ABSTRACT
British governments have long made use of economic advisers but have only recently come to employ them on a full-time basis. Formerly they were content to rely on staff recruited to the public service with no professional training in economics, supplementing the advice they received by consultation from time to time on specific issues with outside experts. Such experts might themselves have little or no theoretical training and be consulted for their experience of affairs (for example, as bankers or business men) rather than as economists. The Bank of England, which acted as the government’s financial adviser, was equally lacking in professionally trained economists.
