Nicholas Barr

Many others have written about Tony’s towering analytical and agenda-setting contributions to public economics and social policy, and I have little to add. Instead, like many others, I have been reflecting on all that Tony did to help my work.

Returning to the UK after my PhD in the United States working on the US welfare system and subsequently on the welfare state more broadly, I often faced the response, ‘that’s interesting, but is it economics?’ Tony’s work quickly made that question redundant – Tony was the academic battering ram that made the economics of social policy respectable for me and the many others (think health economics) who work in those areas. More specifically, the first edition of my book on the Economics of the Welfare State drew on Tony’s work and also benefitted greatly from his customary generosity with his time commenting on the strategic outline of the book.

At least as important, Tony’s suggestion to use a survey of student income that STICERD had acquired to study student poverty was the origin of my subsequent work on higher education finance, and over the years Tony was the best of colleagues in disagreeing with some of my conclusions.

Alongside huge intellectual influence was kind and helpful advice about promotion and later, when no longer at the School (what a huge loss), acting as one of my referees.

Finally, and most important, the person: in some ways Tony set an austere example with his ramrod integrity, never for an instant allowing his strong ideological views to distort the conclusions of his analysis – a lesson to us all. But that austerity was always tempered by his manifest kindness – the brain might have been scary, but the warm smile was always there. I shall remember both with gratitude, admiration and affection.