Presidential Address: General Economic Theory and the Emergence of Theories of Economic Development

I welcome the delegates of the Eighth World Congress of the International Economic Association. We come from countries containing the bulk of the world’s population and represent economies with widely varying modes of economic organisation and income levels. The International Economic Association was founded thirty-three years ago as a federation of national economic associations from as wide a variety of nations as possible. Among us today are two of the early leaders of the Association, Sir Austin Robinson and Academician Tigran Khachaturov. Throughout its history the Association has continued to maintain and strengthen the ties of intellectual interaction among economists, regardless of changes in the political climate. We have contributed, I am proud to say, to the common elements of mankind in seeking better understanding and contributing to the universal aspiration for a better material life. We have had, and will have, many and strong differences of opinion. It is only by frank expression that we understand and learn from each other. The serious and unpolemical nature of the papers at this Congress shows the underlying universality of respect for evidence and logical argument.