons (Heston and Summers); Problems and Issues in International Comparisons(Salazar-Camillo and Rao); National Accounts in Developing Countries (OECD); 1999 ISI Conference (Helsinki) Collected Papers; 2001 ISI Conference (Seoul) Collected Papers; Statistics and Human Rights (IAOS Montreux, 2000) Selected Papers.
His main publications were:
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
economist
Economist
An economist is a professional in the social science discipline of economics. The individual may also study, develop, and apply theories and concepts from economics and write about economic policy...
and statistician
Statistician
A statistician is someone who works with theoretical or applied statistics. The profession exists in both the private and public sectors. The core of that work is to measure, interpret, and describe the world and human activity patterns within it...
who contributed significantly to the evolution of the international statistical system in the post-war
Post-war
A post-war period or postwar period is the interval immediately following the ending of a war and enduring as long as war does not resume. A post-war period can become an interwar period or interbellum when a war between the same parties resumes at a later date...
period.
Education and career
Ward took an honours degreeBritish undergraduate degree classification
The British undergraduate degree classification system is a grading scheme for undergraduate degrees in the United Kingdom...
in statistics and economics at the University of Exeter
University of Exeter
The University of Exeter is a public university in South West England. It belongs to the 1994 Group, an association of 19 of the United Kingdom's smaller research-intensive universities....
in 1958 and was later awarded his Master of Arts at the University of Cambridge
University of Cambridge
The University of Cambridge is a public research university located in Cambridge, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest university in both the United Kingdom and the English-speaking world , and the seventh-oldest globally...
. In 1965 he was elected fellow
Fellow
A fellow in the broadest sense is someone who is an equal or a comrade. The term fellow is also used to describe a person, particularly by those in the upper social classes. It is most often used in an academic context: a fellow is often part of an elite group of learned people who are awarded...
of Selwyn College, Cambridge
Selwyn College, Cambridge
Selwyn College is a constituent college in the University of Cambridge in England, United Kingdom.The college was founded by the Selwyn Memorial Committee in memory of the Rt Reverend George Selwyn , who rowed on the Cambridge crew in the first Varsity Boat Race in 1829, and went on to become the...
and worked as Director of Economic Studies. He served as dean
Dean (education)
In academic administration, a dean is a person with significant authority over a specific academic unit, or over a specific area of concern, or both...
of the college from 1970 to 1972. In 1975 he was appointed Director of the Statistical Program at the Institute of Development Studies at the University of Sussex
University of Sussex
The University of Sussex is an English public research university situated next to the East Sussex village of Falmer, within the city of Brighton and Hove. The University received its Royal Charter in August 1961....
.
At both at Cambridge and Sussex he worked with some of the foremost development economists
Development economics
Development Economics is a branch of economics which deals with economic aspects of the development process in low-income countries. Its focus is not only on methods of promoting economic growth and structural change but also on improving the potential for the mass of the population, for example,...
of the time, including Richard Jolly, Graham Pyatt, Dudley Seers
Dudley Seers
Dudley Seers was a British economist who specialised in development economics. After his military service with the Royal Navy he taught at Oxford and then worked for various UN institutions...
, and Richard Stone
Richard Stone
Sir John Richard Nicholas Stone was an eminent British economist who in 1984 received the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences for developing an accounting model that could be used to track economic activities on a national and, later, an international scale...
—people who, as Ward observed in his book Quantifying the World, "abhorred any suggestion that facts be fit to theory and spent their lives building theory around observed facts and creating frameworks that more usefully depicted how the real world worked."
Ward worked in many developing countries and gained wide experience of statistics and their use in framing policies for economic
Economic development
Economic development generally refers to the sustained, concerted actions of policymakers and communities that promote the standard of living and economic health of a specific area...
and social development. He started work in 1961 in Salisbury
Harare
Harare before 1982 known as Salisbury) is the largest city and capital of Zimbabwe. It has an estimated population of 1,600,000, with 2,800,000 in its metropolitan area . Administratively, Harare is an independent city equivalent to a province. It is Zimbabwe's largest city and its...
, Southern Rhodesia
Southern Rhodesia
Southern Rhodesia was the name of the British colony situated north of the Limpopo River and the Union of South Africa. From its independence in 1965 until its extinction in 1980, it was known as Rhodesia...
(now Harare
Harare
Harare before 1982 known as Salisbury) is the largest city and capital of Zimbabwe. It has an estimated population of 1,600,000, with 2,800,000 in its metropolitan area . Administratively, Harare is an independent city equivalent to a province. It is Zimbabwe's largest city and its...
, Zimbabwe
Zimbabwe
Zimbabwe is a landlocked country located in the southern part of the African continent, between the Zambezi and Limpopo rivers. It is bordered by South Africa to the south, Botswana to the southwest, Zambia and a tip of Namibia to the northwest and Mozambique to the east. Zimbabwe has three...
) in what was then the Statistical Office of the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland
Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland
The Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland, also known as the Central African Federation , was a semi-independent state in southern Africa that existed from 1953 to the end of 1963, comprising the former self-governing colony of Southern Rhodesia and the British protectorates of Northern Rhodesia,...
. A few years later he worked in the statistical office of Lesotho
Lesotho
Lesotho , officially the Kingdom of Lesotho, is a landlocked country and enclave, surrounded by the Republic of South Africa. It is just over in size with a population of approximately 2,067,000. Its capital and largest city is Maseru. Lesotho is a member of the Commonwealth of Nations. The name...
and from there moved to Fiji
Fiji
Fiji , officially the Republic of Fiji , is an island nation in Melanesia in the South Pacific Ocean about northeast of New Zealand's North Island...
, where he was Head of the Government Statistical Service. From 1972 he worked for UNESCO
UNESCO
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations...
as a regional statistical advisor in southern Africa
Southern Africa
Southern Africa is the southernmost region of the African continent, variably defined by geography or geopolitics. Within the region are numerous territories, including the Republic of South Africa ; nowadays, the simpler term South Africa is generally reserved for the country in English.-UN...
, an assignment that took him to Lesotho, Botswana
Botswana
Botswana, officially the Republic of Botswana , is a landlocked country located in Southern Africa. The citizens are referred to as "Batswana" . Formerly the British protectorate of Bechuanaland, Botswana adopted its new name after becoming independent within the Commonwealth on 30 September 1966...
, Malawi
Malawi
The Republic of Malawi is a landlocked country in southeast Africa that was formerly known as Nyasaland. It is bordered by Zambia to the northwest, Tanzania to the northeast, and Mozambique on the east, south and west. The country is separated from Tanzania and Mozambique by Lake Malawi. Its size...
, Swaziland
Swaziland
Swaziland, officially the Kingdom of Swaziland , and sometimes called Ngwane or Swatini, is a landlocked country in Southern Africa, bordered to the north, south and west by South Africa, and to the east by Mozambique...
, South Africa
South Africa
The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...
, Uganda
Uganda
Uganda , officially the Republic of Uganda, is a landlocked country in East Africa. Uganda is also known as the "Pearl of Africa". It is bordered on the east by Kenya, on the north by South Sudan, on the west by the Democratic Republic of the Congo, on the southwest by Rwanda, and on the south by...
, Zambia
Zambia
Zambia , officially the Republic of Zambia, is a landlocked country in Southern Africa. The neighbouring countries are the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the north, Tanzania to the north-east, Malawi to the east, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Botswana and Namibia to the south, and Angola to the west....
, and Zimbabwe. From 1999 to 2000 he worked in Phnom Penh
Phnom Penh
Phnom Penh is the capital and largest city of Cambodia. Located on the banks of the Mekong River, Phnom Penh has been the national capital since the French colonized Cambodia, and has grown to become the nation's center of economic and industrial activities, as well as the center of security,...
as Director of Rehabilitation and Economic Advisor in the UN peacekeeping mission to Cambodia
Cambodia
Cambodia , officially known as the Kingdom of Cambodia, is a country located in the southern portion of the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia...
.
During his career, Ward worked with other international agencies including the Food and Agriculture Organization
Food and Agriculture Organization
The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations is a specialised agency of the United Nations that leads international efforts to defeat hunger. Serving both developed and developing countries, FAO acts as a neutral forum where all nations meet as equals to negotiate agreements and...
, International Monetary Fund
International Monetary Fund
The International Monetary Fund is an organization of 187 countries, working to foster global monetary cooperation, secure financial stability, facilitate international trade, promote high employment and sustainable economic growth, and reduce poverty around the world...
, Asian Development Bank
Asian Development Bank
The Asian Development Bank is a regional development bank established on 22 August 1966 to facilitate economic development of countries in Asia...
, World Bank
World Bank
The World Bank is an international financial institution that provides loans to developing countries for capital programmes.The World Bank's official goal is the reduction of poverty...
, and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development
Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development
The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development is an international economic organisation of 34 countries founded in 1961 to stimulate economic progress and world trade...
.
His links with the OECD began in the early 1970s. He participated in workshops on statistics in developing countries at the OECD Development Centre. In 1975, between the UNESCO assignments and the post at Sussex University, he worked for a few months as consultant for OECD on the measurement of capital. In 1982, Ward joined the OECD full-time and made the first OECD-Eurostat
Eurostat
Eurostat is a Directorate-General of the European Commission located in Luxembourg. Its main responsibilities are to provide the European Union with statistical information at European level and to promote the integration of statistical methods across the Member States of the European Union,...
purchasing power parity
Purchasing power parity
In economics, purchasing power parity is a condition between countries where an amount of money has the same purchasing power in different countries. The prices of the goods between the countries would only reflect the exchange rates...
calculations for 1980.
In 1985, Ward worked as Principal Economist at the World Bank. In 1995 Ward was appointed head of the Bank's Statistical Advisory Services and in this capacity he worked the OECD's Development Aid Committee in drawing up a set of international development targets which later became the Millennium Development Goals
Millennium Development Goals
The Millennium Development Goals are eight international development goals that all 193 United Nations member states and at least 23 international organizations have agreed to achieve by the year 2015...
, addressing a range of economic, social, demographic and environmental concerns. Ward retired in 2000.
After retirement, Ward's expertise and advice continued to be sought by international agencies as well as by national statistical offices including those of China
People's Republic of China
China , officially the People's Republic of China , is the most populous country in the world, with over 1.3 billion citizens. Located in East Asia, the country covers approximately 9.6 million square kilometres...
and India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
. The 2004 publication Quantifying the World, part of the UN's Intellectual History Project, was one of his major achievements in this period. It reviewed the achievements and failures of the United Nation statistical services over the previous 60 years.
Honours
Michael is a Fellow of the Royal Statistical SocietyRoyal Statistical Society
The Royal Statistical Society is a learned society for statistics and a professional body for statisticians in the UK.-History:It was founded in 1834 as the Statistical Society of London , though a perhaps unrelated London Statistical Society was in existence at least as early as 1824...
and an active member of the International Statistical Institute
International Statistical Institute
The International Statistical Institute is a professional association of statisticians. The Institut International de Statistique or International Statistical Institute was founded in 1885 although there had been international congresses from 1853.. The Institute publishes a variety of books and...
and the International Association for Research in Income and Wealth. In 1999 he was awarded the Henry Willem Methorst Medal of the International Statistical Institute for "outstanding contributions to international statistics." In 2000, he was elected Chair of the International Association for Research in Income and Wealth and he served for several years on the Statistical Advisory Panel for the United Nations Development Programme
United Nations Development Programme
The United Nations Development Programme is the United Nations' global development network. It advocates for change and connects countries to knowledge, experience and resources to help people build a better life. UNDP operates in 177 countries, working with nations on their own solutions to...
Human Development Report
Human Development Report
The Human Development Report is an annual milestone publication by the Human Development Report Office of the United Nations Development Programme .-History:...
.
Publications
Ward was a prolific writer and more than fifty of his articles and reviews were published in The Review of Income and Wealth, Economics, Economic Journal, The Banker, The Bankers Magazine, Economic Record, the Economist, International herald Tribune, Journal of Modern African studies, Journal of Development Studies, International Development, Journal of Business Economists, American Scientist and the IDS Bulletin.His contributions to edited volumes included the Encyclopædia Britannica (on economic forecasting and international comparisons); Indicator Systems for Political, Economic and Social Analysis (Taylor); Development in small countries (Selwyn); Development Planning in Developing Countries (OECD); Surveys and Social Statistics (Bulmer); International Comparisons (Heston and Summers); Problems and Issues in International Comparisons(Salazar-Camillo and Rao); National Accounts in Developing Countries (OECD); 1999 ISI Conference (Helsinki) Collected Papers; 2001 ISI Conference (Seoul) Collected Papers; Statistics and Human Rights (IAOS Montreux, 2000) Selected Papers.
His main publications were:
- "Quantifying the World; UN Ideas and Statistics," Volume 2 in the UN Intellectual History Project, Indiana University Press, 2002
- "Identifying the Poor" (with Graham Pyatt) ISI Press, Netherlands, 1999
- "UN Manual on International Comparisons" (with Lazlo Drechsler and Alan Heston,) NY, 1990
- "National Expenditures and Purchasing Power Parities in OECD Countries," OECD, Paris, 1985
- "The Measurement of Capital," OECD, Paris 1976
- "The Role of Investment in Development," Cambridge University PressCambridge University PressCambridge University Press is the publishing business of the University of Cambridge. Granted letters patent by Henry VIII in 1534, it is the world's oldest publishing house, and the second largest university press in the world...
, England, 1972 - "The National Income and Balance of Payments of Fiji," Government Printer, Suva, 1969