IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/ehsrev/v67y2014i3p750-768.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

British government and popular understanding of inflation in the mid-1970s

Author

Listed:
  • Jim Tomlinson

Abstract

type="main"> In Britain in the 1970s inflation rose to historically unprecedented peace-time levels, and became the central issue of economic policy-making. We know a great deal about the elite policy debates on the significance of this inflation, and the arguments about how to reduce it, but we know far less about how inflation was understood by the population at large, and how those understandings were shaped. This article explores the evidence on popular understanding, especially analysing the material gathered by the Counter-Inflation Publicity Unit, created in the summer of 1975. Along with other evidence, this material is used to explore how far the Labour government's economic propaganda can be said to have influenced popular opinion on both the significance and causes of inflation. The evidence supports the argument that the belief that trade unions were the main culprit for inflation was reinforced and entrenched by this propaganda, with important unintended consequences for the arguments about policy that followed the ‘Winter of Discontent’ of 1978/9.

Suggested Citation

  • Jim Tomlinson, 2014. "British government and popular understanding of inflation in the mid-1970s," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 67(3), pages 750-768, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:ehsrev:v:67:y:2014:i:3:p:750-768
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1111/1468-0289.12038
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Hilde Behrend, 1966. "Price Images. Inflation And National Incomes Policy," Scottish Journal of Political Economy, Scottish Economic Society, vol. 13(3), pages 273-296, November.
    2. Hilde Behrend, 1962. "Price And Income Images And Inflation," Scottish Journal of Political Economy, Scottish Economic Society, vol. 9(2), pages 85-103, June.
    3. Foster, John I, 1976. "The Redistributive Effect of Inflation on Building Society Shares and Deposits: 1961-74," Bulletin of Economic Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 28(2), pages 67-76, November.
    4. Roger Middleton, 1996. "GOVERNMENT VERSUS the MARKET," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 313.
    5. Roger Middleton, 1998. "Charlatans or Saviours?," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 1556.
    6. Lunt, Peter K. & Livingstone, Sonia M., 1991. "Psychological, social and economic determinants of saving: comparing recurrent and total savings," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 12(4), pages 621-641, December.
    7. Jim Tomlinson, 2005. "Managing the economy, managing the people: Britain c.1931–70," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 58(3), pages 555-585, August.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Keval Amin & Erica Harris, 2022. "The Effect of Investor Sentiment on Nonprofit Donations," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 175(2), pages 427-450, January.
    2. Pierre Volle, 2007. "Les arbitrages budgétaires des consommateurs : bilan critique des connaissances et perspectives de recherche," Post-Print halshs-00164833, HAL.
    3. Ralph Stevens & Jennifer Alonso Garcia & Hazel Bateman & Arthur van Soest & Johan Bonekamp, 2022. "Saving preferences after retirement," ULB Institutional Repository 2013/342267, ULB -- Universite Libre de Bruxelles.
    4. Aldrich, John, 2022. "Good, Economic Welfare and the National Dividend—Pigou’s Welfare Triad," OSF Preprints 2vzrx, Center for Open Science.
    5. Lunt, Peter, 1996. "Discourses of savings," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 17(6), pages 677-690, December.
    6. Bruno S. Frey, 2000. "Was Bewirkt die Volkswirtschaftslehre?," Perspektiven der Wirtschaftspolitik, Verein für Socialpolitik, vol. 1(1), pages 5-33, February.
    7. Martin Chick, 2006. "The marginalist approach and the making of fuel policy in France and Britain, 1945–72," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 59(1), pages 143-167, February.
    8. Bruno Frey, 2005. "Problems with Publishing: Existing State and Solutions," European Journal of Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 19(2), pages 173-190, April.
    9. Furnham, Adrian, 1999. "The saving and spending habits of young people," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 20(6), pages 677-697, December.
    10. Otrachshenko, Vladimir & Popova, Olga & Tavares, José, 2016. "Psychological costs of currency transition: evidence from the euro adoption," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 45(C), pages 89-100.
    11. McCollum, Meagan N. & Lee, Hong & Pace, R. Kelley, 2015. "Deleveraging and mortgage curtailment," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 60(C), pages 60-75.
    12. Michael D. Bordo & Ronald MacDonald & Michael J. Oliver, 2009. "Sterling in crisis: 1964-1967," NBER Working Papers 14657, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    13. Valerio Cerretano, 2009. "The Treasury, Britain's postwar reconstruction, and the industrial intervention of the Bank of England, 1921–91," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 62(s1), pages 80-100, August.
    14. Gerhard, Patrick & Gladstone, Joe J. & Hoffmann, Arvid O.I., 2018. "Psychological characteristics and household savings behavior: The importance of accounting for latent heterogeneity," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 148(C), pages 66-82.
    15. Gigliobianco Alfredo & Giordano Claire, 2012. "Does Economic Theory Matter in Shaping Banking Regulation? A Case-study of Italy (1861-1936)," Accounting, Economics, and Law: A Convivium, De Gruyter, vol. 2(1), pages 1-78, September.
    16. Isabelle Guérin, 2000. "Pratiques budgétaires des bénéficiaires de minima sociaux : capacités cognitives, vécu émotionnel de l’assistance et qualité des relations bancaires," Revue d'Économie Financière, Programme National Persée, vol. 58(3), pages 29-46.
    17. Glen O'Hara, 2009. "'What the electorate can be expected to swallow': Nationalisation, transnationalism and the shifting boundaries of the state in post-war Britain," Business History, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 51(4), pages 501-528.
    18. Karlsson, Niklas & Dellgran, Peter & Klingander, Birgitta & Garling, Tommy, 2004. "Household consumption: Influences of aspiration level, social comparison, and money management," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 25(6), pages 753-769, December.
    19. Beverly, Sondra G. & Sherraden, Michael, 1999. "Institutional determinants of saving: implications for low-income households and public policy," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 28(4), pages 457-473.
    20. Crafts, Nicholas & Mills, Terence C, 2012. "Rearmament to the Rescue? New Estimates of the Impact of ‘Keynesian’ Policies in 1930s’ Britain," CAGE Online Working Paper Series 103, Competitive Advantage in the Global Economy (CAGE).

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:ehsrev:v:67:y:2014:i:3:p:750-768. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/ehsukea.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.