David Throsby: Personal Statement on Sean Turnell

Dr. David Throsby is Distinguished Professor of Economics at Macquarie University, where Sean is also a member of the faculty. The following is a personal statement provided directly to us.

Sean Turnell: a personal note

I have known Sean Turnell since his student days at Macquarie University. When he finished his PhD, he worked at the Reserve Bank, but after some time he realised that an academic career was what he really wanted, and he came onto the staff in the Economics Department at Macquarie in 1991.

Over the last twenty years, Sean’s academic and personal life has been intimately bound up with Myanmar. Together with colleagues, he set up the Burma Economic Watch in 2001, a group that undertook a wide range of research, monitoring and evaluation of the Burmese economy. Sean spent several lengthy periods in the country, and published a book and a number of papers and reports that comprise some of the most insightful work on Myanmar’s economic development.

Sean has been extremely well qualified to undertake this work. He has a deep knowledge of development economics and its application in a range of countries in the Global South. In addition he is equally knowledgeable on the economics of finance and the operations of national and international financial institutions. He has brought these various skills together in his work on Myanmar, and there can be few people with as clear a vision as he has articulated for Myanmar’s possible economic future.

But it doesn’t end with the macro picture. Sean’s ultimate concern is with the welfare of the Myanmar people. He has been outspoken about inequities in the distribution of income and wealth in the country and has worked relentlessly in the cause of improving the economic, social and cultural circumstances of the population. For this he has won wide respect, both within Myanmar and beyond.

At a personal level, Sean Turnell is one of the most engaging, likeable and enthusiastic people I have ever had the good fortune to count as a friend. He rejoices in his relationships with his family, and with his friends and colleagues in Australia, Myanmar and all over the world. We all miss him dreadfully and are appalled that he is being detained so unjustly in the country to which he has given so much of his life.

                                                                                    David Throsby

                                                                                    Distinguished Professor of Economics

                                                                                    Macquarie University, Sydney

                                                                                    February 2022