Economics and Economic Policy in Britain

Economics and Economic Policy in Britain
Author: T.W. Hutchison
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 328
Release: 2013-10-28
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1134562829

The first part of the book is devoted to an historical survey of what has been written regarding Britain's policy problems since 1946: problems such as full employment, the sources and methods of controlling inflation and the measures to promote economic growth. At an international level, issues such as economic relations with Europe and the question of devaluation are considered. The subsequent part of the book considers how far economists' recommendations regarding policies have been derived from well-tested theories, or how far they have been based on speculation, guesswork or judgement.

The Treasury and British Public Policy 1906-1959

The Treasury and British Public Policy 1906-1959
Author: G. C. Peden
Publisher: OUP Oxford
Total Pages: 596
Release: 2000-03-02
Genre: History
ISBN: 0191542660

This authoritative history of the Treasury provides a new perspective on public policy-making in the twentieth century as it explores the role and functions of the Chancellor of the Exchequer and the consequent implications for the changing role of the Treasury. As the central department in British government, the Treasury plays a key role in decisions on public expenditure, and on raising taxes and loans. Professor Peden traces the development of the Treasury's responsibility for managing the national economy and looks at how it became increasingly involved in international relations from the time of the First World War. In further examining the relations between ministers and their official advisers, this history explores the growing influence of economists in Whitehall.

The Wasting of the British Economy (Routledge Revivals)

The Wasting of the British Economy (Routledge Revivals)
Author: Sidney Pollard
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 214
Release: 2014-06-03
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1317831659

Originally published in 1982, this book examines the problem and looks at the causes of the repeated crises which the country has undergone since the war. The basic cause is stated to be the failure to invest in the modernisation of the British capital equipment and the consequent loss of competitive power. This failure, in turn, is seen to be the result of Government policies which, for the sake of a variety of short-term aims, sacrificed the future by deliberately inhibiting investment.

The Great Inflation

The Great Inflation
Author: Michael D. Bordo
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Total Pages: 545
Release: 2013-06-28
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 0226066959

Controlling inflation is among the most important objectives of economic policy. By maintaining price stability, policy makers are able to reduce uncertainty, improve price-monitoring mechanisms, and facilitate more efficient planning and allocation of resources, thereby raising productivity. This volume focuses on understanding the causes of the Great Inflation of the 1970s and ’80s, which saw rising inflation in many nations, and which propelled interest rates across the developing world into the double digits. In the decades since, the immediate cause of the period’s rise in inflation has been the subject of considerable debate. Among the areas of contention are the role of monetary policy in driving inflation and the implications this had both for policy design and for evaluating the performance of those who set the policy. Here, contributors map monetary policy from the 1960s to the present, shedding light on the ways in which the lessons of the Great Inflation were absorbed and applied to today’s global and increasingly complex economic environment.

Britain and the Economic Problem of the Cold War

Britain and the Economic Problem of the Cold War
Author: Till Geiger
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Total Pages: 372
Release: 2017-07-05
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1351954776

Many accounts of British development since 1945 have attempted to discover why Britain experienced slower rates of economic growth than other Western European countries. In many cases, the explanation for this phenomenon has been attributed to the high level of defence spending that successive British post-war governments adhered to. Yet is it fair to assume that Britain's relative economic decline could have been prevented if policy makers had not spent so much on defence? Examining aspects of the political economy and economic impact of British defence expenditure in the period of the first cold war (1945-1955), this book challenges these widespread assumptions, looking in detail at the link between defence spending and economic decline. In contrast to earlier studies, Till Geiger not only analyses the British effort within the framework of Anglo-American relations, but also places it within the wider context of European integration. By reconsidering the previously accepted explanation of the economic impact of the British defence effort during the immediate post-war period, this book convincingly suggests that British foreign policy-makers retained a large defence budget to offset a sense of increased national vulnerability, brought about by a reduction in Britain's economic strength due to her war effort. Furthermore, it is shown that although this level of military spending may have slightly hampered post-war recovery, it was not in itself responsible for the decline of the British economy.

The Liberal Party and the Economy, 1929-1964

The Liberal Party and the Economy, 1929-1964
Author: Peter Sloman
Publisher:
Total Pages: 305
Release: 2015
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 0198723504

The Liberal Party and the Economy, 1929-1964 explores the reception, generation, and use of economic ideas in the British Liberal Party between its electoral decline in the 1920s and 1930s, and its post-war revival under Jo Grimond. Drawing on archival sources, party publications, and the press, this volume analyses the diverse intellectual influences which shaped British Liberals' economic thought up to the mid-twentieth century, and highlights the ways in which the party sought to reconcile its progressive identity with its longstanding commitment to free trade and competitive markets. Peter Sloman shows that Liberals' enthusiasm for public works and Keynesian economic management - which David Lloyd George launched onto the political agenda at the 1929 general election - was only intermittently matched by support for more detailed forms of state intervention and planning. Likewise, the party's support for redistributive taxation and social welfare provision was frequently qualified by the insistence that the ultimate Liberal aim was not the expansion of the functions of the state but the pursuit of 'ownership for all'. Liberal policy was thus shaped not only by the ideas of reformist intellectuals such as John Maynard Keynes and William Beveridge, but also by the libertarian and distributist concerns of Liberal activists and by interactions with the early neoliberal movement. This study concludes that it was ideological and generational changes in the early 1960s that cut the party's links with the New Right, opened up common ground with revisionist social democrats, and re-established its progressive credentials.

Anticipations of the General Theory?

Anticipations of the General Theory?
Author: Don Patinkin
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Total Pages: 320
Release: 1984-11
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 9780226648743

This book examines the much-debated question of whether John Maynard Keynes' greatest work—The General Theory of Employment Interest and Money—was an instance of Mertonian simultaneous scientific discovery. In part I of this study, Don Patinkin argues for Keynes' originality, rejecting the claims of the Stockholm school and the Polish economist Michal Kalecki. Patinkin shows that the theoretical problems to which the Stockholm school and Kalecki devoted their attention largely differed from those of the General Theory and that, even when the problem addressed was similar, the treatment they accorded it was not part of their central messages. In the remaining parts of the book Patinkin presents a critique of Keynes' theory of effective demand and discusses Keynes' monetary theory and policy thinking, as well as the relationship between the respective developments of Keynesian theory and national income accounting in the 1930s.