James Edward Meade was professor of commerce at the London School of Economics until 1957, after which he taught at Cambridge University until 1974. Before his career in academics, he "helped prepare the British government's set of national income accounts during World War II." Meade, along with Bertil Ohlin, won the Nobel Prize in 1977 for their "pathbreaking contribution to the theory of international trade and international capital movements." During the 1930's, he was a member of the "Cambridge Circus"...a group of Cambridge graduate students who met religiously to discuss and dissect Keyne's work. It was soon after this time that he worked with Austin Robinson to produce the Statistical Digest. He also worked on the League of nations Financial Section and Economic Intelligence Service with Ragnar Nurkse and Jan Tinbergen, among others.
James Meade "advocated using fiscal policy to achieve full employment and monetary policy to achieve the government's target on balance of payments." In regard to trade and protectionism, Meade believed that "if a country was already protecting one of its market from international competition, further protection of another market could be "second best"...i.e., if total elimination of free trade was not possible, "then adding a carefully chosen dose of protectionism could improve the nation's economic well-being." Though he was against government intervention in regard to trade, he was a strong proponent of government intervention in regard to income distrubution.
Click on the icon to return to the list of economists.
