Franz Gehrels

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Franz Gehrels (born March 22, 1922 in Eckernförde ; † November 6, 2018 in Irschenberg ) was a German-American economist and university professor . In his academic work he devoted himself in particular to the further development of foreign trade theory . At the latest since his epoch-making scientific contributions in the 1970s, he was considered an internationally recognized pioneer of the modern theory of international trade.

Life

The son of the doctor Frank Gehrels (1885–1974) and his wife Marie, b. Barsoe (1901–1974), was born in Eckernförde in 1922. He had two siblings, Gerhard, geb. 1926, and Ellen, b. 1929, both born in San Mateo, California . His parents, who came from Bremerhaven, emigrated with their two and a half year old son in March 1924 to the USA via Bremerhaven and Ellis Island , New York City , to San Mateo (California). Franz Gehrels was married to Katharine (Kathy) Gehrels, b. Fechner (1914-2007). The couple has two daughters.

Gehrels taught economics with a focus on foreign trade at Indiana University (1955–77) for 22 years , before that for one year at the University of Minnesota and one year at Johns Hopkins University .

American re-education poster. OMGUS, US Army, around 1947

Shortly after the end of the Second World War , Gehrels traveled to Germany, occupied by the Allies, as a professor of the Fulbright Program in Mainz and Frankfurt on behalf of the US Military Government ( Office of Military Government for Germany (US) ) (OMGUS). The aim was to take stock of the unencumbered German economists who were available for reconstruction at a time when many scholars occupied the reorganized chairs solely because of their pro-French or anti-Nazi stance instead of their academic skills. Under the influence of his wife, who was also born in Germany, he moved back to Germany at the age of 55. From 1977 to 1990 Gehrels was a full professor of economics with a special focus on international economic relations at the economics faculty of the Ludwig Maximilians University in Munich (LMU). His main research interests were in the fields of foreign trade as well as macroeconomics and economic growth . Then he was emeritus at the Seminar for International Economic Relations at LMU. Even as emeritus, Gehrels took part in the current discussions of his subject for many years and was praised by his colleagues for the intellectual brilliance of his contributions.

Publications (selection)

Books

  • Franz Gehrels: Foreign Trade Theory. Oldenbourg's textbooks and manuals for economics and Social sciences. De Gruyter Oldenbourg, Reprint 2017 (October 24, 1991), ISBN 3-486-22097-7
  • Franz Gehrels: Essays in Macroeconomics of an Open Economy (Lecture Notes in Economics and Mathematical Systems). Springer, London, 1991, ISBN 3-540-54074-1
  • Franz Gehrels: Optimal Growth with Many Sectors. Peter Lang GmbH, Internationaler Verlag der Wissenschaften, Berlin, 2002 ISBN 978-3-631-39174-7

Magazine and book articles

  • Franz Gehrels: Inflationary Effects of a Balanced Budget under Full Employment. The American Economic Review, Vol. 39, No. 6 (Dec., 1949), pp. 1276-1278
  • Franz Gehrels: Customs Union from a Single-Country Viewpoint. The Review of Economic Studies, Vol. 24, No. 1 (1956-1957), pp. 61-64
  • Franz Gehrels: Government Debt as a Generator of Economic Growth. The Review of Economics and Statistics, Vol. 39, No. 2 (1957), pp. 183-192
  • Franz Gehrels: Multipliers and Elasticities in Foreign Trade Adjustments. Journal of Political Economy, Volume 65, Number 1 (1957), pp. 76
  • Franz Gehrels: Growth through investment in science and education. World Economic Archive, Vol. 94 (1965), pp. 215-233
  • Franz Gehrels: Optimal Restrictions on Foreign Trade and Investment. The American Economic Review, Vol. 61, No. 1 (1971), pp. 147-159,
  • Franz Gehrels: Trade impediments, domestic goods, and the transfer problem. Review of World Economics, September 1978, Volume 114, Issue 3, pp. 481-498
  • Franz Gehrels: Foreign investment and technology transfer: Optimal policies. Review of World Economics, December 1983, Volume 119, Issue 4, pp. 663-685
  • Franz Gehrels: Risk Averse, Time Optimizing Behavior Of Households: Comparison With German Microcensus Data. In: Essays in Macroeconomics of an Open Economy, 1991, pp. 72-96
  • Franz Gehrels: Random Economic Disturbances and Lagged Countermeasures. Atlantic Economic Journal (AEJ), June 2005, Volume 33, Issue 2, pp. 151-157
  • Franz Gehrels: On Optimal Social Investment in the Sciences and Humanities. Atlantic Economic Journal, Volume 38, Issue 3 (2010), pp. 325-330
  • Franz Gehrels: United States and German Real Capital Formation and Social Investment in the Sciences and Humanities. Atlantic Economic Journal, Volume 41, Issue 3 (2013), pp. 225-229

Honors

  • Professor of the Fulbright Program in Mainz and Frankfurt;
  • President of the International Atlantic Economic Society (IAES), Atlanta, USA; 1996-1997
  • Best Article Award 2005 by the Atlantic Economic Journal (AEJ), Vol. 34, No. December 4, 2006, for his article Franz Gehrels: Random Economic Disturbances and Lagged Countermeasures. Atlantic Economic Journal (AEJ), which appeared in the June 2005 issue of AEJ.
  • Founding (1991) and honorary member (1993) of the Center for Economic Studies (CES), Ifo Institute for Economic Research , Munich

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Corden, WM (1984): Ch. 2: The normative theory of international trade. In: Handbook of International Economics, Volume 1, Amsterdam, Boston, London: Elsevier, 1984, p.86
  2. ^ Machlup, Fritz (1977) Economic Theorists. In: A History of Thought on Economic Integration. London: Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 213-299
  3. ↑ Jovanović, Miroslav N. (2011): International Handbook on the Economics of Integration: General issues and regional groups. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing, p. xix, 164
  4. ^ Hesse, Jan-Otmar (2010): Economy as Science: Economics in the Early Federal Republic. Frankfurt: Campus, 2010, p. 170
  5. ^ [1] Nekrolog, Faculty of Economics at LMU Munich, Süddeutsche Zeitung, 13 November 2018
  6. ^ [2] Sinn, Hans-Werner (2015): Hans Möller Symposium and Ifo Annual Meeting 2015 [Hans Möller Symposium and Ifo Annual Meeting 2015, in German], Munich: Ifo Institute for Economic Research, 2015, p. 7th
  7. ^ [3] Winner of the Fulbright Award (1962), location: Germany; University Honors & Awards, Indiana University Bloomington
  8. ↑ [4] Best Article Award, Atlantic Economic Journal, December 2006
  • Corden, WM (1984): The normative theory of international trade. In: Kenen, PB & RW Jones (eds.): Handbook of International Economics: International Trade (Volume 1) (Handbooks in Economics 3), Chapter 2. Amsterdam, Boston, London: Elsevier
  • Hesse, Jan-Otmar (2010): Economy as a science: economics in the early Federal Republic. Frankfurt: Campus
  • Jovanović, Miroslav N. (2011): International Handbook on the Economics of Integration: General issues and regional groups. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing
  • Machlup, Fritz (1977) Economic Theorists. In: A History of Thought on Economic Integration. London: Palgrave Macmillan
  • Sinn, Hans-Werner (2015): Hans-Möller-Symposium and Ifo Annual Meeting 2015. Munich: Ifo Institute for Economic Research
personal data
SURNAME Gehrels, Franz
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German-American economist and university professor
DATE OF BIRTH March 22, 1922
PLACE OF BIRTH Bremerhaven
DATE OF DEATH November 6, 2018
Place of death Irschenberg