[1] There were two independent pioneers of Neoclassical Growth Theory: Robert Solow and Trevor Swan.
[citation needed] After school he joined the Rural Bank of New South Wales, studying part-time at the University of Sydney.
[citation needed] From 1942 to 1950, he was employed in government service, as an economist in the Department of War Organization of Industry, secretary to the War Commitments Committee, chairman of the Food Priorities Committee, joint secretary of the Joint Administrative Planning Sub-Committee of the Defence Committee, chief economist of the Department of Post-War Reconstruction, and, from 1949, chief economist of the Department of the Prime Minister.
During this period, he contributed to the White Paper on Full Employment which set the framework for Australian macroeconomic policy in the postwar decades.
He played a small role in the 1975 Australian constitutional crisis, by suggesting to his friend, the Prime Minister, Gough Whitlam, that the banks could assist in ensuring the government had funds to meet its obligations, during the period when Supply was being threatened by the Opposition in the Senate.