Expansionary Fiscal Contraction: The Thatcher Government's 1981 Budget in Perspective

Description

In its 1981 Budget, the Thatcher government discarded Keynesian counter-cyclical policies and cut Britain's public sector deficit in the depths of the worst UK recession since the 1930s. Controversially, the government argued that fiscal contraction would produce economic growth. In this specially commissioned volume, contributors examine recently released archives alongside firsthand accounts from key players within No. 10 Downing Street, HM Treasury and the Bank of England, to provide the first comprehensive treatment of this critical event in British economic history. They assess the empirical and theoretical basis for expansionary fiscal contraction, drawing clear parallels with contemporary debates on austerity in Europe, USA and Japan in the wake of the recent global financial crisis. This timely and thoughtful book will have broad appeal among economists, political scientists, historians and policy makers. Cover Half-title page Title page Copyright page Contents Figures Tables Contributors Foreword Note on the text Definitions of UK monetary aggregates Abbreviations 1 The 1981 statement by 364 economists 2 The 1981 Budget: how did it come about? 3 The London Business School and the 1981 Budget 4 The 1981 Budget: a view from the cockpit 5 The Bank of England and the 1981 Budget 6 1981 and all that 7 The origins of the Budget in 1980 8 The 1981 Budget and its impact on the conduct of economic policy: was it a monetarist revolution? 9 The 1981 Budget: ‘a Dunkirk, not an Alamein’ 10 Macroeconomic policy and the 1981 Budget: changing the trend 11 The Keynesian twin deficits in an inflationary context 12 The long road to 1981: British money supply targets from DCE to the MTFS List of names Chronology of events Official sources Bibliography of secondary sources Index