Frank Stilwell (economist)

Frank Stilwell
Born	Southampton, England, United Kingdom
Nationality	English Australian
Alma mater	University of Southampton (BSc) University of Reading (PhD)
Occupation	Emeritus Professor in Political Economy, University of Sydney
Awards	University of Sydney, Award for Excellence in Teaching Fellow, Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia

Franklin "Frank" J.B. Stilwell (born 1945) is an influential Australian political economist and professor emeritus. He is known for establishing, with Evan Jones, Gavan Butler and Ted Wheelwright, an independent political economy department at the University of Sydney. His research interests include theories of political economy, urbanisation and regional development, Australian economic policy and the nature of work. His textbooks on the subject are standard teaching material for all university students in Australia studying the field of Political Economy. Stilwell's contribution to heterodox economics makes him a noteworthy figure of the Australian New Left.

Frank Stilwell was born in Southampton, in 1945. His mother was an infant school teacher, and his father was a junior clerk in the department of Customs and Excise. His father enjoyed local politics and later became mayor. As Stilwell claimed in an interview with the Sydney Morning Herald: "[My father] was initially an independent... but he later joined the Conservative Party as a Conservative councillor. That was after the Conservatives threatened to stand a candidate against him … he was pragmatic till the end."

Stilwell arrived at Sydney University in 1970, to an economics department that was deeply divided on the teaching of the qualitative and quantitative methods in economics. Students and teacher in the faculty of economic had claimed that the economics being taught was too narrow, too technical and neglected consideration of current world problems. In 1975, students protested outside the Sydney University Senate, because the senate had decided to appoint a conservative economist from Britain to chair, over radical Ted Wheelwright. Ted Wheelwright had argued that mainstream economist had ignored the issue of power, and this was undermining the transparency of economics at University of Sydney. The political economy dispute, which started in 1973 would continue until 1980s. Anthony Albanese was involved in the 1983 protests to protect the first year political economy unit. Future Prime Ministers Tony Abbott and Malcolm Turnbull were involved in the dispute as undergraduate students.

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