Having completed correspondence courses in economics while serving with the
Royal Navy during the Second World War, upon being demobilised, Peacock resumed his studies at St Andrews, graduating with another degree in economics and political science in 1947. He then taught at St Andrews, the
London School of Economics (where he also conducted the LSE Orchestra), the
University of Edinburgh's
School of Economics, the
University of York (where he founded the Department of Economics), the
University of Buckingham of which he was the
Vice-Chancellor from 1980 to 1984, and finally at
Heriot-Watt University where he was honorary professor of public finance at the Edinburgh Business School until his death. From 1973 to 1976, Peacock was the Chief Economic Adviser to the
Department of Trade and Industry of the United Kingdom. He was also a co-founder and the first Executive Director of the David Hume Institute. During the 1970s and 1980s, he played a leading role in the field of cultural economics. From 1984 to 1986, Peacock served as Chairman of the Committee on the Financing of the BBC (
Peacock Committee), the tenth major British inquiry into broadcasting. The Committee rejected
Margaret Thatcher's wish to fund the BBC by advertising and proposed a sophisticated long-term strategy in which given a full broadcasting market with unlimited channels and freedom of entry, subscription would replace the licence fee. The model developed by Peacock later on served as a blueprint for
Ofcom's Public Service Publisher. == Awards and fellowships ==