Public Service

After the First World War, Pigou still performed some public service, although perhaps not as much as he would have if his health had not deteriorated in the middle of his professorial tenure. Thus, he served on the Cunliffe Committee on Foreign Exchange (1918—1919) and the Royal Commission for Income Tax (1919-1920). He also sat on the Chamberlain-Bradbury Committee on the Currency and the Bank of England Note Issue (1924-1925), the final report of which recommended the urgent restoration of the gold standard at the old parity of exchange. In 1930, Pigou joined the Committee of Economists, chaired by Keynes (other members of the Committee included Lionel Robbins, Sir Josiah Stamp and Hubert Henderson) to review current economic conditions in Great Britain and the causes of these conditions, and to advise on how to achieve recovery. However, at Cambridge, Pigou avoided committee work, although a major exception to this was his 40-year-long commitment to the Fellowship Electors.