The points system devised in 1941 for rationing of clothing, footwear and household goods, by Robbins with Peggy Joseph and James Meade, is considered a successful policy. The Service was split into the Central Statistical Office and the Economic Section, which Robbins headed as Director from September 1941. Robbins joined the British government's Central Economic Information Service in summer 1940, from Cambridge to where the LSE had moved. Later, he accepted the need for government intervention. His own 1934 treatise on the Great Depression is an analysis belonging to that period of his thought. Initially, Robbins was opposed to Keynes's 1936 General Theory. Bad feeling persisted for years between LSE and Cambridge economists. Robbins, who had compared the protectionist views to those of Lord Rothermere and Lord Beaverbrook, walked out of a meeting, and briefed Philip Snowden against the report that contained a version of his criticism, considered himself poorly treated. Keynes as chair would not grant the request, given that Robbins was in a minority of one. Robbins refused to sign a draft by Keynes of proposals including tariffs, and wanted the chance to submit a minority report. It was a small working group chaired by Keynes, apart from the Economic Advisory Council, to consider economic policy in the Great Depression conditions, comprising also Hubert Henderson and Josiah Stamp from the council, with Arthur Cecil Pigou and Robbins representing academia. Robbins clashed with John Maynard Keynes in early October 1930, on the Committee of Economists of the Second MacDonald ministry. The Lionel Robbins Building at the London School of Economics Contra Keynes During the 1930s he built up the economics department, hiring Friedrich von Hayek, John Hicks and Nicholas Kaldor. After the death in 1929 of Allyn Abbott Young, Professor of Economics at LSE, Robbins replaced him in the chair, and moved with his wife to Hampstead Garden Suburb. In 1927, Robbins was back at New College, as a Fellow, but continued to teach at LSE, lecturing on a weekly basis. It was a one-year lecturing position, and he returned to LSE in 1925, again with Dalton's backing, as assistant lecturer, shortly becoming lecturer. He had applied successfully to New College, Oxford for a fellowship in economics, with references from Alfred George Gardiner (shortly to be his father-in-law), Theodore Gregory and Graham Wallas. Dalton's biographer Ben Pimlott wrote that Robbins was the "most promising student of his generation at the L.S.E." Academic Īfter graduation, Robbins found a six-month position as a researcher for William Beveridge, via Dalton. He graduated B.Sc.(Econ) in 1923 with first class honours. There he was taught by Harold Laski, Edwin Cannan and Hugh Dalton. Robbins resumed his studies in 1920 at the London School of Economics (LSE). The campaign was an offshoot of the State Management Scheme set up during the war, and Robbins worked in Mecklenburgh Square, London for Mallon and Arthur Greenwood. After his convalescence and 1919 demobilisation from the army, Robbins was employed for about a year by the Labour Campaign for the Nationalization of the Drink Trade, a position found with Mallon's help. Through Clive Gardiner, an artist commissioned by Dick Robbins in 1917 to paint his son's portrait, Robbins met first Alfred George Gardiner, Clive's father, and then his ally the activist James Joseph Mallon. Cole and by personal contact with Reginald Lawson, a connection from the Harris side of the family. ĭuring the war Robbins became interested in guild socialism, reading in G. He was in the Royal Field Artillery as an officer from August 1916 to 1918, when he was wounded by a sniper on 12 April in the Battle of the Lys and returned home with the rank of lieutenant. Wishing to serve in World War I, he began training in early 1916 at Topsham, Devon. Ker, the medievalist Francis Charles Montague, and A. He went to University College London in October 1915, beginning an Arts degree and attending lectures by W. Robbins was educated at home, at Hounslow College (a preparatory school), and the nearby grammar school, Southall County School. His sister Caroline became a noted Professor of History at Bryn Mawr College. Robbins was born in Sipson, west of London, the son of Rowland Richard Robbins (1872–1960), known as Dick, and his wife Rosa Marion Harris his father was a farmer, a member of Middlesex County Council involved also in the National Farmers' Union, and the family was Strict Baptist. 6.2 An Essay on the Nature and Significance of Economic Science (1932).
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