The DAE Trilogy

Over its lifetime of fifty eight years, the DAE ship had just four captains at the wheel: Dick Stone from 1945 till 1955, followed by the three 15-year terms of Brian Reddaway (1955–1970), Wynne Godley (1970–1985), and David Newbery (1988–2003). The DAE journey is best traced through the course followed during each period, the route strongly influenced by the respective helmsmen. In orientation and substance, the work of the DAE was shaped by their research predilections, intellectual imaginations and idiosyncrasies, by their styles of institutional leadership, and by their ideological stance both in terms of national politics as well as the disciplinary framing of economics. Each period is thus stamped by a distinctive character, with significant shifts in direction, balance, and flavour at each switch point. The purposive commentary in this chapter provides the necessary backdrop for the subsequent unfolding of the traumatic episodes comprising the DAE Trilogy: first, the closure of the Cambridge Economic Policy Group; then, the termination of the Cambridge Growth Project; and, finally, the unusual and unorthodox University Review of the DAE.