Table Of ContentKEYNES AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT
KEYNES AND ECONOMIC
DEVELOPMENT
The Seventh Keynes Seminar
held at the
University of Kent at Canterbury} 1985
Edited by
A. P. THIRLWALL
Professor of Applied Economics
University of Kent at Canterbury
Palgrave Macmillan
ISBN 978-1-349-08031-1 ISBN 978-1-349-08029-8 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-1-349-08029-8
© The Macmillan Press Ltd., 1987
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 1987 978-0-333-39324-6
All rights reserved. For information, write:
Scholarly Be Reference Division,
St. Martin's Press, Inc., 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010
First published in the United States of America in 1987
ISBN 978-0-312-45199-8
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Keynes Seminar (7th: 1985: University of Kent at
Canterbury)
Keynes and economic development.
Includes index.
I. Keynesian economics-Congresses. 2. Developing
countries-Economic conditions-Congresses. 3. Develop
ing countries-Economic policy-Congresses. 4. Keynes,
John Maynard, 1883-1946-Congresses. I. Thirlwall, A. P.
II. Title.
HB99.7.K388 1987 338.9 86-13843
ISBN 978-0-312-45199-8
Contents
List of Guests and Speakers
Vll
Acknowledgements Vlll
Foreword Derek Crabtree lX
SESSION 1
Introduction j. j. Hughes
Keynes, Economic Development and
the Developing Countries A. P. Thirlwall 3
Some Reflections by a Keynesian
Economist on the Problems of
Developing Countries W. B. Reddaway 36
Discussion Hans Singer 66
What Keynes and Keynesianism Can
Teach Us about Less Developed
Countries Hans Singer 70
SESSION 2
Introduction I M. j. C. Vile 91
Bancor and the Developing Countries:
How Much Difference Would it Have Made?
john Williamson 92
Discussion Graham Bird 107
Introduction II M. j. C. Vile 117
International Keynesianism: The Problem
of the North-South Divide Edward Heath 118
Discussion 1. M. D. Little 130
General Discussion 136
Appendix: The Keynes Plan 147
Name and Author Index 179
Subject Index 181
v
List of Guests
and Speakers
Dr M. Ambrosi University of Berlin
Mr G. Bird University of Surrey
Mr S. Brickell Folkestone
Professor W. Carr University of Sheffield
Mr D. Crabtree University of Kent
Professor W. Elkan Brunel University
Mr T. M. Farmiloe London
Mr S. Frowen University of Surrey
Mr E. R. G. Heath, M.P. London
Professor C. Hession Brooklyn College, New York
Mr T. L. Higgins, M.P. London
Mr J. J. Hughes University of Kent
Dr M. Keynes Cambridge
Mr S. Keynes London
Dr I. Little Oxford
Professor W. Newlyn StratJord-on-Avon
Professor W. B. Reddaway University of Cambridge
Sir Austin Robinson University of Cambridge
Professor G. L. S. Shackle Aldeburgh, Suffolk
Professor R. Skidelsky University of Warwick
Professor H. Singer University of Sussex
Professor A. P. Thirlwall University of Kent
Professor J. Toye University of Swansea
Professor M. Vile University of Kent
Dr J. Williamson Washington
Vll
Acknowledgements
The editor wishes to thank the Centre for the Study of Cartoons
and Caricature, Canterbury, for permission to use the David Low
cartoon on the jacket, the Controller of her Majesty's Stationery
Office for permission to reproduce the extract from Cmd. 6437,
April 1943, and Mrs Pauline Taylor for transcribing the tapes of
the seminar and typing the final draft of the manuscript.
A. P. THIRLWALL
Vlll
Foreword
It was a source of great pleasure to welcome a large audience to
the Seventh Keynes Seminar on 15 November 1985. First
established by the College in 1972, the Seminars have proved a
felicitous way of commemorating the life of Lord Maynard
Keynes, giving a richly diverse audience from the University, the
City of Canterbury and farther afield the opportunity to hear
leading scholars discuss aspects of his life and work. The Seminar
Committee has placed considerable stress on continuity in par
ticipants, and it is pleasing to place on record that many of those
who gathered in 1985 had been present on many previous
occasions. There is indeed a growing sense of the inappropriate
ness of the College extending to them an invitation to attend the
Seminar, for in a very real way they have become the Seminar. It
is, I hope, not invidious to single out in this respect Sir Austin
Robinson, who contributed to the first of the Seminars and
whose presence is a vivid reminder of the intellectual ferment
surrounding Keynes. It is appropriate, too, to express apprecia
tion for the unfailing interest which Dr Milo Keynes and Mr
Stephen Keynes take in the Seminars.
In formulating the idea of holding such Seminars the first Master
of the College, Professor Robert Spence, expressed the convic
tion that the many facets of Lord Keynes' thought and writings
would afford an ample supply of themes - and this has proved
the case. If Keynesianism is no longer the unchallenged
orthodoxy of our society, it still stands as a towering body of
thought, laying great claim to our intellectual and moral assent.
For there can be no doubt about his relevance to the great public
and political debate of our day, nor can there be doubt about the
moral imperatives and the moral values which lay so central to all
his thinking. That the goods valued by men should be more
IX
x FOREWORD
widely distributed and that this should be furthered
by intelligent international cooperation was a deeply held con
viction: our theme of 'Keynes and Economic Development' is
testimony to this.
In conclusion, I would like to express the gratitude of the
College to the Vice-Chancellor and the Dean and Faculty of
Social Sciences for assistance in mounting the Seminar, and to
Mr Tim Farmiloe and Macmillan for their constant encourage
ment and cooperation. The Seminar Committee is gready indeb
ted to Professor Thirlwall for editing these Proceedings and for
so much of the organisation of the Seminar.
Derek Crabtree
Keynes College Master
Session I
INTRODUCTION
j. j. Hughes (Chairman)
Today's Seminar takes as its theme 'Keynes and Economic
Development' . Although Keynes' seminal work The General Theory
of Employment, Interest and Money was not concerned with the
development problem, many of the concepts and techniques of
analysis developed in the General Theory, and by a succeeding
generation of Keynesian economists, are of considerable
relevance to our understanding of economic development.
Nevertheless, despite our greater understanding of the process
of economic development, the gap between rich and poor coun
tries of the world still remains staggering. In 1981, for example,
there were about fifty countries whose national income per
capita was less than USS320 per year, compared with the United
Kingdom's own $9,100 per capita per year, and a figure of
$12,100 for the United States itself. Despite the problems that
arise when cross-country comparisons of GNP are made, these
figures do suggest that we still live in a world that is divided
between the 'haves' and the 'have nots'. And the figures serve to
remind those of us who are preoccupied with the performance of
the British economy that our own problems are not all that great
when seen in a somewhat wider perspective.
The two main speakers for the first session this afternoon have
both distinguished themselves in the field of applied economics
research; they are both Keynesians, and they have both had con
siderable experience of developing countries and the problems
that they face.
Professor Brian Reddaway, who will speak second, might be
regarded as a direct descendant of Alfred Marshall, the founding
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