The global economy since the Second World War through the lens of the United Nations

This chapter presents a brief history of the United Nations annual report on the global economy (the World Economic and Social Survey). It highlights the areas in which the Survey can be said to have been ‘ahead of the curve’ in economic and social debates. The chapter also considers its contributions to the discourse in international political economy, development economics, and macroeconomic stabilization. It concentrates on the early decades of the Survey, again to highlight its path-breaking contributions to economic and social debates. Finally, it presents a brief summary of the rest of the volume, where authors look at specific periods of the seven decades of the Survey.