Paul Bairoch

Paul Bairoch (24 July 1930, Antwerp – 12 February 1999, Geneva) was one of the great post-war economic historians who specialised in global economic history, urban history and historical demography. He published or co-authored more than two dozen books and 120 scholarly articles.

Academic career

Bairoch gained a bachelor's degree by correspondence, intending to become an engineer but he turned to studying economic history in 1956 at the parisian Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes. He obtained his doctorate in 1963 at the Free University of Brussels where he worked from 1965 to 1995. He was economic adviser to the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) at Geneva from 1967 to 1969, professor at the Sir George Williams University (Concordia) in Montréal from 1969 to 1971 and on recommendation of Fernand Braudel became director of studies at the Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes from 1971 to 1972. In 1972 he was made professor of history at the University of Geneva. He retired in 1995. He was also visiting professor at Harvard and at the Collège de France (1983) and Doctor honoris causa at the ETH Zurich. From 1985, Bairoch directed a number of research projects on the world economy at a Centre for International Economic History in Geneva.[1]

Research

Paul Bairoch sought through quantitative, empirical research of historical trends to question and challenge many beliefs which are nowadays generally accepted in economics (see in particular his work Economics and World History: Myths and Paradoxes), among which: the idea that free trade historically led to periods of economic growth; that moving away from free trade caused the Great Depression; and that colonial powers in the 19th and early 20th centuries became rich by exploiting the Third World.

Bairoch argued that such beliefs are based on insufficient knowledge and misguided interpretations of the economic history of the United States, Europe and the Third World. He researched extensively the reasons why an industrial takeoff was prevented in the colonised countries of the Third World (see e.g. his book Révolution industrielle et sous-développement). He is particularly known for his detailed empirical research on economic problems of Third World countries, on the industrial revolution and its aftermath and on urban history. His historical estimates of Gross Product measures are still being referred to in the literature, although some are also challenged by other economic historians such as Angus Maddison.

Quotes

"L'occident n'a pas besoin du tiers monde, ce qui est une mauvaise nouvelle pour le tiers monde." ("The West doesn't need the third world, which is bad news for the third world.") - Paul Bairoch, Le tiers monde dans l'impasse (1992)
"L'occident n'avait pas besoin du tiers monde, ce qui est une bonne nouvelle pour le tiers monde." ("The West didn't need the third world, which is good news for the third world.") - Paul Bairoch, Mythes et paradoxes de l'histoire économique

Paul Bairoch referred here to colonialism and to the exploitation of the third world in the 19th and early 20th century. He argued that this exploitation was not indispensable for industrialisation. This he thought is "good news" for the third world because it means that development could occur without exploitation of other regions.

"S’il me fallait résumer ce que l’essence de l’histoire économique peut apporter à la science économique, je dirais qu’il n’existe pas de « lois » ou règles en économie qui soient valables pour toutes les périodes de l’histoire ou pour chacun des systèmes économiques." ("If I had to summarise the essence of what economic history can contribute to economic science, I would say that there exist no "laws" or rules in economics which are valid for all periods of history or for every economic system") - Paul Bairoch, Mythes et paradoxes de l'histoire économique (1993)

Books and monographs

Selected articles

About Paul Bairoch

See also

References

  1. ↑

Paul Bairoch Library

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