Abstract
PROF. G. C. ALLEN‘S inaugural lecture at University College, London, on March 4, 1948, which has now been published (London : H. K. Lewis and Co., Ltd. Pp. ii+18. 2s. 6d. net), emphasizes that while the trend of economic opinion in pre-war days was in favour of a more active intervention by the State in economic affairs, such intervention was not inconsistent with the preservation of the system of private enterprise ; it was deemed necessary for improving the operation of the system. Present policy, however, of State intervention goes much further than the achievement of ‘full employment', an acceptable distribution of the national income, and the promotion of structural adjustments in industry by fiscal or financial measures. Prof. Allen devotes most of his lecture to an examination of the economic implications of the policy at present being pursued both in the nationalization of industry and in the guidance of private industry by substitutes for the compulsion of the market. He points out the importance in industries that depend to any extent upon innovation of being able to attract the outstanding personalities with initiative and organising capacity ; the administration and efficiency of such industries will suffer under nationalization if such men are no longer attracted by the conditions of service. Similarly, he discusses the difficult question of effective Parliamentary control over the operation of public monopolies, and suggests that the safeguard of publicity can and should be made fully effective.
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Economics and State Control. Nature 162, 646–647 (1948). https://doi.org/10.1038/162646d0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/162646d0