Jan Tinbergen (1903-1994) and the rise of economic expertise

"Economists are, in our day and age, best known as policy experts. This book is about one of them, Jan Tinbergen. He paved the way for this new type of economist. The economic expert is a government functionary, who works in service of the economic and social goals of government. The rise of the economic expert was intimately connected with a change in what was considered the most valuable sort of economic knowledge. For the expert an economy is not a natural system he studies like a physicist would, but a system which he can steer. and improve. The rise of expertise also gave birth to new types of institutions: business-cycle institutes, planning offices, forecasting bureaus, and international organizations of economic expertise.. Economists have, of course, always been concerned with policy. From (free) trade regimes, the best way to manage the currency, and the role of the state in the provision of public goods, policy questions have never been far from the mind of economists. But they typically did so in their role as professor and public intellectual. Economists since Adam Smith., and undoubtedly before him, have played an important role in shaping the thought of both politicians and the public about markets and trade, and the proper functions of the state. They often also had the ear of those in charge. The most famous economist of the past century, John Maynard Keynes., had the ear of the politicians in Britain of his age, and his ideas had influence across the world."