Economists and the Indian Fuel Problem (1919-1979)
(Input-output tables and the energy sector in Japan – 1950s-1970s
Abstract
Regionalising energy transitions: Economists and the « Indian Fuel Problem » (1919-1979)
On 1 January 1919, during the final afternoon of the first conference of the Indian Economic Association (IEA), K. V. Rangaswami Aiyangar introduced himself to his Western and Indian colleagues as the first economist to systematically address what he called the ‘Indian fuel problem’. In this presentation, I will explain how a detailed reconstruction of the debate sparked by this paper, and an examination of economists’ subsequent attempts to conduct energy surveys in South Asia from 1919 onwards, can provide elements for answering the main research questions of my ongoing PhD project, which explores the links between the history of economic knowledge and energy transitions in (former) British colonies.
I will argue that attempting to write a ‘regional’ history of energy transitions in the context of the (former) British Empire is a means of avoiding ‘methodological nationalism’ and has a double meaning. On the one hand, it emphasises that economists working in colonial and post-colonial India, whatever their national and intellectual roots, agreed that making relevant energy policy recommendations required a differentiated approach based on the level of regional development. Moreover, their personal attitudes to the remedies for the ‘Indian fuel problem’ were largely shaped by the particularities of the region(s) in which they taught and researched. On the other hand, since colonial India covered an area larger than the present nation-state of India and included the present-day territories of Bangladesh, Myanmar and Pakistan, the study of economic issues framed as ‘Indian’ and ‘national’ before independence and partition contributes to the writing of a broader history of economic thought and energy in South Asia.
Input-output tables and the energy sector in Japan, 1950s-1970s
The purpose of this study is to clarify how Japan’s input-output tables were created and applied from the 1950s to the 1970s. The transition process from the post-war reconstruction period (1945-1954) to the high economic growth period (1955-1972) in the 1950s was a time of energy revolution in Japan, when primary energy shifted from domestic coal to overseas oil (Kobori, 2010). This study will focus on the treatment of the energy sector in Japan’s input-output tables and clarify how the analytical tools of economics have been used in decision-making in energy policies.
According to Takayama (2021), the first input-output table in Japan, covering the year 1951, was constructed independently by the Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI), the Economic Planning Agency, and the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry. He points out that 1) MITI needed an input-output table because of its usefulness in industrial policy, and 2) the input-output table covering the year 1955 became a joint work of six ministries and agencies after the Statistics Council of the Administrative Management Agency recommended that input-output tables should be compiled in a unified manner. In this presentation, I will report that while energy-related sectors were emphasized in the input-output related materials of the relevant ministries and agencies at the time, no papers applying input-output analysis to energy-related issues were found in major economic journals in this period.