Fifty Years of Economic Research: a Brief History of the National Institute of Economic and Social Research 1938-88

The National Institute was founded in 1938, after a first initiative by Sir Josiah Stamp in the early 1930s. Stamp, who was the President of the London Midland and Scottish railway, had been connected with a Rockefeller Foundation scheme to provide fellowships in the social sciences; he became convinced that a wider attack was needed on the problem of financing the social sciences in Britain and his objective became the development of a central unit, of British origin, with funds under its own control. This would supplement and replace the help given by the Rockefeller Foundation (then the main source of research funds in the British social sciences) and develop an increasingly large research effort in economics and related subjects. Stamp made known his views and with the support of a number of prominent academics, in particular William Beveridge, Director of the London School of Economics; Henry Clay, Economic Adviser to the Bank of England; and Hubert Henderson, Secretary of the Economic Advisory Panel, began to search for British financial support.