Arthur Smithies

Nationality

Australia/U.S.A.

Date of Birth

1907

Date of Death

1981

Political
Preference

Arthur Smithies was an Australian-American economist. Born in Lindisfarne, Australia, Smithies studied philosophy, economics and politics in Oxford, England. He went on to move to the United States and gain his PhD in economics at Harvard University in 1934. In 1943, he joined the advisory staff of the Bureau of the Budget in Washington, D.C. as head of the economic section, and in 1948 as head of the Economic Cooperation Administration, Smithies played an important role in the administration of the Marshall Plan. Smithies favored Keynesian theories of economics and was an expert in fiscal policies. His book The Federal Budget and Fiscal Policy, published in 1948, was considered the standard source on the budget for a long time after its release.

Smithies was also a prominent member of the group of ECA-policymakers around Richard M. Bissell. From their internal deliberations and thought-processes on how to integrate the European economy, eventually came numerous plans for liberalization of trade and the multilateralization of payments. It was based on these plans that Bissell, in December 1949, drafted a proposal for a European currency pool as a clearing house for intra-European monetary transactions.

Smithies headed the economics department at Harvard University in the 1950s and 1960s.