The Policy Providers: A History of the Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, 1962-2012 by Ross Williams

The Melbourne Institute's success has owed to its independence and to the quality of research that underpins its recommendations. The Policy Providers tells the story of how the institute rose from inauspicious beginnings to achieve national prominence. Through the efforts of its foundation director, Ronald Henderson, within a decade institute researchers had provided the blueprint for today's Medicare, the impetus for the national regulation of financial institutions, and had alerted Australians to the existence of significant pockets of poverty. Since then, it has become a respected resource that has persuaded policy makers to implement recommendations