| Creator: |
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| Date of birth: |
1907 |
| Date of death: |
1985 |
| Biography: |
Prest was born in York, England, in 1907. He was educated at the Universities of Leeds (Honours degrees in History and Economics) and Manchester (Masters degree in Economics), and lectured in Economics at St. Andrews University before taking up a senior lectureship in Economics at the University of Melbourne in 1938.
He became Truby Williams Professor of Economics in 1946 and retired from the University of Melbourne in 1972.
Between September 1941 and January 1943 he conducted a social survey of households in a number of Melbourne suburbs, and in 1952 published 'Housing, Income and Savings in Wartime'. Prest was a member of the Commonwealth Grants Commission from 1953-1965; in 1963 he published 'Economics of Federal-State Finance'. Despite his wide-ranging activities in Australia, Prest regularly renewed his academic contact overseas, receiving a Carnegie Corporation award in 1949 for study in the USA and receiving appointments as Commonwealth Fellow, St John's College, Cambridge in 1957, Commonwealth Visiting Professor at the University of London in 1966, and Visiting Professor in the University of Pittsburgh.
After his retirement from the University of Melbourne, Prest was a Visiting Fellow at the Centre for Research on Federal Financial Relations at the Australian National University. His major study 'The development of Australian Fiscal Federalism' was published by the A.N.U. in 1980. Prest received the distinction of Commander of the British Empire in 1966 and in 1982, one of the first Honorary Doctorates in Commerce awarded by the University of Melbourne.
Wilfred Prest's brother Alan Prest was also a distinguished economist in England. With his wife Marjorie, Wilfred Prest had two sons, Wilfrid and David.
He passed away in Melbourne on 14 August 1985. |
| Activities/Occupation: |
Academics - Economics |
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