James Meade

For other uses, see James Meade (disambiguation).

James Meade
FBA
Born(1907-06-23)June 23, 1907
Swanage, England
Died22 December 1995(1995-12-22) (aged 88)
Cambridge, England
EducationOriel College, Oxford
Academic career
FieldEconomics
Welfare economics
InstitutionUniversity of Cambridge (1957-68)[1]
London School of Economics (1947-57)[2]
School or
tradition		Neo-Keynesian economics[1]
ContributionsKeynesian multiplier
AwardsNobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences (1977)

James Edward Meade FBA (23 June 1907 – 22 December 1995) was a British economist who made major contributions to the theory of international trade and welfare economics. Along with Richard Kahn, James Meade helped develop the concept of the Keynesian multiplier while participating in the Cambridge circus. In the 1930s, he served as specialist adviser on behalf of the British government at the Economic and Financial Organization of the League of Nations.[3]: 477 

Born in Swanage, Meade was brought up in Bath, and educated at Lambrook prep school, Malvern College and Oriel College, Oxford, where he read classics till 1928 before switching to the newly-established course in philosophy, politics, and economics.[4] He was elected a Fellow of Hertford College, Oxford in 1930, and was a lecturer in economics at Oxford from 1931 to 1937.[5] During the Second World War, he was recalled to the Economic Section of the Secretariat of the War Cabinet, which he chaired from 1946 to 1947.[5]

He was appointed CB in 1946, and served as President of the Royal Economic Society from 1964 to 1966.[5] While his work was not confined by political boundaries, he advised the Labour Party in the 1930s, and was a member of the Social Democratic Party during the 1980s.[5] He once said that he had “my heart to the left, and my brain to the right”.[6]

In 1976 he received an Honorary Doctorate from the University of Bath.[7]

Along with the Swedish economist Bertil Ohlin, he received the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences in 1977 "for their pathbreaking contribution to the theory of international trade and international capital movements".[2]

  1. ^ a b "Britannica Money". 18 June 2024.
  2. ^ a b "The Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel 1977".
  3. ^ Patricia Clavin and Jens-Wilhelm Wessels (November 2005), "Transnationalism and the League of Nations: Understanding the Work of Its Economic and Financial Organisation", Contemporary European History, 14 (4), Cambridge University Press: 465–492, doi:10.1017/S0960777305002729, JSTOR 20081280
  4. ^ "The Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel 1977". NobelPrize.org. Retrieved 24 December 2023.
  5. ^ a b c d https://www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/documents/1436/105p473.pdf (Atkinson and Weale 2000)
  6. ^ "James Edward Meade". Econlib. Retrieved 24 December 2023.
  7. ^ "Honorary graduates, 1970 to 1979". University of Bath Honorary Graduates. Retrieved 24 July 2024.