Research andWriting
In 1952, David joint-edited an important book of studies of economic development and policies in various fields in the UK for the years 1945-1950. His co-editor was Peter H. Ady, a Fellow of St Anne's College, Oxford.
David wrote the introductory chapter summarising the British economy as it developed between 1945, the end of the war, and 1950. Experts, including Ady, were tapped to write on twenty-four different aspects of the economy during those years from “Direct Controls” to “Britain and the Sterling Area”. It was a comprehensive volume. Ten years later, a companion volume compiled by the same editors was published, entitled The British Economy in the Nineteen- Fifties (Worswick and Ady 1962) which comprised thirteen broader categories from the “Terms of Trade” and “Fiscal Policy” to “Government and Industry”. Once again, David wrote an extensive introduction for the years 1950-1960. These two volumes were the first of their kind in Britain to describe the domestic economy, its development as a whole and in its parts and the prevailing government economic policy at the time. They were used as the first textbooks in applied economics by many students and they offered a comprehensive and detailed description of the different economic sectors as well as a discussion of policy in which David was particularly interested.The UK post-war recovery following 1945 was a solid one. A Labour government under Clement Atlee had been elected and significantly maintained full employment through the maintenance of aggregate demand and physical controls over the markets where demand was greatest. Some increase in prices resulted. The balance of payments, so important in a small, open economy like the UK, was in surplus in 1950, the same year that Marshall Aid ended. There was still substantial pent-up demand dating from the war years, and a price and wage freeze in 1948 had succeeded in slowing the rate of rise of prices and money incomes.
Unfortunately, the Korean War in the early 1950s upset the applecart. It had a profound effect on the economy of the US. The short-lived 1948-1949 recession precipitated the devaluation of the British pound. There was a large increase in expenditure on armaments in the US which, in starts and stops, ultimately saved the economy from a further slump. Total expenditure on imports rose rapidly and a balance of payments deficit crisis resulted. Moreover, a rearmament programme in the UK led to some increase in taxes and proposed cuts in social services. A general election was called in 1951 and the Conservatives took over the reins of government.
In his introduction to the second volume on the British economy David chronicles the success of the post-war economic recovery through the 1950s, a period referred to as the Golden Age, mainly in reference to the continuation of full employment. However, his insight into government economic policy at the time is not so sanguine. At the end of his chapter, he notes three grounds of criticism. First, the goals of policy were viewed as achievable as separate entities rather than being interlinked. He quotes the government statement: ‘First we must get rid of inflation and put the balance of payment right before we can increase production' (Worswick 1962: 72; italics in original). He notes that this notion implied that a fall in production could actually help in expanding the economy. This counts as a “nonsequence”, to use his invented word much appreciated by his students who called such words “Worsicisms”. As soon as attention was brought back to the full employment goal, prices were already rising.
The second criticism was that direct controls were made less clear which meant that private decision-makers such as banks were confused about what rules to follow. The third criticism of policy is that it relied far too much on an implied harmony of private and public economic interests. For example, David noted:
Where does the loyalty of the trade union leader lie: to his members, who press him to get higher wages or to the Chancellor [of the Exchequer] who begs him to hold off? As for business, whose rationale is profit, the public good is a luxury which may be expensive and even ruinous.
He continued: ‘Persuasion and reliance upon the acceptance of the “full duties of citizenship” may have some small part to play, but carried to any length they contradict the principles of private enterprise: in such a system it is illogical to expect them to succeed' (ibid.: 74).
The papers in the rest of the book address this conflict between the social conscience of economic actors and their private interest in great detail. But it was always David's concern for social justice and fairness that pitted him against the various Conservative governments when it came to formulating clear policies for the maintenance of full employment. This concern he maintained in his writing and teaching long before he left Oxford.
During his years at Magdalen, David was deeply involved in all aspects of university life. He was Chairman of the Board of the Faculty of Social Studies from 1948. He became an examiner for the PPE degree from 1949 to 1951 and was Senior Tutor for the Magdalen from 1955 and served as Vice President during 1963-1965. He dined regularly in college both at lunch and in the evenings and would return home in a convivial mood after the wine, delicious food and interesting conversation. It was no wonder that he loved his time at Magdalen.
In the 1950s, his son, Richard, became a chorister in the Magdalen College choir. He was not a boarder at Magdalen College School as the other choristers were. So every evening before practice and Evensong, he would walk out of the front door of 62A High Street where we lived and join the procession of choristers as they came down from Magdalen College School and over the bridge towards the College. David was a frequent member of the congregation in the chapel for Evensong even though he claimed he did not believe in any religion and was agnostic about the existence of God. But he was proud of Richard and he loved the wonderful hymns, anthems and prayers sung by the choir. His favourite anthem was “Splendente Te, Deus” by Mozart which was also sung at his memorial service.
There were two breaks in his teaching career. First, he was appointed in 1954 as a member of a team of three economists by the United Nations (UNCTAD) to advise the Turkish government on economic development. This entailed moving to Ankara, Turkey, in January with the whole family. Unfortunately, the Turkish government was not receptive to the suggestions of the team and after six months they ended their assignment. David spent the last three months of his appointment in Geneva.
The second break from Oxford occurred in the academic year 1962-1963, when David was invited to MIT as a Visiting Professor. Among his colleagues were Paul Samuelson and Robert Solow. One frequent topic of conversation was incomes policy. This was certainly on David's mind as the question of how to maintain full employment and at the same time prevent wage and price inflation in the long run became politically more difficult. Incomes policy involved pitting the private interest of wage earners and higher prices and profits for businesses against the public interest of controlling both types of increase.
After his time at MIT, he was offered a position as Professor of Economics at Manchester University, which he declined. Shortly thereafter, he was appointed as Director of the National Institute of Economic and Social Research (NIESR), a post for which he was eminently suited. Thus, in 1965, he began a new chapter of his life.
5