Lionel Robbins

1925
Lord Robbins

A BSc(Econ.) student from 1920-23, Lionel Robbins (1898-1984) joined LSE staff in 1925. He was appointed to the Chair in Political Economy in 1929, resigning it in 1961 to accept the chairmanship of the Financial Times. He was made a life peer in 1959, and he was Chairman of the School Governors from 1968-73.

Robbins was a key influence in the development of economics at LSE during the 1930s, and his influence and involvement outside LSE was substantial. He was a central figure in the academic London-Cambridge economics dispute of the 1930s. He served on the School's Academic Freedom Committee, managing the Academic Assistance Fund that provided financial assistance to academic refugees from Europe. From 1941-45 he was the Director of the Economic Section of the Offices of the War Cabinet, responsible for advising on the economic conduct of the war and for planning for the post-war period. The Economic Section considered economic rules and institutions on an international level, and Robbins was a UK delegate to the 1943 Hot Springs and 1944 Bretton Woods conferences. The decision to found the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund being taken at Bretton Woods. He was a member of the team that negotiated the Anglo-American loan agreement of 1945. From 1961-64 he chaired the Committee on Higher Education, and the Robbins Report on Higher Education was published in 1963. The Report considered the question of university education expansion and it provoked a sensation. A government White Paper response appeared within 24 hours. He held numerous public appointments. He was a trustee of both the National Gallery (1952-74) and the Tate Gallery (1953-59, 1962-67), a director of the Royal Opera House (1955-80), President of the Royal Economic Society (1954-55), and President of the British Academy (1962-67).

He is best known for his first book, An Essay on the Nature and Significance of Economic Science (1932), an analytical critique of the logic and appropriateness of the assumptions underlying economic propositions. Other works include The Economic Problem in Peace and War (1947), Classical Political Economy (1952) and The Evolution of Modern Economic Theory (1970).