The Joint Economic Forecast of economic research institutes came along one year later, in 1950, followed by the establishment of the German Council of Economic Experts in 1963. This meant that academic advice was a ﬁrm ﬁxture in the Federal Republic’s economic policy from the outset.
3 How the social market economy has evolved over time Our economic system underwent its ﬁrst major transformation in the mid-1960s. The change of course towards an active business cycle policy drew inspiration from Keynesian thinking. The thrust of overall economic management was to smooth cyclical ﬂuctuations by aligning aggregate demand with potential output.