James Meade's Contribution to Economics

Abstract

James Edward Meade was born June 23, 1907, in Swanage, Dorset, and educated at Malvern College and Oriel College, Oxford, with a year of graduate work at Trinity College, Cambridge, 1930-31. He was Fellow of Hertford College, Oxford, and Lecturer in Economics, 1930-37; economist for the League of Nations and editor of the World Economic Survey, 1937-40; a member of the Economic Section of the Cabinet Offices (Secretariat) 1940-45 and Director of the Economic Section 1945-47; Professor of Economics, London School of Economics, 1947-57; Professor of Political Economy, Cambridge University from 1957, retiring in 1969 five years before the statutory age of retirement, after which he became a Senior Research Fellow of Christ's College, Cambridge. He was a Visiting Professor at Australian National University in 1956, and Chairman of the Economic Survey Mission to Mauritius in 1960. While any detailed biographical analysis would be out of place in an evaluation of this kind, certain points are worth noting. Professionally, his year at Cambridge brought Meade into early contact with Keynes and the Keynesians; his initial period in the Economic Section got him involved (with J. R. N. Stone and others) in the early stages of development of British national income accounting; his visit to Australia got him interested in Japan and its relations with G.A.T.T.; and his service on the Mauritius Commission introduced him to a prime example of the classic Malthusian population problem, which among other things led to a revision of his book on economic growth. His service with the League of Nations, and his continuing interest in N.A.T.O. and subsequently in the E.E.C., betoken his enduring concern with world