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Bulletin of Indonesian Economic Studies

ISSN: 0007-4918 (Print) 1472-7234 (Online) Journal homepage: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/cbie20

William E. (Ted) James

Eric D. Ramstetter & Anwar Nasution

To cite this article: Eric D. Ramstetter & Anwar Nasution (2010) William E. (Ted) James, Bulletin of Indonesian Economic Studies, 46:3, 377-378, DOI: 10.1080/00074918.2010.522502

To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00074918.2010.522502

Published online: 23 Nov 2010.

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Bulletin of Indonesian Economic Studies, Vol. 46, No. 3, 2010: 377–8

In Memoriam

WILLIAM E. (TED) JAMES

Eric D. Ramstetter Anwar Nasution

International Center for the Study University of Indonesia of East Asian Development (ICSEAD), Kitakyushu Jakarta

Dr William E. (Ted) James was a highly respected colleague and among the best friends a human being could have. His death last May has been deeply felt by his family and by friends such as us. We sorely mourn our collective loss, and wish to recognise the importance of Ted’s contributions to the intellectual community that studies Southeast Asian economies in general and Indonesia in particular.

Ted began his academic career at the University of Hawaii in the late 1970s, as a graduate student of economic development and agricultural economics. During these years he also served as a visiting research fellow at the International Rice

Research Institute in the Philippines. There he solidiied his belief that boosting

employment, especially rural employment, and reducing poverty were key ele-ments of economic development.

After gaining his PhD in 1979, Ted taught briely in the United States before

joining the Asian Development Bank (ADB), where from 1980 to 1984 he contin-ued to work on agricultural issues and began to focus on international questions. In 1985 he was appointed senior fellow at the East–West Center in Honolulu, a position he held until 1997. During this period, he collaborated with his men-tor, Seiji Naya, and Gerald M. Meier in writing the book Asian Development, and

authored or co-authored a number of journal articles; he also served as an adjunct

professor at the University of Hawaii from 1985 to 1992.

Eric Ramstetter irst met and worked under Ted between 1986 and 1988. Ted

always came to work early but quit promptly in the evening to exercise and spend time with his family. And although many of his colleagues (including Eric) often worked longer hours, Ted produced more in a relatively short time. He was truly an enviable model of productivity for his colleagues.

From 1993 to 1997 Ted served as Chief of Party in the Indonesian trade

min-istry’s Trade Implementation and Policy Program (TIPP), inanced by the US

Agency for International Development (USAID). One focus of TIPP was to

edu-cate Indonesia’s bureaucrats and entrepreneurs about the beneits of both import -ing (a source of capital goods and technology) and export-ing (an avenue of market competition), and to help train the country’s increasingly competent trade negoti-ators. Ted’s research encompassed many activities, including compiling and ana-lysing Indonesia’s industrial and trade statistics with Eric’s assistance. Ted also provided important policy advice to at least three Indonesian ministers and their

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378 Eric D. Ramstetter and Anwar Nasution

senior staff, often emphasising how increased trade could be an important source

of employment growth, and of eficiency.

During this period, Ted established close ties with numerous Indonesian aca-demics, particularly through the Centre for Strategic and International Stud-ies (CSIS) and the Indonesian Economists Association (ISEI). He helped Anwar

Nasution organise two ISEI conferences. The irst, co-sponsored by the American

Committee on Asian Economic Studies, was held in Bali in 1994 before the APEC Summit in Bogor. It drew participants from across APEC, including the president of the ADB and members of APEC’s Eminent Persons Group, who gave keynote speeches. Held in Jakarta in 2001 and jointly sponsored by ISEI, USAID and the World Bank Training Institute, the second conference was on trade liberalisation. It was part of a public campaign to reduce rent seeking and replace high tariffs and non-tariff barriers with lower and more uniform tariff rates. It emphasised

the beneits of improving manufacturing productivity and reducing transaction

costs, thereby increasing competitiveness and helping to avoid the adverse effects of rupiah appreciation associated with high commodity prices (known as the ‘Dutch disease’).

In 1997 Ted joined the International Centre for the Study of East Asian Devel-opment (ICSEAD) in Kitakyushu, Japan, where he worked as chief of research for four years. Ted enticed Eric to join him and was instrumental in turning the small centre into a respected research institute. He emphasised developing the potential of younger colleagues, and many are now established members of the academic community studying East Asia. His research during this period documented the losses East Asian exporters suffered as a result of US protection in textiles and apparel, and the damage caused by the increased use of anti-dumping actions to protect major import markets. In 1998, he became a member of this journal’s International Advisory Board, a position he held until his death.

Ted returned to Indonesia in late 2001 and worked for a further six years as a consultant in several government and international agencies. These included the Ministry of Trade, the Coordinating Ministry for Economic Affairs, the National Planning Agency (Bappenas) and the World Bank. He continued to focus on trade-related issues, but he and Anwar, who was then senior deputy governor of Bank Indonesia, also wrote a paper (published by ICSEAD) entitled ‘The debt trap and

monetary–iscal policy in Indonesia: the gathering storm’.

In 2007, Ted rejoined the ADB, as a principal economist. Although he had many administrative duties, he continued to publish, writing several papers on trade in

textiles and apparel and on the trade-related effects of the 2008–09 inancial crisis

on Asian economies.

On a personal note, Ted and his family were personal friends of both our fami-lies. Ted’s second daughter, Talia, and Anwar’s son, Al, both attended the Jakarta International School and both now study in the US. Although Talia is in California and Al in Boston, they remain close friends. Ted and his wife, Tess, were active in the parent–teacher association in Jakarta, and Anwar’s family missed them a great deal after they moved back to Manila. Eric’s family befriended the Jameses in Hawaii in 1986. They have many fond memories of playing together with Thea and Talia (Ted’s two older daughters) on various beaches in Hawaii, Bali and Japan, where Ted loved to surf. Good memories will help to ease the pain of his passing.