Abstract
This paper analyzes the reasons why Jan Tinbergen was initially hostile to European integration, which he regarded as a poor substitute for an international order. His conviction had three important sources. First his coming of age in The Hague, a government city in a small open country the Netherlands, known for its international institutions such as the Peace Palace. Second his work on economic order on the national level, based on the ideal of social peace supplemented with economic expertise. Third his work at the League of Nations which convinced him of the need for a truly international order. When global economic integration failed to make the desired progress, he gradually became convinced that European integration could be a steppingstone toward international integration.
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Notes
- 1.
Van Cleeff to Tinbergen 24 August 1935, Tinbergen Letters, see https://tinbergenletters.eur.nl/theletters/.
- 2.
Correspondence with Loveday, and draft Report of the ‘third volume’, League of Nations Archives, Geneva.
- 3.
It might also explain some of the dissatisfaction of the more politically minded economists of the time. Keynes wrote highly critical reviews not just of the Tinbergen volume, but also of the preceding Haberler study.
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Dekker, E. (2021). The Construction of an International Order in the Work of Jan Tinbergen. In: M. Cunha, A., Suprinyak, C.E. (eds) Political Economy and International Order in Interwar Europe. Palgrave Studies in the History of Economic Thought. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-47102-6_5
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