On the Theory of Economic Policy

Abstract

Having been asked to tell something about ideas that are alive among Dutch economists, I do not think that my choice is very difficult. The subject I want to consider, viz., the theory of economic policy, was first analyzed by J. Tinbergen a few years ago (On the Theory of Economic Policy, Amsterdam, 1952), and the influence of his work in this field grew so rapidly that at present quite a few economists — and not only econometricians — are thinking in terms of his concepts. Of course, no one can maintain that in our days an analysis of the theory of economic policy can be really the first in an absolute sense; but it is not easy to find an earlier systematic analysis which is so clear and simple and — as I hope to indicate — so well suited to further development as Tinbergen’s.

This article first appeared in the American Economic Review, 46 (1956), 360–366. Reprinted with the permission of the American Economic Association.