Pigou on War Finance and State Action

Rogério Arthmar and Michael McLure
Additional contact information
Rogério Arthmar: Universidade Federal do Espírito Santo, Brazil
Michael McLure: Business School, University of Western Australia

No 15-23, Economics Discussion / Working Papers from The University of Western Australia, Department of Economics

Abstract: This paper reviews Arthur C. Pigou’s intellectual contribution to the debates on economic policy during World War I in Britain, showing how many of his ideas on the subject can be traced back to his major pre-war work, Wealth and Welfare. Initially, we present Pigou’s arguments in favour of an increase in taxation and on how individual choices affect the distribution of war costs over time. Attention is also drawn to his understanding of the nature of inflation in Britain during the war, as well as to his remarks about the efficacy of state wartime controls continuing into the post-war era. Pigou’s rejection of Ricardian equivalence and his concerns with Britain’s massive national debt are considered in regard to the controversy over the convenience of a capital levy after the war. Lastly, his recommendations on European political and financial reconstruction are addressed, along with his specific proposals for state action in matters connected with national defence.

Pages: 20 pages
Date: 2015
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-his and nep-hpe
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://ecompapers.biz.uwa.edu.au/paper/PDF%20of%2 ... ar%20&%20McLure1.pdf

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:uwa:wpaper:15-23

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Economics Discussion / Working Papers from The University of Western Australia, Department of Economics Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sam Tang ().