After studying economics at the University of Melbourne he moved to the University of Cambridge, where he received his doctorate. In 1958 he moved to the University of Adelaide as a lecturer and was appointed to a chair in Economics at Adelaide in 1967.. He was a University Lecturer and Reader in the Faculty of Economics at Cambridge and a Fellow and College Lecturer in Economics, Jesus College, Cambridge, 1982–98, and was President of Jesus College Cambridge, 1988–89 and 1990–92. He has made major contributions to the understanding of the ideas of Keynes, Joan Robinson and other Cambridge economists. He has also made important contributions in his own right to post-Keynesian and post-Kaleckian theory. A review article of one of his volumes of 'Selected Essays' argues that insofar as he has written on capital theory, it has been as an innovator and not as a mere raconteur, and that he has developed his own suite of post-Keynesian models – this is evident, for example, in his 1965 paper “A two-sector model of the distribution of income and the level of employment in the short-run” which is reprinted in The Social Science Imperialists: Selected Essays of G.C. Harcourt. He is married to Joan Harcourt and they have four children: Wendy Harcourt, an associate professor at the International Institute of Social Studies ; Robert Harcourt, a marine ecology professor at Macquarie University; Tim Harcourt, also an economist ; and Rebecca Harcourt, program manager for Indigenous business education at the University of New South Wales.
In 1994 he was made an Officer in the General Division of the Order of Australia 'for service to economic theory and to the history of economic thought'
In 2012 he was made a Distinguished Fellow of the History of Economics Society of Australia.
In 2015 he received the Distinguished Alumni Award of the University of Adelaide ‘in recognition of his outstanding leadership and contribution nationally and internationally in the field of economics’.
In 2018 he was made a Companion in the General Division of the Order of Australia 'for eminent service to higher education as an academic economist and author, particularly in the fields of Post-Keynesian economics, capital theory and economic thought'
Laing, N. F. Capital and Growth; Selected Readings; Edited by GC Harcourt and NF Laing. : Penguin Books, 1971.
Harcourt, Geoffrey Colin. Some Cambridge controversies in the theory of capital. CUP Archive, 1972.
The Social Science Imperialists. Selected Essays. Edited by Prue Kerr,. Reprinted in the Routledge Library Editions Series in 2003.
On Political Economists and Modern Political Economy. Selected Essays of G.C. Harcourt. Edited by Claudio Sardoni. . Reprinted in the Routledge Library Editions Series in 2003.
Post-Keynesian Essays in Biography: Portraits of Twentieth Century Political Economists..
Capitalism, Socialism and Post-Keynesianism. Selected Essays of G.C. Harcourt..
The Structure of Post-Keynesian Economics. The Core Contributions of the Pioneers. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006.
Joan Robinson. Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire: Palgrave Macmillan, 2009.
The Oxford Handbook of Post-Keynesian Economics. Volume 1: Theory and Origins. New York, Oxford University Press, 2013. Volume 2: Critiques and Methodology.
Post-Keynesian Essays from Down Under: Theory and Policy from an Historical Perspective. Four Volumes. Palgrave Macmillan, 2015.
Book chapters
Articles, a selection
Harcourt, Geoffrey Colin. "Some Cambridge controversies in the theory of capital." Journal of Economic Literature 7.2 : 369–405.
Harcourt, Geoffrey C., and Peter Kenyon. "Pricing and the investment decision." Kyklos 29.3 : 449–477.
Hamouda, Omar F., and Geoffrey Colin Harcourt. "Post Keynesianism: From Criticism to Coherence?." Bulletin of Economic Research 40.1 : 1-33.c
Cohen, Avi J., and Geoffrey C. Harcourt. "." Journal of Economic Perspectives : 199–214.
