User:Callanecc/Articles/Horace Plessay Brown

Horace Plessay "Horrie" Brown (7 December 1916 – 30 January 1971) was an Australian economist who worked for the Commonwealth Bureau of Census and Statistics, as a researcher at the Australian National University (ANU) and finally as an adviser to the Federal Labor Opposition and the Australian Council of Trade Unions. A library at the ANU's Research School of Social Sciences is named after him.

Early life
Brown was born on 7 December 1916 in Melbourne to Clifton Plessay Brown and Emma Nodin (née Wilcox). He was initially educated at Caulfield Grammar School, finishing in 1933 as the dux. Following this he studied law at the Trinity College, University of Melbourne and after two years changed to study economics. Brown graduated with a Bachelor of Arts and first-class honours in 1938.

After graduating, Brown moved to Western Australia and began lecturing in economics for a short time before moving back to Melbourne and taking a position with the Commonwealth Grants Commission.

Career
Brown was involved in the creation of economic reports produced, at the time, by the Australian Government. He was pivotal in the creation of the Commonwealth's first national income and expenditure papers from 1944-45 to 1948-49 and developed sampling techniques for the Bureau's Quarterly Business Survey.