Victoria Chick (1936-2023) – RWER 2018 paper “Industrial policy, then and now”
Abstract
After 40 years of neoliberalism, even governments believe that they are inefficient when compared to the private sector. And economics, in its swing to the right, reinforces this view. The philosophy behind public expenditure for social purposes and the criteria for judging such projects has not been a subject for public debate until recently. In particular, industrial policy was very simple: leave it to the private sector to allocate resources as the market prompts. In Keynes’s time this was not the case. This article reviews some of the issues concerning industrial policy that were aired in the interwar period. The debate needs to be revived, revisited and, where appropriate, revised to suit the present day, but on basic principles there is much to learn from the interwar discussions. The contrast between the recent (2018) UK government’s White Paper on Industrial Strategy and the Liberal Industrial Inquiry’s Britain’s Industrial Future (1928) is quite instructive.
I am saddened by the news. I was not aware of her work in Industrial Policy. For me, Victoria Chick was in a league of her own with regard to the monetary economics of Keynes. Her Macroeconomics after Keynes is unmatched for bringing lucidity and insight to bear on difficult material. Along with her papers, the book was an integral part of my teaching. Many years ago, I unintentionally inspired a gifted MA student to write an essay on her work. I thought his piece was remarkably good and I advised him to send it to her. This was before the era of email. He mailed the hard copy. Lo and behold, he received a measured, scholarly, and, above all, encouraging response. She will be sorely missed.