The Stable of Talent at Bretton Woods: Economists, Part 2

The best-known economists at Bretton Woods were British and American, but there were quite a few from other countries who made significant contributions in books or articles. The list below also notes some of the academic positions that the economists had at some point during their careers. Pierre Mendès-France, much better known as a politician (he later became prime minister of France), wrote some economic works early in his career.

League of Nations
Ragnar Nurkse: Estonian national; author, International Currency Experience: Lessons of the Inter-War Period (1944); Professor of Economics, Columbia University
Australia
Jim Brigden: P. P., on Purchasing Power and the Pound Australian (1931)
Belgium
Boris Serge “Ben” Chlepner: Professor, Free University of Brussels; Prélèvement sur le capital dans la théorie et la pratique (1925); Banque en Belgique (1926)
Brazil
Eugênio Gudin: Princípios de economia monetária (1947)
Canada
A.F.W. “Wynne” Plumptre: Central Banking in the British Dominions (1940); Three Decades of Decision: Canada and the World Monetary System, 1944-75 (1977)
China
Kia-Ngau Chang: The Inflationary Spiral: The Experience in China, 1939-1950 (1958)
Czechoslovakia
Ervin Paul Hexner: Professor of Economics and Political Science, University of North Carolina; International Cartels (1945)
France
Pierre Mendès-France: L’oeuvre financière du gouvernement Poincaré (1928); Banque internationale; contribution à l’étude du problème des États-Unis d’Europe (1930)
Robert Mossé: Professor, University of Grenoble; Assurance obligatoire contre le chômage au point de vue social (1929); L’économie collectiviste (1939)
Jean de Largentaye: translation of John Maynard Keynes’s General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money into French (1942); La réforme du système monétaire internationale (1967)
Greece
Kyriakos Varvaressos: Report on the Greek Economic Problem (1952)
André (Andreas) Papandreou: Competition and Its Regulation (1954)
Netherlands
Johan Willem “Wim” Beyen: Money in a Maelstrom (1949)
Jacques Jacobus Polak: “Polak model” of the monetary approach to the balance of payments, used extensively by the IMF (1957)
New Zealand
Allan George Barnard Fisher: Economic Self-Sufficiency (1939); Clash of Progress and Security (1966); developed the idea of service industries as a distinct economic sector; first editor of the economics journal IMF Staff Papers
Norway
Wilhelm Keilhau: Professor of Economics, University of Oslo; Die Wertungslehre, Versuch einer exacten Beschreibung der oekonomischen Grundbeziehungen (1923); Norske pengehistorie (1952)
Poland
Michal (Michael) Heilperin: Associate Professor of Economics, Hamilton College; International Monetary Organisation (1939)
South Africa
Michiel H. de Kock: Central Banking (1939)
USSR
Aleksei Mikhailovich Smirnov: Professor, Institute of Foreign Trade; Normalization of World Trade and the Monetary Problem (1952)

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About Kurt Schuler

Kurt Schuler, co-editor of The Bretton Woods Transcripts, is Senior Fellow of Financial History at the Center for Financial Stability and an economist in the Office of International Affairs at the United States Department of the Treasury.