Introduction

This international comparative study of the post-World War II development of economics in Western Europe forms part of a long-term effort to go beyond the conventional treatment of the history of economics in terms of the history of ideas, theory, analysis, doctrines and so on (useful and important though that is). It includes consideration of the relevant features of the historical and institutional context, economic policy, and the development of economics as a profession.1 Another objective is to transcend the limits of the Anglo-Saxon historiographical tradition, which has hitherto dominated the subject.