Foreword
On the Silver Anniversary of the Marshall Plan, Dr. Timmins published an analytical account of some of the successes and (relatively few) failures of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), the successor organization to the Marshall Plan's operating arm, the Organization for European Economic Cooperation (OEEC). He subseauently published a paper calling for the creation of similar regional organizations for other evolving areas of the world, e.g. the Middle East, Latin America, and the Pacific Rim. The only response to this initiative to date has been the creation of ASEAN, consisting of the nations of South East Asia, which is demonstrating considerable success in coordinating the trade and economic relations of the region. Had more attention been paid to the notion, the desire of the rapidly reforming Soviet Union for closer economic relations with the West might have been satisfied -- with significant amelioration of the resulting social, economic and regional strife resulting from the USSR's downfall -- by bringing the Soviet Republics into meaningful interchange, but without prematurely introducing them into the delicate operations of the IMF, the IBRD, and the G-7.
Dr. Timmins will perhaps best be remembered by professional colleagues for his contributions to economic theory, among the most ijportant may have been The Theory of Second Best and U.S. Trade Policy which provided the first explanation of how excessive liberalization on the part of the U.S. during its post-war effort to "lead the way", resulted in distorting the pattern of world production and led to the loss of whole fields of U.S. industry in which we would have continued to enjoy a natural competetive advantage; and how adopting carefully considered offestting measures to move us from the existing Third Best situation to an enhanced Second Best position would improve both U.S. and world output and consumption. Dr. Timmins argued that even if our trade partners reacted negatively such initiative, raising countervailing tariffs by as much as fifty per cent, less than one half of one per cent of world production would be affected. Whereas, if they reacted positively, world welfare might achieve the Promised Land of virtual Free Trade dreamed of by economic theorists for over a hundred years.
His second major contribution to economic theory was an exposition of the concept of Social Product Differentiation. This paper carried the thinking of Edward Chamberlain (under whom Dr. Timmins studies Economic Theory at Harvard) beyond the notion of Monopolistic Competition (which for the first time accounted for advertising and brand names) into the social and political realm, explaining for the first time how it is just as rational in economic terms for a country to be willing to sacrafice a little to maintain cultural and linguistic differences, as it is to pay a bit extra for the privilege of choice between Post Toasties and Kelloggs Corn Flakes.
Dr. Timmins' third contribution was to restore respect to the study of Political Economics. AFter years during which professional economists looked down on Political Scientists as advocates of a field having little or no "hard theory", he succeeded in explaining political negotiation and compromise as the equivalent of the "higgling and bargaining" of the market place, which has always held a respected position in economic theory. He put forward the idea (yet to be accepted by most) that "Economics is the politics of the market place of goods and services, while Politics is the economics of exchange of human social relationships. At base (he argued) achieving equilibrium in such human exchanges is the principle aspect of the human experience."
In the mid-Sixties, before much attention had been paid to the field by such notables as Richard Cooper, Dr. Timmins contributed the notion that the International Economic Coordination Instrument was the equivalent of an additional degree of freedom in managing national economies. In the Eighties he re-examined Marshall's notion that entrepreneurship should be accepted by the economics profession as an essential fourth factor of production (anticipating the general demise of Marxism which collapsed principally because of its failure to grasp the vital role of the entrepreneur -- not as exploiter, but rather as the motive force in economic growth and development).
He also wrote the first published paper attributing the limitations of economic forecasting, not to inadequacies in the data, but to the operations of Fractals and Chaos Theory -- a concept that Nobel Laureate Kenneth Arrow has said will have profound effects on economic thinking.
This volume, consisting of a lifetime of economic analysis and writing by Dr. Timmins, is published in the interest of advancing thought towards a more comprehensive theory of Political Economics -- which the author is convinced is the fulcrum of any successful market economy.
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |