Marcel van Meerhaeghe
Marcel Alfons Gilbert van Meerhaeghe (Wetteren, 12 April 1921 – Ghent, 22 March 2014) was a Belgian economist, professor, publicist and columnist. Marcel van Meerhaeghe was Professor of International Economic Relations at the State University of Ghent. In his long and distinguished career, Professor van Meerhaeghe gave important contributions to economics and also to the interpretation of economic events. His rare ability to combine theoretical and practical analyses made particularly valuable his scientific works. Life and career. 1939–1987. Initially Marcel van Meerhaeghe thought about a military career. In 1939 he passed the entrance exams for the École Royale  Militaire (ERM). After the campaign of 1940 followed about seven months as a prisoner of war in a German camp (an intervention of King Leopold III resulted in the release of the ERM-students). At Ghent University (Belgium) van Meerhaeghe obtained a master's degree in Economic Sciences in 1944 (first diet: July) and a Masters in Political Science and Sociology, also in 1944 (second diet: September). As regards the economics studies he attended the lectures given by Professor Raoul Miry who was the counterpart of Professor Gaston Eyskens of the University of Leuven. In 1946 he obtained his PhD : "Aviation in the traffic economy : the Belgian case in particular". In 1947 he became part-time lecturer political economy at the Koloniale Hogeschool (Antwerp) and in 1955 part-time lecturer colonial economy at the University of Ghent. Before becoming Professor of economics and international economics at the University of Ghent in 1957, he worked as economic advisor in the Belgian Ministry of Economic Affairs, as 'faculty advisor' of the NATO Defence College in Paris (1953–54) and as an advisor to the Minister of Foreign Trade. His interest covered all types of international academic cooperation and face-to-face interaction, which  is why in September 1959 he was appointed visiting professor at the Official University of Belgian Kongo and Ruanda-Urundi in Elisabethville for the courses "Histoire des doctrines sociales et économiques" and "Histoire des doctrines économiques". He obtained a visiting professorship at the universities of Amsterdam in 1962 and Constantine (Algeria) in 1975, as well as becoming a visiting fellow at Wolfson College, Cambridge in 1973. Between 1961 and 1969 he was Vice-President and (since 1964) President of the Prices Commission, an advisory body to the Minister for Economic Affairs (replaced in 1969 by the "Commission pour la régulation  des prix" : Royal Decree 3 June 1969). Between 1962 and 1969 he was co-opted as a member of the "Conseil Central de l'Économie", the umbrella institution of the Belgian federal social and economic dialogue. Since 1971 he was also a member of the board of the "Belgian-Luxemburg Exchange Control" (Institut Belgo-Luxembourgeois du Change), chaired by the Governor of the Belgian National Bank, until November 2002 when this institution was dissolved (Euro). Between 1972 and 1980 he was a member of the "conseil général" of the Caisse générale d'épargne et de retraite. At its editors' request, van Meerhaeghe  started a column in the Flemish business magazine Trends in 1975. He also featured as a regular columnist in the newspaper The Standaard between 1988 and 1996. Luc Versele, since 2017 chairman of the Belgian bank Crelan, was an assistant of Professor van Meerhaeghe at Ghent University. M. van Meerhaeghe was always steadfast in taking a strictly independent line of argument. By all means he was an individualist – one might say a 'loner' – concurring with the suggestion of A. Einstein that the ideal occupation for the theoretical scientist is that of a lighthouse keeper. Unfortunately, sometimes he was misunderstood by  persons driven by ignorance, superficiality and envy towards the well-heeled. An example of a rule of best practice that leads to controversy when publicly stated: «"A firm that puts the ethical considerations of other stakeholders such as employees first and business second could undermine the overall welfare of the firm and its shareholders/owners and even its employees"» (van Meerhaeghe quoted by Professor Tom Turner and Dr. Lorraine Ryan). A significant part of van Meerhaeghe's work belongs to what is commonly labelled as the American theory of public choice. He advocated great concern for a sound use of  government means (struggle against profligacy) and was favourable towards Taxpayers Associations (USA, Sweden, Federal Republic of Germany) that facilitate the contacts between the authorities and the public opinion. Emeritus. After his Belgian retirement on 1 October 1986 van Meerhaeghe was successively visiting professor in international economics and European integration at the Centre of International Studies of the Tilburg University (1987), at the London School of Economics, London University (academic year 1987–88 – the Belgian Chair), at the university of Torino (1989–92: Professor Count di Robilant of the Faculty of Law; 1997–98: Faculty of Economics) and during the academic years 1993–95 at  the university of Rome (La Sapienza). In 1987–1988 he was 'Special Adviser to the Commission of the European Communities', more particularly to Mr Willy De Clercq, former Belgian Vice Prime Minister and a member of the Commission (1985–1989: Commissioner for External Relations, responsible for international relations and foreign trade). M. van Meerhaeghe was member of the academic advisory council of the Brussels think-tank "Institut Européen" (Institutum Europaeum : 1979–2002) and the conservative think-tank Centre for the New Europe (1993–2009). At the last one he published "The Information Policy of the European Commission" (Vol. 4, Zellik April 1995). Since 1988  he was a Life Member of the Mont Pèlerin Society. Between 1986 and 2009 he chaired the Board of Directors of "Centrale Kredietverlening" (CKV), a small savings bank. M. van Meerhaeghe was one of the 165 German-speaking Professors of Economics who signed the Declaration « The Euro starts too early » (date: February 1998). Legacy. M. van Meerhaeghe is the author of 22 books (editor of 4 collective works) and about 160 articles. Theory must reflect reality. Already early in his career (in an article of 1947) he took a position: he opposed the numerous publications that have no relation whatsoever  with reality («struggle for life») and especially deplored the mania for addressing everything with mathematics. He was in favor of operational economics, helpful to practitioners ("nützlich"). Later he elaborated his criticism in "Economic Theory. A Critic's Companion" (Martinus Nijhoff 1980), probably his most important work. It caused quite a stir because of its unconventional approach. (K. Nakaura published a Japanese translation.) Guy Routh wrote a favourable review in "The Economic Journal" (Vol. 91, No. 362, June 1981, p. 591): "Professor van Meerhaeghe's book is a masterpiece of condensation: a review of economic theory from Plato to Friedman, with  the faults exposed, in 109 pages of text. Six chapters deal with the main divisions of the subject (consumer behaviour, producer behaviour, price, income distribution, general level of income and prices, growth, and international trade), one with its practicability, one with its significance, and an appendix added that surveys thirteen types of theory. The preface modestly disclaims any intention of instructing fellow economists. The book is intended as a complement to an introductory course in economics. It is reminiscent of a surveyors report of a tumble-down house. It is unfit for human habitation, one would be mad to buy  it, but one does, patches it up together as best one can, and inhabits it contentedly, gradually becoming inured to its defects. It is chastening to learn, from van Meerhaeghe's review, how deftly and how long ago the weaknesses of the economic edifice have been revealed. Mayer (1932), Miry (1937), Triffin (1940) and many others produced cogent criticisms that, had they been heeded, would have helped to convert economics into an operational science. Instead, their names and doctrines have been forgotten, and we may be grateful to van Meerhaeghe for reminding us of them." G. Routh's conclusion is  brief and to the point : "This guarantees van Meerhaeghe's slim volume a long life. I fear that in ten years time its criticisms will be as valid and as relevant as they are today". He proved to be something of an optimist: they remain as valid today as they did in 1981. Books. As the most significant pieces of work we mention: Lectures. 1959–2002. Teaching international economics results in delivering lectures at a variety of universities and international conferences: Warsaw (1961), Geneva (Conference on science and technology in promoting the development of developing countries), Pretoria (1964; Cultural Treaty between  South-Africa, the Netherlands and Belgium), Bratislava, Hull, Prague (1969 and 1989), Iasi (1971), Alvor, Vienna (U.N.I.D.O.), Berlin, Uppsala, New York, Cracow (1977), Sofia, Naples, Florence, Moscow (1992), Jena, Orel, Valencia, Haigerloch, Göteborg, Porto, Lisbon, Venice (2001), etc. Some lectures were later published as an essay in their own right, e.g.: Heilbronn Symposium. In order to understand economic problems, at all times the contemporary political, social, psychological and cultural factors have to be taken into account (the role of context: "are the assumptions vindicated or wrongheaded" ?). Relentlessly van Meerhaeghe insisted upon the necessity of knowledge of the historic backgrounds. Indeed , as history was his favoured subject area, since 1999 he was very active for the Annual Heilbronn Symposium in Economics and the Social Sciences because it goes back to the old masters, i.e. the German classicists of the 19th (and even 18th) century. The German universities attracted many foreign students with a knowledge of German. Nowadays, some of these 'scholars' tend to invent theories which had already been formulated in Germany during the 19th century. Hence the observation, made in "Economic Theory" (see above) that «far too often in economics, conclusions that were already formulated long ago are drawn triumphantly » (p. 4). We mention : Selected articles. Van Meerhaeghe was also a prolific author of acticles. A selection: