11 - Empirical analysis as an underpinning to policy

Summary

Introduction

Whether by accident or design, I have worked practically all of my professional life at or around, as the lawyers say, the interface between economic analysis and economic policy-making. Life at an interface tends to be turbulent, with a propensity to throw up the sorts of events which are not easy to explain. Nor does it sufficiently often provide the time to draw breath and reflect, so I am grateful to Iain Begg not only for giving me the opportunity to write this paper, but also for imbuing me with a certain sense of obligation. For as E. M. Forster, I understand it was, observed, how can I know what I think until I see what I write?

The structure of the paper is something of an Odyssey; but that is how my experience of this subject came to me, and I can see no better way to set it down.

Theory or applied?

Some months after I joined the Department of Applied Economics, in 1970, I had the opportunity to ask the august Joan Robinson what was to me, a young man newly arrived from doing an applied economics DPhil at Oxford, a particularly important, if personal, question. The opportunity arose because, late for the next train to London, she had graciously accepted my offer to drive her to Cambridge station.