James Meade facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
James E. Meade
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| Born | 23 June 1907 |
| Died | 22 December 1995 (aged 88) |
| Nationality | British |
| Institution | London School of Economics |
| Field | Macroeconomics |
| School or tradition |
Neo-Keynesian economics |
| Alma mater | Oriel College, Oxford Christ's College, Cambridge Malvern College |
| Doctoral students |
Jacques Parizeau |
| Influences | John Maynard Keynes |
| Contributions | Theory of international trade and international capital movements |
| Awards | Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences (1977) |
| Information at IDEAS / RePEc | |
James Edward Meade (born June 23, 1907 – died December 22, 1995) was a famous British economist. He won the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences in 1977. He shared the prize with Swedish economist Bertil Ohlin. They won for their important ideas about international trade and how money moves between countries.
Meade was born in Swanage, Dorset, England. He went to Malvern College and then to Oriel College, Oxford. He first studied old languages and history, but then switched to Philosophy, Politics and Economics. This was a very new subject at the time. He became very interested in economics during his postgraduate year at Christ's College, Cambridge and Trinity College, Cambridge. There, he often talked with leading economists like Dennis Robertson and John Maynard Keynes.
After working for the League of Nations and the British government, he became a top economist. He worked for Clement Attlee's government after World War II. Later, he became a professor at the London School of Economics and the University of Cambridge.
Contents
Early Life and Learning
James Meade grew up in Bath, England. From 1917 to 1921, he went to Lambrook school. His studies there focused on ancient Greek and Latin. When he was at Oriel College, Oxford, he changed his main subject. He switched from "Greats" (which was about classical studies) to Philosophy, Politics and Economics. This new course had only started in 1921.
Meade became interested in economics for several reasons. He was very concerned about the high unemployment in the United Kingdom between the two World Wars. He saw it as a big problem for society. He also met Major C. H. Douglas through his aunt. Douglas's ideas helped Meade think about ways to fix economic problems.
In 1930, Meade became a fellow at Hertford College, Oxford. This allowed him to continue studying economics as a postgraduate student. In 1930–31, he was invited to join Trinity College, Cambridge. This invitation came from Dennis Robertson, whom Meade had met through his great-aunt.
While at Cambridge, Meade became good friends with other young economists. These included Richard Kahn, Piero Sraffa, Joan Robinson, and Austin Robinson. They formed a group called the Cambridge Circus. They met to discuss economic ideas, especially the work of John Maynard Keynes. They talked about Keynes's book, A Treatise on Money. Keynes himself would join them often to hear their discussions.
Working Life and Achievements
Meade became a lecturer at Hertford College, Oxford, in 1931 and taught there until 1937. He and other young teachers helped make economics a regular subject to study at Oxford. This was quite new at the time. Meade was in charge of teaching the whole subject of economic theory. He was especially interested in the economics of high unemployment and international economics.
In 1937, Meade joined the economics section of the League of Nations in Geneva. The League of Nations was an organization that aimed to promote peace and cooperation between countries. He worked as the main editor for a journal called "World Economic Survey."
In April 1940, Meade had to leave Geneva with his family because of World War II. He returned to England and joined the Economic Section of the War Cabinet Secretariat. He stayed there until 1947, becoming its Director in 1946. He worked with important economists like Lionel Robbins and John Maynard Keynes. They used their skills to solve everyday economic problems during the war. This included things like rationing food and setting prices for nationalized companies.
In 1947, Meade became a professor at the London School of Economics. He started rewriting a textbook he had written earlier. This work grew into two important books: The Balance of Payments (published in 1951) and Trade and Welfare (published in 1955).
His first book, The Balance of Payments, explained that for every goal a government has, it needs a specific tool to achieve it. His second book, Trade and Welfare, looked at when free trade helps a country and when it doesn't. Meade found that if a country was already protecting one of its markets from foreign competition, protecting another market might not always be a good idea. He called this a "second best" situation. This meant that while removing all trade barriers was ideal, sometimes adding a small amount of protectionism could help if full free trade wasn't possible.
These two books took Meade ten years to finish. Even so, he felt they didn't cover everything about international economic policy. He thought he hadn't focused enough on how economic growth affects different countries. Despite his modesty, these works were very important. They led to him sharing the Nobel Prize in Economics with Bertil Ohlin in 1977.
In 1957, Meade moved to Cambridge to become a professor of political economy. He held this position until 1967. After that, he became a senior research fellow at Christ's College, Cambridge. He retired from this fellowship in 1974. During this time, Meade started writing about economic theory and policy within a single country. He wrote four books in this series: The Stationary Economy, The Growing Economy, The Controlled Economy, and The Just Economy. Even after these four books, he felt there was still much more to learn in economics. He believed that economic knowledge was always growing, making it hard to understand everything.
In 1974, Meade took a break to lead a committee. This committee was set up to study how direct taxes in the United Kingdom worked. It included many smart economic thinkers and experts in tax law and accounting.
In 1976, he received an honorary degree from the University of Bath. James Meade passed away on December 22, 1995, in Little Shelford, Cambridgeshire.
Other Important Ideas
Professor Meade also made other important contributions to economics. For example, he showed that businesses managed by their workers (called worker cooperatives) could still work well even when prices changed.
In 1980, Meade and another economist, James Tobin, suggested a new idea for how governments should manage the economy. They proposed "nominal GDP targeting" as a way to guide monetary policy. He talked about this idea during his Nobel Prize lecture in 1977.
Published Books
Some of his important books include:
- The Theory of International Economic Policy—The Balance of Payments (1951)
- The Theory of International Economic Policy—Trade and Welfare (1955)
- Principles of Political Economy (1965–76)
- The Intelligent Radical's Guide To Economic Policy (1975)
- Liberty, Equality and Efficiency (1993)
Images for kids
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A robot for kids
See also
In Spanish: James Meade para niños
