Energy Economics Since 1960

Abstract

The Sixties saw a major step forward in the expansion both of the technical tools of analysis in energy economics and in their field of application. It was a decade in which there was a conscious effort to improve and rationalise public decision-making. Informed people were becoming increasingly aware, as G.H. Peters stated, ‘that a large part of public spending was voted on the basis of hunch, guessword, horse trading or barely-concealed electoral calculations’ or as The Times put it:

‘The truth is that many major public expenditure decisions have been taken since the war by old-fashioned “muddle through”, “rule of thumb” methods. Investment has been pitifully neglected in some cases while in other spheres public money has been lavished often with a very hazy idea of the return to be expected.’