This volume is a tribute to Hal Hill, one of the most distinguished and internationally renowned Australian development economists and a stimulating, considerate, and compassionate colleague and friend. Over a highly productive career spanning almost four decades, Hal has greatly advanced our understanding of the process of economic development and policy challenges, using Southeast Asia as his laboratory. The enthu-siastic response to our invitation to contribute to this volume from such a distinguished group of scholars who are at the forefront of their own chosen subject areas is a reflection of the high regard and esteem in which Hal is held in our profession. The span of nationalities of the contributors testifies to the international dimension of his research interests. We feel privileged to have the opportunity to compile and introduce this volume in honour of Hal Hill, ‘the economist and the man'.

Hal Hill was born in Melbourne in 1948. He grew up in three cities (Melbourne, Ballarat, and Bendigo) as his family moved with the postings of his father, a school headmaster in the Victorian public school system. Hal's original career ambition was to become a schoolteacher, following in the footsteps of his father.

After delaying sitting for the Higher School Certificate by one year to captain Bendigo High School's tennis team, Hal entered Monash University in 1967 under a Secondary Teachers Scholarship offered by the Victoria Department of Education. He graduated from Monash in 1970 and obtained a Diploma in Education from La Trobe University the following year.

Following a career experiment combining secondary school teaching with winemaking, Hal returned to Monash in 1973 as a Master's student. During the final year of this program, he was captivated by a seminar on the Indonesian economy given at Monash by Professor Heinz Arndt, the then Head of the Division of Economics (later renamed the Arndt-Corden Department of Economics) in the Research School of Pacific Studies (RSPS) of the Australian National University (ANU). In 1976 Hal moved to the ANU under a Commonwealth Postgraduate Research Award to undertake doctoral research under the joint supervision of Heinz Arndt and Peter McCawley.

After completing his PhD in 1980, Hal spent two years as a visiting scholar in the School of Economics at the University of Philippines, one of Southeast Asia's leading universities, under the International Devel-opment Program of Australian Universities and Colleges.