Abstract
In 1933, Maynard Keynes judged James Meade to be ‘one of the most promising of the very young but interesting school of Oxford economists’. This chapter explains how Meade came to be a Cambridge economist, beginning with his first year in Cambridge in 1930–1931. It outlines his subsequent career in Oxford, Geneva, and London (in Whitehall and at the London School of Economics). It then describes his work in Cambridge after he returned there in 1957 as Professor of Political Economy, the successor to Marshall, Pigou, and Robertson.
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Notes
- 1.
See Howson and Winch (1977: 49). There is a copy of Kahn’s paper in the Meade Papers.
- 2.
Hayek’s Cambridge lecture has recently been published (Hayek 2012).
- 3.
Durbin to Meade, 2 February 1932, Meade Papers 2/3; Kahn to Meade, 18 April 1932, Meade Papers 2/4. While Durbin’s and Kahn’s lengthy comments on Meade’s memorandum have survived, the memorandum itself has not.
- 4.
‘F. Taylor Ostrander’s Notes from Lectures by James E. Meade, Hertford College, Oxford University, 1932–33, Concluded’. In M. Johnson and W.J. Samuels (ed.) (2009) Research in the History of Economic Thought and Methodology, volume 27-C: 3–34. Warren Samuels mistakenly entitled the lectures ‘Second Term: Linking Monetary Theory with the Pure Theory of Value’. The lecture lists published in the Oxford University Gazette give the correct title and the terms (Michaelmas 1933 and 1934 as well as Michaelmas 1932) in which the lectures were given.
- 5.
- 6.
Kahn to Meade, 15 December 1933, Meade Papers 2/4; Meade to Robinson, 25 June 1933, Meade Papers 10/48; Meade to Keynes, 1 January 1935, Keynes Papers PS/6.
Meade explained to Joan Robinson that ‘The Political & Economic Society corresponds to your Marshall Society and the Economic Theory group is perhaps the nearest thing we have to your Keynes Club’. If Meade gave a paper to the Keynes Club, it is unlikely to have been his ‘The Amount of Money and the Banking System’ which Keynes had read and accepted for the Economic Journal in September 1933 (Keynes to Meade, 21 September 1933, Meade Papers 2/4; Meade 1988a: 26–32).
- 7.
Trinity made Meade an Honorary Fellow 30 years later.
- 8.
Kaldor, who had moved to Cambridge with LSE in 1939 and moved back to London with LSE in 1945, but keeping his family home in Cambridge, had been offered a University Lectureship and a Fellowship at King’s in 1949, which he accepted.
- 9.
- 10.
The extensive correspondence, with memoranda, survives in the Meade Papers (10/4 and 10/6). With respect to Robinson’s comments on Meade’s model the earliest dated letter is one of 19 February 1958 from Meade to Robinson, the latest, from Robinson, 17 October 1959, when she was reading the typescript of the book. It is worth noting that in January 1958, Meade wrote the nomination for her election as a Fellow of the British Academy.
- 11.
In the second edition, Meade added a whole new chapter using his model to consider growth in an overpopulated economy.
- 12.
In that year, the arrangement of complementary or competing lectures for Prelims resumed, this time given by Hahn and Pasinetti.
- 13.
It was not the first ‘Meade Report’ which was Meade (1961).
References
Main works by James Meade
Meade, J.E. (1933). The Rate of Interest in a Progressive State. London: Macmillan.
Meade, J.E. (1936). An Introduction to Economic Analysis and Policy. London: Oxford University Press.
Meade, J.E. (1938a). Consumers’ Credits and Unemployment. London: Oxford University Press.
Meade, J.E. (1938b). World Economic Survey, Seventh Year 1937/38. Geneva: League of Nations.
Meade, J.E. (1939). World Economic Survey, Eighth Year 1938/39. Geneva: League of Nations.
Meade, J.E. (1940). The Economic Basis of a Durable Peace. London: Allen & Unwin.
Meade, J.E. and R. Stone (1944). National Income and Expenditure. London: Oxford University Press.
Meade, J.E. (1948). Planning and the Price Mechanism: The Liberal-Socialist Solution. London: Allen & Unwin.
Meade, J.E. (1951). The Theory of International Economic Policy, Volume I: The Balance of Payments. London: Oxford University Press.
Meade, J.E. (1952). A Geometry of International Trade. London: Allen & Unwin.
Meade, J.E. (1953). Problems of Economic Union. Chicago: Chicago University Press.
Meade, J.E. (1955a). The Theory of International Economic Policy, Volume II: Trade and Welfare, Mathematical Supplement. London: Oxford University Press.
Meade, J.E. (1955b). The Theory of Customs Unions. Amsterdam: North-Holland Publishing Company.
Meade, J.E. (1961). The Economic and Social Structure of Mauritius: Report to the Governor of Mauritius. London: Methuen.
Meade, J.E. (1962). A Neo-Classical Theory of Economic Growth. Second edition. London: Allen & Unwin.
Meade, J.E. (1964). Efficiency, Equality and the Ownership of Property. London: Allen & Unwin.
Meade, J.E. (1965). The Stationary Economy (Principles of Political Economy, Volume 1). London: Allen & Unwin.
Meade, J.E. (1968). The Growing Economy (Principles of Political Economy, Volume 2). London: Allen & Unwin.
Meade, J.E. (1970). The Theory of Indicative Planning. Manchester: Manchester University Press.
Meade, J.E. (1971). The Controlled Economy (Principles of Political Economy, Volume 3). London: Allen & Unwin.
Meade, J.E. (1972). ‘James Meade Interviewed by the Editors’. Marginal Man, 3: 3–11.
Meade, J.E. (1975). The Intelligent Radical’s Guide to Economic Policy. London: Allen & Unwin.
Meade, J.E. (1976). The Just Economy (Principles of Political Economy, Volume 4). London: Allen & Unwin.
Meade, J.E. (1978). The Structure and Reform of Direct Taxation. London: Allen & Unwin for the Institute of Fiscal Studies.
Meade, J.E. (1982). Stagflation, Volume 1: Wage-Fixing. London: Allen & Unwin.
Meade, J.E., D.A. Vines and J.M. Maciejowski (1983). Stagflation, Volume 2: Demand Management. London: Allen & Unwin.
Meade, J.E. (1986a). Alternative Systems of Business Organization and of Workers’ Remuneration. London: Allen & Unwin.
Meade, J.E. (1986b). Different Forms of Share Economy. London: Public Policy Centre.
Meade, J.E. (1988a). The Collected Papers of James Meade, Volume I: Employment and Inflation. Edited by S. Howson. London: Unwin Hyman.
Meade, J.E. (1988b). The Collected Papers of James Meade, Volume II: Value, Distribution and Growth. Edited by S. Howson. London: Unwin Hyman.
Meade, J.E. (1988c). The Collected Papers of James Meade, Volume III: International Economics. Edited by S. Howson. London: Unwin Hyman.
Meade, J.E., M.R. Weale, A.P. Blake, N. Christodoulakis and D.A. Vines (1989). Macroeconomic Policy: Inflation, Wealth and the Exchange Rate. London: Unwin Hyman.
Meade, J.E. (1989). Agathotopia: The Economics of Partnership. Aberdeen: Aberdeen University Press.
Meade, J.E. (1990a). The Collected Papers of James Meade, Volume IV: The Cabinet Office Diary 1944–1946. Edited by S. Howson and D. Moggridge. London: Unwin Hyman.
Meade, J.E. (1990b). The Wartime Diaries of Lionel Robbins and James Meade 1943–1945. Edited by S. Howson and D. Moggridge. London: Macmillan.
Meade, J.E. (1993a). ‘The Relation of Mr Meade’s Relation to Kahn’s Multiplier’. Economic Journal, 103(418): 664–665.
Meade, J.E. (1993b). Liberty, Equality and Efficiency. London: Macmillan.
Meade, J.E. (1995). Full Employment Regained? An Agathatopian Dream. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
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Howson, S. (2017). James Meade (1907–1995). In: Cord, R. (eds) The Palgrave Companion to Cambridge Economics. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-41233-1_32
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