Economic and Social Planning Aims and Methods. ESRI Memorandum Series No. 114 1975

The questions which I shall seek to answer here are the following. What is economic planning and is there a need for such planning? What are the essential components of a plan, and what are therefore the major differences in the type of plans that may be proposed? May we learn anything from the practical planning experience of other countries? In answering these questions I propose to split up the discussion on the following lines - In Section II, a planning framework is set out In Section III, the relationship between macro-plans and certain investment projects is considered. Section IV examines the theory of indicative planning and the implementation of such plans in France and Japan. Finally, in Section V we discuss the problem of why some plans are successful, whilst others fail. In the title of this paper one may find the word "social"; I intend to salve my conscience at this stage by saying that I intend to interpret social as referring to the social impact of economic planning, and leave explicit concern of problems of planning for the elderly, the sick and other such service to the last speaker of this course