An economist among mandarins

by Kit Jones

Robert Hall was the highly respected and influential Economic Adviser to the government between 1947 and 1961. He came to England from Australia as a Rhodes scholar, became an Oxford don and then a wartime civil servant. Within two years of returning to Oxford after the war, he was recalled to Whitehall. His appointment as Director of the Economic Section, first in the Cabinet Office and then in the Treasury, came at a crucial time in the development of the modern economic state, when governments were just taking on responsibility for managing the general course of the economy. As the senior members of the Treasury were rooted in a pre-Keynesian age, Hall's influence grew rapidly and was at times dominant with ministers. He was involved in all aspects of economic policy. This book puts a new slant on the events of these years as well as assessing Hall's role in them.