The Intellectual connections between british and european economists in the 1920s: Cambridge and geneva on international economic policies

This chapter focuses on British and European economists’ proposals for world economic integration in the 1920s, with special reference to the work of J. M. Keynes and economists working at the League of Nations. It examines League economists’ contributions to international economic policy debate in the 1920s, and identifies intellectual connections between British and European economic thought on integration. Historians of economic and social thought have turned attention to the organisation of economic research in Europe. The chapter outlines the establishment of the International Labour Organisation’s (ILO) research programme, and describes the major aspects of ILO economic research which placed emphasis on cooperation in international economic policy. Much of the ILO work on business cycles and monetary reform was well known to British economists, in particular, J. M. Keynes. The development of Keynes’s ideas on the use of public works expenditure to increase national purchasing power during economic depressions has been well documented.