Meade, J.E. (James Edward), 1907-1995

James Edward Meade (1907-1995) was educated at Malvern College and Oriel College, Oxford, graduating in 1930. 1930. He was immediately appointed to a teaching post at Hertford College Oxford. He spent a postgraduate year at Trinity College, Cambridge (1930-1931) where he became deeply involved with the Cambridge 'circus' around John Maynard Keynes and his first work, 'An Introduction to Economic Analysis and Policy', appeared just two years after Keynes' 'General Theory'. In 1938 Meade left teaching for the League of Nations in Geneva where he edited the World Economic Survey. He returned to Britain in 1940 to serve in the Economic Section of the Cabinet Office under Lionel Robbins. In 1945, he succeeded Robbins as Director of the secretariat and during this time worked with Richard Stone on the first Keynesian-style national income accounts for Britain, later published as 'National Income and Expenditure'. In 1947, he accepted the post of Professor of Commerce at the London School of Economics and during this time expanded his lectures into his major work, 'The Theory of Economic Policy', published in two volumes-'Balance of Payments' in 1951 and 'Trade and Welfare' in 1955. Meade became Professor of Political Economy at the University of Cambridge in 1957, a post in which he stayed for the next ten years. He found himself involved in the controversies between American and British economists, which led to his work 'A Neo-Classical Theory of Economic Growth'. Healso pursued his concerns over income distribution with his 'Efficiency, Equality and the Ownership of Property'. Meade and Bertil Ohlin were jointly awarded the Nobel Prize in Economics in 1977 for 'pathbreaking contributions to the theory of trade and international capital movements.' #10,000 of the prize money was donated to the appeal for the Lionel Robbins Building at the London School of Economics, which was to house the British Library of Political and Economic Science. In 1978, he chaired the influential British committee of inquiry into the 'Structure and Reform of Direct Taxation' whose recommendations bore Meade's characteristic approach and continued concern over unemployment. During the 1980s, Meade continued to produce a large amount of scientific work and worked in an advisory role with the newly formed Social Democratic Party regarding their economic policy. His work during this period, revolved around two of his concerns and interests: unemployment, which he considered comparable to the 1930s, and profit-sharing schemes, producer co-operatives and labour-managed firms, exemplified in his work 'Different Forms of Share Economy'. In 1995, Meade completed his last major work, 'Agathiotopia: Full Employment Regained?', which was published shortly before his death.. Meade was also President of Section F of the British Association for the Advancement of Science in 1957, Honorary Member of the American Economic Association, Treasurere of the British Eugencis Society from 1963-1966 and President of the Royal Economic Society from 1964 to 1966.In 1971 he became an honorary foreign member of the United States National Academy of Sciences.

From the guide to the MEADE, James Edward, 1907-1995, economist, 1921-[1995], (British Library of Political and Economic Science)

Epithet: Sec of Sir Arthur Salter's Election Committee Oxford University

British Library Archives and Manuscripts Catalogue : Person : Description : ark:/81055/vdc_100000000976.0x0001b0