----------------- HES POSTING ----------------- Published by EH.NET (December 2002) Anthony M. Endres and Grant A. Fleming, _International Organizations and the Analysis of Economic Policy, 1919-1950_. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2002. xiv + 290 pp. $65 (hardcover), ISBN: 521-79267-3. Reviewed for EH.NET by D.E. Moggridge, Department of Economics, University of Toronto. <[log in to unmask]> The purpose of this book is to explore the intellectual contributions of economists who worked in or were consultants to important international organizations between 1919 and 1950. The organizations in question are the International Labour Organization, the Economic and Financial Section of the League of Nations, the Bank for International Settlements and, after 1945, some parts of the United Nations. In looking at these, the authors are concerned to address five questions: "what was distinctive, innovative and significant in a doctrinal history sense about research"; "what policy questions stimulated the research undertaken and what policy position flowed from the research"; "what intellectual influences acted on that research"; how did the research relate to prevailing orthodoxies and changes therein; and "what limitations can be identified in the economics as practised ... in these organizations" (pp. 7-8). The book proceeds by topic: business cycles, monetary policy, public investment policy, trade policy, social economics, international finance and the full employment movement of the late 1940s. However its coverage is occasionally unexpectedly narrow: its discussion of late 1940s Keynesianism does not extend to national accounting, presumably because the individuals concerned, one of whom received a Nobel Prize in Economics for his work, were called "statistical experts" and thus not considered economists. Despite the authors' claims for broad institutional coverage, their most serious archival research centers on the International Labour Organization, with the Economic and Financial Section receiving less attention and the Bank for International Settlements receiving none. (All references to thinking in that institution are to its published _Annual Reports_, despite the availability of Per Jacobbson's diary in the Library of the University of Basle.) The restriction of their archival research to Geneva also means that they ignore other possible relevant sources such as J.B. Condliffe's papers and diary at Berkeley, Alexander Loveday's papers at Nuffield College, Oxford and Gottfried Haberler's papers at the Hoover Institution. The patchiness in the archival research in the case of the League shows up most clearly in the discussions of its business cycle research program. It has been known for some years that Dennis Robertson had substantial correspondence with Alexander Loveday (the Director of the Economic, Financial and Transit Section) as well as Gottfried Haberler, and Jan Tinbergen (see Mizen, Moggridge and Presley 1997). Indeed, it was Robertson who was first offered the job that eventuated in Haberler's _Prosperity and Depression_ and it was Robertson who was hired by Loveday as a consultant and adviser to Tinbergen, with the result that one of the League-sponsored conferences devoted to Tinbergen's work was held in Trinity College, Cambridge in July 1938. Yet in the relevant chapter Robertson does not make anything other than a cameo appearance at a League meeting to discuss Tinbergen in September 1937 until he reviewed in 1945 the Report of the League's Delegation on Economic Depressions (for which, at Loveday's request, he wrote a minimum program of action back in 1938). As I have noted, the ILO archives seem to have been more thoroughly mined than the League's with the result that the chapters on monetary policy, public works and social economics are devoted to the views of its experts. The exposition of ILO views and their evolution is clear and well done. If there are any difficulties it is placing these views in context, especially in relation to the evolving ideas on monetary policy and of one particular economist, J.M. Keynes. Here the problem is that the authors misread _A Treatise on Money_, with its special case for public works, despite their quoting secondary literature that should have reminded them that they were doing so rather than, as they think, the opposite (p. 76). As a result the place of the ILO is understated. On the Keynes front, there is also a problem as to the relation of later editions of _Prosperity and Depression_ to Keynes's views: the fact that Keynes favorably reviewed the second edition seems to have eluded the authors. They also are in some difficulty with the work of J.R. Bellerby at the ILO whose originality is understated because the authors are unclear as to his formal training and possible intellectual influences, where a reading of his _Who's Who_ entry might have helped. The study is more successful in the area of trade policy, where the authors demonstrate that the League's economists did carve out a distinctive position, and discussing Ragnar Nurkse's _International Currency Experience_ (1944) and _Course and Control of Inflation_ (1946). However, the discussion of _International Currency Experience_ is distinctive compared to other chapters in the study in that it is less related to contemporary developments of the 1940s than to the literature of the 1970s to 1990s. Perhaps, as a result, it is misleading on the original Bretton Woods attitudes to freedom of capital movements. The handling of the "full employment movement" of the later 1940s is more successful in retaining its links to contemporary discussions. In the end the authors find that economists in international organizations were generally cautious, guarded and tentative in their policy analysis. They also suggest that in the 1920s in particular the macroeconomic and monetary analyses of economists in international organizations were more a reflection of contemporary orthodoxy than later, although there was some return to the 1920s situation in 1940s. In between, perhaps because of disagreements within the profession, in macroeconomic matters economists in international organizations could be much more eclectic in staking out distinctive positions. In trade and international monetary affairs, the League's economists successfully staked out distinctive positions, perhaps because in both cases the League was on the sidelines rather than at the center of contemporary policy discussions. The overall record of contributions is substantial. We are indebted to the authors for highlighting it. Reference: Paul Mizen, Don Moggridge, and John Presley (1995), "The Papers of Dennis Robertson: The Discovery of Unexpected Riches," _History of Political Economy_ 29 (Winter 1997), 573-92. D.E. Moggridge is Professor of Economics at the University of Toronto. In the past he has edited the papers of John Maynard Keynes, James Meade and Lionel Robbins. He is currently engaged in preparing an edition of Dennis Robertson's professional correspondence for the Royal Economic Society and in writing an intellectual biography of Harry Johnson. Copyright (c) 2002 by EH.Net. All rights reserved. This work may be copied for non-profit educational uses if proper credit is given to the author and the list. For other permission, please contact the EH.Net Administrator ([log in to unmask]; Telephone: 513-529-2850; Fax: 513-529-3308). Published by EH.Net (December 2002). All EH.Net reviews are archived at http://www.eh.net/BookReview ------------ FOOTER TO HES POSTING ------------ For information, send the message "info HES" to [log in to unmask]