Control methods have been used in economics – at least at the academic level – for about 35 years. Tustin (1953) was the first to spot a possible analogy between the control of industrial and engineering processes and post-war macroeconomic policy-making. Phillips (1954, 1957) took up the ideas of Tustin and attempted to make them more accessible to the economics profession by developing the use of feedback in the stabilisation of economic models. However, despite the interest of economists in the contribution of Phillips, the use of dynamics in applied and theoretical work was still relatively rudimentary. Developments in econometric modelling and the use of computer technology were still in their very early stages, so that there were practically no applications in the 1950s. However, matters began to change in the 1960s. Large-scale macroeconometric models were being developed and widely used for forecasting and policy analysis. Powerful computers were also becoming available. These developments plus important theoretical developments in control theory began to make the application of control concepts to economic systems a much more attractive proposition. Economists with the help of a number of control engineers began to encourage the use of control techniques.

Independent of the development of control techniques in engineering and attempts by Tustin and Phillips to find applications in economics, there were also a number of significant developments in economics and in particular in the theory of economic policy.