Institute of Economic Affairs
| Abbreviation | IEA |
|---|---|
| Formation | 1955 |
| Type | Free market think tank |
| Headquarters | London, United Kingdom |
|
Director General
|
Mark Littlewood |
| Website | www.iea.org.uk |
The Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA) is a think tank based in Westminster, London, United Kingdom. Founded by businessman Antony Fisher in 1955, it promotes free market economics. It publishes a magazine, books, and holds lectures regularly.
In 1945, Antony Fisher read a summary of The Road to Serfdom by Friedrich Hayek. Later that year, Fisher visited Hayek at the London School of Economics. Hayek dissuaded Fisher from embarking on a political and parliamentary career to try to prevent the spread of socialism and central planning. Instead, Hayek suggested the establishment of a body which could engage in research and reach the intellectuals with reasoned argument.
In June 1955, The Free Convertibility of Sterling by George Winder was published, with Fisher signing the foreword as Director of the IEA. In November 1955, the IEA's Original Trust Deed was signed by Fisher, John Harding and Oliver Smedley. Ralph Harris (later Lord Harris) began work as part-time General Director in January 1957. He was joined in 1958 by Arthur Seldon who was initially appointed Editorial Advisor and became the Editorial Director in 1959.
The Social Affairs Unit was established in December 1980 as an offshoot of the Institute of Economic Affairs to carry the IEA's economic ideas onto the battleground of sociology. "Within a few years the Social Affairs Unit became independent from the IEA, acquiring its own premises." In 1986 the IEA created a Health and Welfare Unit to focus on these aspects of social policy. Discussing the IEA's increasing influence under the Tories in the 1980s in relation to the "advent of Thatcherism" and promotion of privatisation, Dieter Plehwe, a Research Fellow at the WZB Berlin Social Science Center, has written that
The arguably most influential think tank in British history... benefited from the close alignment of IEA's neoliberal agenda with and the priorities of the Thatcher government.
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