ABSTRACT
Reconciling the tensions between domestic and international politics created by economic interdependence was the principal reason for creating the economic summits. This chapter examines the activities and achievements of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and its relationship with the summits during their first three series. The OECD covered all the economic subjects of concern to the summits and included all the summit participants. The nature and membership of the OECD owed more to history than to logic. The OECD was created as the collective European response to the Marshall Plan. The OECD produced a very wide range of statistics and technical assessments. The greatest part of the OECD's work in which governments took part consisted of policy comparison, assessment and mutual criticism. Macro-economic forecasting and policy consultation had always been at the core of the OECD's work.
