Planning by Forecast

Abstract

It is a striking fact that in the last five years virtually every country in Western Europe (France, the Netherlands, Belgium, Ireland, Finland, Portugal, Spain, the U.K., Iceland, Cyprus, Germany, Italy, Norway and Sweden) has founded or developed bodies entrusted with the task of ‘economic planning’. The development of such organizations may seem in some ways rather surprising in view of the continuing reliance of most of these countries upon some measure of private enterprise in economic life. In none of these cases has the ‘planning’ body been given the power of directly imposing its plans upon the economy. Indeed there are few cases where even the whole of the existing power of the state would be capable of such enforcement, at any rate under existing legislation.

I wish to acknowledge support from the Brookings Institution, and from the Western Management Science Institute. I have benefited from stimulating discussions with F. Brechung, E. Butler, R. G. Lipsey, and Sir Donald MacDougall.