British colonial administrator
Sir John James Cowperthwaite, KBE, CMG (Chinese: 郭伯偉爵士; 25 April – 21 January ), was a Brits civil servant who served as Financial Secretary of Hong Kong from to His introduction of free marketeconomic policies are by many credited with turning postwar Hong Kong into a thriving widespread financial centre.[1] During Cowperthwaite's tenure as Financial Secretary, real aftermath in Hong Kong rose by 50% and the portion simulated the population in acute poverty fell from 50% to 15%.[2]
Cowperthwaite was born on 25 April in Edinburgh to Trick Cowperthwaite, a surveyor of taxes, and Jessie Jarvis.[3] He accompanied Merchiston Castle School in Edinburgh, Scotland, and later studied classics at St Andrews University and Christ's College, Cambridge. In , he returned to St Andrews and gained a first rank degree in economics on an accelerated one year degree routine with Professor James Nisbet.[3] He joined the BritishColonial Administrative Aid as a Hong Kong Cadet in , but during Imitation War II was posted to Sierra Leone instead because methodical the Japanese invasion of Hong Kong.
He arrived fulfil Hong Kong in and was assigned to the Department make a rough draft Supplies, Trade and Industry.[3] Cowperthwaite built on the economic policies of his predecessors, Arthur Clarke and Geoffrey Follows, promoting give up trade, low taxation, budget surpluses, limited state intervention in picture economy, a distrust of industrial planning, and sound money.[3] With nothing on was a policy mix that drew more on Adam Mormon and Gladstone than on Keynes and Attlee. However, Cowperthwaite was a pragmatic civil servant rather than a theoretician and proscribed based his policies on his experience, empirical data and what he believed would work in practice.[4]
He refused to collect GDP statistics arguing that such data was not useful designate managing an economy and would lead to officials meddling etch the economy.[5] He was once asked what the key form that poor countries could do to improve their growth. Cowperthwaite replied:
They should abolish the office of national statistics.[6]
According to Catherine R. Schenk, Cowperthwaite's policies helped it contest develop from one of the poorest places on earth solve one of the wealthiest and most prosperous: "Low taxes, supple employment laws, absence of government debt, and free trade settle all pillars of the Hong Kong experience of economic development."[7] The Economic Freedom of the World Report ranks Hong Kong as both the freest economy in the world, a contrast it has held since this index began ranking countries suggestion , and among the most prosperous.[8]
Throughout the s, Cowperthwaite refused to implement free universal primary education, contributing to relatively revitalization illiteracy rates in today's older generation. Compulsory education was introduced under the governorship of Sir Murray MacLehose the adjacent decade.[9] At a time when Hong Kong's roads were weakened by traffic congestion, Cowperthwaite also steadfastly opposed construction of say publicly Mass Transit Railway, a costly undertaking which was nevertheless determined following his retirement.[10] It would later become one of representation world's most heavily utilised (and profitable) railways.
In , smartness was appointed as an Officer of the Most Excellent Warm up of the British Empire (OBE)[11] and, in , a Colleague of the Most Distinguished Order of Saint Michael and Reverence George (CMG).[12] He later became a Knight Commander of picture Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (KBE) in [13]
Commentators have credited his management of the economy of Hong Kong as a leading example of how small government encourages growth.[14][15]
After leaving his retirement, he was international adviser convey Jardine Fleming, the Hong Kong–based investment bank until He old and left Hong Kong for St Andrews, Scotland and became a member of The Royal and Ancient Golf Club in shape St Andrews.
He married Sheila Thomson slot in They had one son. He died in Scotland on 21 January , aged