Kazimierz Łaski

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Kazimierz Łaski, December 1990

Kazimierz Łaski (born December 15, 1921 in Warsaw ; † October 20, 2015 in Vienna ) was a Polish-Austrian economist. He is considered to be one of the most important, internationally received representatives of post-Keynesianism in Austria.

Career

Kazimierz Łaski studied political economy in Warsaw from 1945 to 1954 at the Academy of Political Sciences ( Akademia Nauk Politycznych ), at the College of Planning and Statistics ( Szkoła Główna Planowania i Statystyki , SGPiS) and as a doctoral student at the Institute for Social Sciences at Central Committee of the Polish United Workers' Party ( Instytut Nauk Społecznych przy KC PZPR , INS). He received his doctorate in 1954 with the thesis "Accumulation and consumption during the industrialization of people's Poland".

Łaski worked at SGPiS from 1949, initially as an assistant to Włodzimierz Brus . In 1955 he was awarded the title of Lecturer and in 1960 was appointed Associate Professor at the Chair of Political Economy at the Foreign Trade Faculty of the SGPiS. He directed the scientific and didactic work of the chair. In this position he won Michał Kalecki , one of the most important Polish economists, after his re-immigration to Poland, to hold courses at the SGPiS. In addition, Łaski taught at the INS and, after its dissolution, at the University of Social Sciences at the Central Committee of the Polish United Workers' Party ( Wyższa Szkoła Nauk Społecznych przy KC PZPR , WSNS). From 1957–1960 Łaski was Vice Dean and Dean of the Faculty of Economics of Production and from 1961–1963 Vice Rector of SGPiS, responsible for scientific activities. He participated in the work of the Main Council for Higher Education as a member of the Presidium from 1961–1963 and as a full member from 1964–1966. He was one of the co-founders of the planning course for economists from developing countries, chairman of the Science Council and then deputy chairman of this course in the years 1963–1968. Łaski was President of the Warsaw Department of the Polish Economic Society from 1965 to 1968.

In 1960 Łaski Ford was a scholarship holder at the Institut de sciences économiques appliquées with François Perroux in Paris, in 1964 visiting professor at the Institute for Advanced Studies (IHS) in Vienna and in the academic year 1966–1967 “Directeur d'études à titre étrangère” at the École pratique des hautes études , Sorbonne in Paris.

As a result of the anti-Semitic campaign in the People's Republic of Poland in 1968–1969 (a total of around 20,000 Jewish citizens were driven into emigration during this time), students and colleagues around Michał Kalecki were exposed to harsh, politically motivated attacks. Kazimierz Łaski left Poland in November 1968 and has lived in Austria since that time. From 1969 to 1971, Łaski was a research assistant at the Austrian Institute for Economic Research (WIFO) in the Department of International Economic Studies and visiting professor at the Université Catholique de Louvain in 1970. Working at WIFO led to collaboration and intensive exchange. a. with the Austrian economists Kurt W. Rothschild and Josef Steindl and the Czech-Austrian economist Friedrich Levcik . In 1971 Łaski became a full professor at the Johannes Kepler University Linz and a consultant at the Vienna Institute for International Economic Studies (wiiw) . In 1991 Łaski retired from the Johannes Kepler University Linz and was director of the Vienna Institute for International Economic Studies (wiiw) from 1991 to 1996 . In 1990 Łaski was the official advisor to the then Minister and Head of the Central Planning Office , Jerzy Osiatyński . In addition, Łaski was a “fellow” at the Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin from 1994–1995 . From 1996 Kazimierz Łaski worked as a scientific advisor to the wiiw.

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Early phase at INS and SGPiS (1945–1961)

Kazimierz Łaski studied at a time when the Marxist economy was achieving its administrative victory at the Polish universities. About the early days of his scientific work, Łaski says in an interview: “At first, as was customary in the early 1950s, I was a dogmatic Marxist. I really got into economics after meeting Michał Kalecki . In between there was a development from dogmatic to critical Marxist and then completely away from it. ”During his doctoral studies at the INS, Łaski delved into the discussion of Marx's works, primarily“ Capital ”. Like many, he was deeply impressed by Marx's schemas of reproduction in Volume II of Capital. The contradiction between accumulation and consumption in the course of industrialization became the subject of his dissertation: "Accumulation and consumption during the industrialization of people's Poland" (1954). During the “ Polish October ” period in 1956, Łaski slowly came under the influence of Michał Kalecki , who had returned to Poland from the USA in early 1955. This influence can already be seen in Łaski's publications about the balance in the consumer goods market. Marx's schemas were used to answer the question of the causes of inflation and the shortage of goods in the centrally planned economy. In his publications, Łaski slowly broke away from dogmatic Marxism and he gained a certain critical distance. However, it did not go beyond criticizing economic policy. According to his view at the time, the causes of the inflationary tensions lay in the subjective moment, in the mistakes that the central planner makes, in his unwillingness to learn from his mistakes in the past and, last but not least, in the insufficient discipline of the managers and workers nationalized companies. Łaski did not yet question the fact that the center could collect unadulterated information and make physically consistent plans.

The period of close collaboration with Michał Kalecki (1961–1968)

When Michał Kalecki joined SGPiS in 1961, a new chapter of scientific activity began for Łaski. Łaski belonged to the narrow circle of Kalecki employees and the focus of his work shifted to the growth theory of the socialist economy. He presented (together with Włodzimierz Brus ) at the congress of the International Economic Association in Vienna (in 1962) one of the main papers and published numerous articles in "Ekonomista" on similar topics, such as growth factors of national income, the influence of foreign trade on the rate of growth , Role of the choice of production methods in determining the growth rate of consumption and national income. Among other things, he examined the effects of a one-off decrease in the capital coefficient on the short and long-term proportions of the growth process. Łaski also published more general articles on full employment, resource allocation and developing countries. A long-term examination of the growth theory culminated in the larger work "On the theory of socialist reproduction". This book was considered the standard work on the theory of growth in socialism, was used as a textbook in Polish universities and was translated into Czech. Together with Michał Kalecki, Łaski led a seminar devoted to growth theory and which very quickly became a meeting point for a group of mainly young scientists interested in planning theory. From this group came some scholars who made a name for themselves in Poland and abroad. Another focus of Łaski's academic and educational activities was the course for economists from developing countries. The circle around Michał Kalecki became the target of an anti-Semitic campaign in 1968. One cause of this campaign that should not be underestimated, although not the only one, was the intellectual independence of the circle. This independence contradicted the totalitarian claim of the system, although the circle around Michał Kalecki took a clearly pro-socialist attitude. Łaski then emigrated to Austria.

The time in Austria before the transformation crisis (1968–1989)

In Austria, Łaski initially helped found the department for international economic comparisons at the Austrian Institute for Economic Research (WIFO) . Here he continued his theoretical work in the field of growth theory of the socialist economy. The result of this work was the book "The Rate of Growth and the Rate of Interest in a Socialist Economy". In this book the rate of profit is primarily seen as a distribution category and the interest rate is primarily seen as an instrument of choice of production methods. Even under the condition of the golden rule of accumulation, the two deviate from each other if capital-intensive technical progress is assumed. After being appointed to the chair for economics at the Johannes Kepler University in Linz , Łaski expanded his academic and didactic activities. One of his closest colleagues in Linz was Kurt W. Rothschild . On the one hand, he imparted to his students - in addition to the general theory of John Maynard Keynes  - the knowledge of the Kaleckian approach, above all the dynamics of the capitalist economy and business cycle theory. On the other hand, he dealt with Marx's theory and took part in the so-called transformation discussion that flared up again. His critical attitude towards the labor value theory deepened under the influence of the work of Piero Sraffa and the capital controversy . In the essay "Marx's Theory of Exploitation and Technical Progress" even the connection between the rate of exploitation and the rate of profit, especially in the case of technical progress, was questioned. Łaski also took part in the discussion on the theory of the tendency for the rate of profit to fall . At the same time he continued his research on the East, the main direction of his scientific activity. Łaski has published works on the proportions of expanded reproduction and the role of capital imports in the socialist economy. He expanded his research in the area of ​​inflation by taking into account foreign trade and the "second economy". Further topics of his research during this time were problems of national accounts, problems of comparing consumption in the East and in the West, especially the comparability of price indices in the market and planned economy. Łaski stayed in close contact with Włodzimierz Brus , who became a professor at Oxford in the early 1970s. The most important result of their long-term scientific collaboration was the book "Marx and the Market" (1989). It includes the final accounting of the authors with the theory and practice of "real" socialism on the day before its collapse. Since the 1970s, Łaski has also had an intensive research collaboration with Josef Steindl and the Indian post-Keynesian economist Amit Bhaduri .

The time in Austria after the collapse of the state socialist economies (1989 to today)

With the break-up of the communist bloc, Łaski devoted himself intensively to the transformation process in the Central, Eastern and Southeastern European countries in general, and particularly in Poland. Łaski criticized the supply-oriented measures of the " Washington Consensus " proposed and implemented by various international organizations in the form of shock therapy, i.e. H. the fastest possible liberalization and privatization. As early as 1989, in contrast to the mainstream and many other economists, he predicted the sharp contraction in the level of production that would then also occur and the long recession in the transition countries at the beginning of the 1990s. During his years as director of the Vienna Institute for International Economic Studies (wiiw) (1991–1996), Łaski developed the institute into a globally recognized research location for the analysis of economic and socio-economic processes in the Central, Eastern and Southeastern European transition region. In addition, Kazimierz Łaski continued to devote himself intensively to the further development of the Kaleckian approach and its application to the new economic realities. In several articles, Łaski disclosed the fundamental errors of a basic tool of neoclassical theory or neoclassical synthesis - the model of aggregated supply versus aggregated demand ( AS-AD model ). Using demand-oriented analysis, he also examined current growth processes and problems in European countries and the USA, as well as questions relating to the European cohesion process. So he took u. a. In the essay "From Accession to Cohesion: Ireland, Greece, Portugal and Spain and Lessons for the Next Accession" (2003), the first successes of the EU cohesion countries are critically examined, an analysis whose correctness proves to be true in the economic crisis from 2007 at the latest Has.

Publications (selection)

  • From Marx to the Market: Socialism in Search for an Economic System (with Wlodzimierz Brus), Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1989
  • An Alternative Economic Policy for Central and Eastern Europe , in: Mark Knell (Ed.), Economics of Transition. Structural Adjustments and Growth Prospects in Eastern Europe , Edward Elgar, Cheltenham, UK and Brookfield, Vermont, US, 1996, pp. 87-115
  • Lessons to be drawn from main mistakes in the transition strategy (with Amit Bhaduri), in: Salvatore Zecchini (Ed.), Lessons from the Economic Transition. Central and Eastern Europe in the 1990s , OECD, Kluwer Academic Publishers, 1997
  • Three Ways to High ... Unemployment , wiiw Working Papers, No. 12, Vienna, January 2000
  • Effective Demand versus Profit Maximization in Aggregate Demand / Supply Analysis: A Dynamic Perspective (with Amit Bhaduri and Martin Riese), Banca Nazionale del Lavoro Quarterly Review 210 (2001), pp. 281-93.
  • Growth and Savings in USA and Japan (with Roman Römisch), wiiw Working Papers, No. 16, Vienna, July 2001
  • Mity i rzeczywistość w polityce gospodarczej iw nauczaniu ekonomii (Myths and reality in economic policy and teaching), INE PAN i Fundacja Innowacja, Warszawa, 2009
  • The basic paradigms of the EU economic policy-making need to be changed (with Leon Podkaminer), Cambridge Journal of Economics, February 2012

literature

  • G. Fink, G. Pöll, M. Riese (Eds.): Foreword. In: Economic Theory, Political Power and Social Justice - Festschrift Kazimierz Laski. (= Linz university publications. Festschriften. Volume 7). Springer-Verlag, Vienna 1987, ISBN 3-211-81981-9 .
  • Honor for business aptitude. In: Upper Austrian news. January 28, 2012.

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Łaski, Kazimierz
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Polish-Austrian economist
DATE OF BIRTH December 15, 1921
PLACE OF BIRTH Warsaw , Poland
DATE OF DEATH 20th October 2015
Place of death Vienna , Austria