ABSTRACT
The author was in the Department of Applied Economics and continued work on manpower planning, taught economics to both undergraduates and graduates and led a four-person economic mission to Abu Dhabi where oil had recently been discovered. This mission was one of the most interesting economic experiences of the author's professional life, analysing policy options in an economy where there were no constraints of money or foreign exchange. The most interesting assignment, while at Cambridge, was on a DFID-financed consultancy to Abu Dhabi, then a small UK protectorate, now the central part of the United Arab Emirates. The Labour government, in power from 1964, said they could intervene after a "democratic agreement", really a democratic coup. Though Abu Dhabi has done relatively well so far, as the world moves away from oil under the pressures of climate change, the challenge of maintaining its good record of human development with declining oil revenues will require a well-planned shift to new priorities.
