Robert Lowe Hall (1901-1988)

This chapter surveys the contributions of Robert Lowe Hall to Oxford pedagogy, Oxford economics and economic policy making in Britain. After arriving from Australia as a Rhodes Scholar to study at Oxford, he gained a First in Philosophy, Politics and Economics, and stayed on in Britain to work as an Oxford don, becoming a member of the Oxford Economists' Research Group and co-authoring an influential paper with Charles Hitch. Hall undertook work for the British government during the Second World War, and afterwards became Director of the Economic Section in the UK Cabinet Office and later Chief Economic Adviser to the Treasury. After a decade in the House of Lords, he became a spokesperson for the Social Democratic Party. Hall also served as Chairman of the National Institute of Economic and Social Research, President of the Royal Economic Society and Principal of Hertford College, Oxford.