Conflict in policy objectives : papers presented to section F (Economics) at the 1970 annual meeting of the British association for the advancement of science / edited by Nicholas Kaldor

The papers in this volume were presented to Section F of the British Association in September 1970 at its Durham meeting. The general theme adopted for this meeting was the analysis of conflicts in economic policy objectives, both in regard to Governmental economic policies in general, and in regard to conflicts in particular fields. The first paper deals with the post-war policies of demand management for full employment which had their origin in the Government White Paper on Employment Policy in 1944, and its implications on various policy objectives such as economic growth, monetary stability and the balance of payments. Various aspects of this general theme are examined in more detail as regards the efficacy of monetary policy (in Paper 3), the relationship between economic growth and inflation (in Paper 6), growth and the balance of payments (in Paper 8), the problem of regional economic growth (in Paper 7), while Paper 3 examines recent criticisms concerning the desirability of the growth objective as such. Conflicts in the field of social security policy are examined in Paper 2. Paper 5 looks at major policy conflicts as seen from the angle of the low-income countries, particularly the conflict between the growth of wages and productivity and the level employment. Apart from Paper 1 (the Presidential address), the papers are produced in alphabetical order of the names of the authors.

Two sessions of the Durham meeting were devoted to the history of Section F, and the papers presented at these sessions are repro duced in an Annex. The first of these, by R. L. Smyth, gives an account of how Section F came into being and how it fared in the 135 years of its existence. The second contains the unique personal reminiscences of Professor Sargant Florence, who has been a regular attender of Section F meetings since 1913.