“Spanish economists facing indicative planning in the 1960s”

Resumen

Spanish economists facing indicative planning in the 1960S - In this paper, the history of the adoption of the French indicative planning in Spain will be examined. Specific attention is given to the ideas of Higinio Paris at the end of the 1940s and to the ideas of Manuel de Torres in the 1950s, as well as to institutions like the Consejo de Economía Nacional or to the development of the first input-output tables and the first national accounts. Second, the support that the new instrument of economic policy in Spain had at the beginning of the 1960s will be analyzed, including the effective rhetoric that helped to implement it. Lastly, the guarded optimism with which Spanish economists from that time greeted the I Development Plan is shown, a plan which suffered for an increasingly disapproving attitude from the middle of the 1960s. Displaying a notable capacity of analysis, Spanish economists were able to anticipate a large part of the critical arguments that are today employed by economic historians in light of the development planning. JEL classification: B 20. Keywords: Economic planning; History of economic thought, Spain; Indicative planning.