Paul Bairoch
Encyclopedia
Born of Jewish parents who emigrated from Poland, Paul Bairoch (b. Antwerp 24 July 1930, d. Geneva
12 February 1999) was one of the great post-war economic historians
who specialized in global economic history, urban history and historical demography. He published or co-authored more than two dozen books and 120 scholarly articles.
at the 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 http://biblio.unizh.ch/F/M3SNJSSQ956IA41FTAVGK4UU8F8HN1UD143PS53I4SPRL4P7R2-01078?func=full-set-set&set_number=005681&set_entry=000015&format=999.
(see in particular his work Economics and World History: Myths and Paradoxes). Among others,
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 especially 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
.
Geneva
Geneva In the national languages of Switzerland the city is known as Genf , Ginevra and Genevra is the second-most-populous city in Switzerland and is the most populous city of Romandie, the French-speaking part of Switzerland...
12 February 1999) was one of the great post-war economic historians
Economic history
Economic history is the study of economies or economic phenomena in the past. Analysis in economic history is undertaken using a combination of historical methods, statistical methods and by applying economic theory to historical situations and institutions...
who specialized 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
After the war (his family migrated to Israel in 1949), Bairoch gained a bachelors degree by correspondence, intending to become an engineer but he turned to studying economic history in 1956 in ParisParis
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
at the Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes
École pratique des hautes études
The École pratique des hautes études is a Grand Établissement in Paris, France. It is counted among France's most prestigious research and higher education institutions....
. He obtained his doctorate in 1963 at the Free University of Brussels
Free University of Brussels
The Free University of Brussels was a university in Brussels, Belgium. In 1969, it split into the Université Libre de Bruxelles and the Dutch-speaking Vrije Universiteit Brussel....
where he worked from 1965 to 1995. He was economic adviser to the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade
General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade
The General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade was negotiated during the UN Conference on Trade and Employment and was the outcome of the failure of negotiating governments to create the International Trade Organization . GATT was signed in 1947 and lasted until 1993, when it was replaced by the World...
(GATT) at Geneva from 1967 to 1969, professor at the Sir George Williams University (Concordia) in Montréal
Montreal
Montreal is a city in Canada. It is the largest city in the province of Quebec, the second-largest city in Canada and the seventh largest in North America...
from 1969 to 1971 and on recommendation of Fernand Braudel
Fernand Braudel
Fernand Braudel was a French historian and a leader of the Annales School. His scholarship focused on three main projects, each representing several decades of intense study: The Mediterranean , Civilization and Capitalism , and the unfinished Identity of France...
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
University of Geneva
The University of Geneva is a public research university located in Geneva, Switzerland.It was founded in 1559 by John Calvin, as a theological seminary and law school. It remained focused on theology until the 17th century, when it became a center for Enlightenment scholarship. In 1873, it...
. He retired in 1995. He was also visiting professor at Harvard and at the Collège de France
Collège de France
The Collège de France is a higher education and research establishment located in Paris, France, in the 5th arrondissement, or Latin Quarter, across the street from the historical campus of La Sorbonne at the intersection of Rue Saint-Jacques and Rue des Écoles...
(1983) and Doctor honoris causa at the ETH Zurich
ETH Zurich
The Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich or ETH Zürich is an engineering, science, technology, mathematics and management university in the City of Zurich, Switzerland....
. From 1985, Bairoch directed a number of research projects on the world economy at a Centre for International Economic History in Geneva http://biblio.unizh.ch/F/M3SNJSSQ956IA41FTAVGK4UU8F8HN1UD143PS53I4SPRL4P7R2-01078?func=full-set-set&set_number=005681&set_entry=000015&format=999.
Research
Paul Bairoch sought through quantitative, empirical research of historical trends to question and challenge many beliefs which are nowadays generally accepted in economicsEconomics
Economics is the social science that analyzes the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services. The term economics comes from the Ancient Greek from + , hence "rules of the house"...
(see in particular his work Economics and World History: Myths and Paradoxes). Among others,
- the idea that free tradeFree tradeUnder a free trade policy, prices emerge from supply and demand, and are the sole determinant of resource allocation. 'Free' trade differs from other forms of trade policy where the allocation of goods and services among trading countries are determined by price strategies that may differ from...
and population growthPopulation growthPopulation growth is the change in a population over time, and can be quantified as the change in the number of individuals of any species in a population using "per unit time" for measurement....
historically led to periods of economic growth; - that moving away from free trade caused the Great DepressionGreat DepressionThe Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...
; - that colonialColonialismColonialism is the establishment, maintenance, acquisition and expansion of colonies in one territory by people from another territory. It is a process whereby the metropole claims sovereignty over the colony and the social structure, government, and economics of the colony are changed by...
powers in the nineteenth and early 20th centuries became rich by exploiting the Third WorldThird WorldThe term Third World arose during the Cold War to define countries that remained non-aligned with either capitalism and NATO , or communism and the Soviet Union...
.
Bairoch argued that such beliefs are based on insufficient knowledge and misguided interpretations of the economic history of the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
and the Third World
Third World
The term Third World arose during the Cold War to define countries that remained non-aligned with either capitalism and NATO , or communism and the Soviet Union...
. He researched extensively the reasons why an industrial takeoff
Rostovian take-off model
The Rostow's Stages of Growth model is one of the major historical models of economic growth. It was developed by W. W. Rostow...
was prevented in the colonised countries of the Third World (see e.g. his book Révolution industrielle et sous-développement). He is especially known for his detailed empirical research on economic problems of Third World countries, on the industrial revolution
Industrial Revolution
The Industrial Revolution was a period from the 18th to the 19th century where major changes in agriculture, manufacturing, mining, transportation, and technology had a profound effect on the social, economic and cultural conditions of the times...
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
Angus Maddison
Angus Maddison was a British economist and a world scholar on quantitative macroeconomic history, including the measurement and analysis of economic growth and development...
.
Quotes
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 industrialization. This he thought is "good news" for the third world because it means that development could occur without exploitation of other regions.Books and monographs
- Le mythe de la croissance économique rapide au XIXe siècle. 1962
- Le processus et l'amorce de la croissance économique. [1963]
- La formation des prix des fruits, légumes et produits laitiers (with Georges Thorn). Bruxelles: Université libre de Bruxelles, Institut de sociologie, 1964
- La baisse des coûts des transports et le développement économique. 1965
- Niveaux de développement économique de 1810 áa 1910. 1965
- L'économie belge et internationale (with T. Deldycke and others). Institut de sociologie, Université libre de Bruxelles, 1965.
- Originalités et conséquences de la révolution industrielle. 1966
- Le rôle de l'agriculture dans la création de la sidérurgie moderne. 1966
- Evolution de la population active dans le monde par branches et par régions, 1880-1960. 1968
- La population active et sa structure. Sous la direction de P. Bairoch par T. Deldycke, H. Gelders [et] J.-M. Limbor avec la participation de G. Lefevere, G. Thorn [et] G. Vandenabeele. [1968]
- Diagnostic de l'évolution économique du Tiers-monde, 1900-1968. 4th edition. Paris : Gauthier-Villars, 1970
- De tertiaire sector; studie over de invloed der ontwikkeling op de vermindering van de omvang der economische fluctuaties (with others) Bruxelles : Institut de sociologie de l'Université libre, [1970]
- Le Tiers monde en l'an 2000 (with Pierre Masse). Paris: Presses universitaires de France, 1971.
- Trend in 1960-1967 and short term prospects of the Third World economy. Dakar : United Nations, African Institute for Economic Development and Planning, 1971.
- Le Tiers-Monde dans l'impasse. Le démarrage économique du XVIIIe au XXe siècle. Gallimard, 1971.
- Le chômage urbain dans les pays en voie de développement : présentation générale du problème et éléments d'une solution. Genève : Bureau International du Travail, 1972.
- Révolution industrielle et sous-développement. Fourth edition, Paris: Mouton, 1974.
- The economic development of the Third World since 1900. 1975
- Urban Unemployment in Developing Countries: The Nature of the Problem and Proposals for Its Solutions International Labour Office; 2nd edition, June 1976
- Commerce extérieur et développement économique de l'Europe au XIX siècle. Paris : Mouton, 1976.
- Taille des villes, conditions de vie et développement économique. Paris : Éd. de l'École des hautes études en sociales, 1977.
- Disparities in Economic Development Since the Industrial Revolution (Paul Bairoch and Maurice Lévy-Leboyer, eds.) Palgrave: Macmillan, 1981. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1981.
- Structure par produits des exportations du Tiers-monde 1830-1937 (with Bouda Etemad)Genève : Droz, 1985.
- Les passages des économies traditionnelles européennes aux sociétés industrielles: quatrième rencontre franco-suisse d'histoire économique et sociale.(ed. by Paul Bairoch and Anne-Marie Piuz). Genève: Droz, 1985.
- Histoire économique De Jéricho à Mexico. Villes et économie dans l’histoire. Gallimard, 1985
- La population des villes européennes : 800-1850 : banque de données et analyse sommaire des résultats (with Jean Batou and Pierre Chèvre) Genève : Droz, 1988.
- Cities and Economic Development: From the Dawn of History to the Present. Translated by Christopher Braider. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1988
- La Suisse dans l'économie mondiale (with Martin Körner). Genève: Droz, 1990.
- World energy production, 1800-1985 = Production mondiale d'énergie" (with Etemad Bouda & Jean Luciani ; under the direction of Paul Bairoch & Jean-Claude Toutain) Genève : Librairie Droz, 1991
- Liber amicorum : Henri Vander Eycken (with Henri Vander Eycken). Brussels : VUBPress, 1991.
- Economics and World History: Myths and Paradoxes. University of Chicago Press, 1993
- Autour de l'histoire sociale du temps. Zurich : Chronos Verlag, 1997.
- Victoires et déboires : histoire économique et sociale du monde du XVIe siècle à nos jours (3 Vols). Gallimard, 1997.
- L'agriculture des pays développés, 1800 à nos jours : production, productivité, rendements. Paris : Economica, c1999
Selected articles
- Paul Bairoch and J.-M. Limbor, "Changes in the Industrial Distribution of the World Labour Force, by Region, 1880-1960," International Labour Review, 98 (1968), pp. 311-336;
- "Population urbaine et taille des villes en Europe de 1600 à 1970," Revue d'histoire économique et sociale, Vol. 54, pp. 304–335
- "Structure de la population active mondiale de 1700 à 1970," Annales E.S.C., 26 (1971), pp. 960-976.
- "Free Trade and European Economic Development in the Nineteenth Century’. IN: European Economic Review, 3, 1972.
- "Agriculture and the industrial revolution 1700-1914", in: Carlo Cipolla (ed.), The Industrial Revolution - Fontana Economic History of Europe, Vol. 3. London: Collins/Fontana, 1973
- "Commerce international et genese de la revolution industrielle anglaise." In:Annales, 28, pp. 541–571, 1973
- "European Foreign Trade in the XIX Century: The Development of the Value and Volume of Exports (Preliminary Results)", in: Journal of European Economic History, Vol. 2, no. 1, 1973
- "Geographical Structure and Trade Balance of European Foreign Trade from 1800 to 1970" in: Journal of European Economic History, Vol. 3, no. 3, 1974
- "European Gross National Product 1800-1975", in: Journal of European Economic History, 5, 1976.
- "Reply to Mr. Gunder Frank's Commentary", in: Journal of European Economic History, Vol. 5, n. 2, 1976
- "Le volume des productions et du produit national dans le Tiers monde, 1900-1977". In: Tiers-monde, 20(80) oct./dec. 1979 : 669-691
- "Nature de la technologie et problematique du demarrage economique". Chronique sociale de France, cahier 6, décembre 1969, 77e année, p. 15-26
- "International industrialization levels from 1750 to 1980", in: Journal of European Economic History, Vol. 11, no's 1 & 2, Fall 1982.
- "Employment and Large Cities: Problems and Outlook". International Labour Review, v121 n5 p519-33 Sep-Oct 1982
- "Libre-echange et protectionnisme, idees recues et réalités : les enseignements de l'histoire". In: Economie et humanisme, no 277, mai-juin 1984, p. 8-18
- "Les mesures de conversion des énergies primaires. Historique des unités et présentation des coefficients", Histoire & Mesure, Vol. I - N° 3/4, 1986.
- "Factors of urbanisation in the nineteenth century developed countries : a descriptive and econometric analysis" (with Gary Goertz) Urban studies, Vol. 23, no. 4, Aug. 1986.
- "Historical Roots of Economic Underdevelopment: Myths and Realities". in: W.J. Mommsen & J. Osterhammel(ed.). Imperialism and After. Continuities and Discontinuities. Londres: Allen & Unwin, 1986.
- "European Trade Policy 1815-1914", in: Peter MathiasPeter MathiasPeter Mathias is a British economic historian. He attended Colston's School and Bristol Grammar School where he became interested in history. In December 1945, he applied for a scholarship at King's College, Cambridge; instead he won an Exhibition at Jesus College, Cambridge during Summer 1946...
and Sidney Pollard (eds.), Cambridge Economic History of Europe, Vol. XIII. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1989. - "Urbanization and the Economy in Preindustrial Societies: the Findings of Two Decades of Research", in: Journal of European Economic History vol. 18, no. 2 1989
- "La Literature Periodique d'histoire economique contemporaine" (with Bouda Etemad), in: Annales E.S.C., 47, 1987
- "The Impact of Crop Yields, Agricultural Productivity, and Transport Costs on Urban Growth between 1800 and 1910". In: A M van der Woude, Akira Hayami, Jan De Vries (eds.) Urbanization in history : a process of dynamic interactions. New York : Oxford University Press, 1990.
- "L'industrie manufacturière suisse : succès et déboires : une perspective internationale et historique (1830-1990)". In: Passé pluriel : en hommage au professeur Roland Ruffieux. Fribourg : Ed. universitaires, 1991.
- "The City and Technological Innovation" in Favorites of Fortune; Technology, Growth, and Economic Development since the Industrial Revolution. Edited by Patrice Higonnet, David S. Landes and Henry Rosovsky. Cambridge, Mass. : Harvard University Press, 1991
- "La Belgique dans le commerce international, 1830-1990", in: Paul Klep & Eddy van Cauweberge (eds.), Entrepreneurship and the Transformation of the Economy (10th-20th Centuries). Essays in Honour of Herman van der Wee, Leuven 1994.
- "Globalisation myths: some historical reflections on integration, industrialisation and growth in the world economy" (with Richard Kozul-Wright). UNCTAD discussion paper UNCTAD/OSG/DP/113 March 1996 http://www.unctad.org/en/docs/dp_113.en.pdf
- "Globalization, myths and realities: One century of external trade and foreign investment", in R. Boyer and D. Drache, (eds), States Against Markets: The Limits of Globalisation. London: Routledge, 1996.
- "Les exportations d’articles manufacturés de la Suisse dans le contexte international (1840-1994)". In: Martin Körner und François Walter (ed.), Quand la Montagneaussi a une Histoire. Festschrift für J.-F. Bergier. Bern: Verlag Paul Haupt: Bern, 1996, pp. 205–234
- "New Estimates of Agricultural Productivity and Yields of Developed Countries, 1800-1990," in Amit Bhaduri and Rune Skarstein, eds., Economic Development and Agricultural Productivity, Cheltenham, U.K., Edward Elgar, 1997, pp. 45–64.
- "The impact of globalization on employment in Europe" in: Trade and jobs in Europe : much ado about nothing?, edited by Mathias Dewatripont, André Sapir, and Khalid Sekkat. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999.
- "The Constituent Economic Principles of Globalization in Historical Perspective." International Sociology, Vol. 15, No. 2, pp. 197–214, 2000
About Paul Bairoch
- Towards an international economic and social history : essays in honour of Paul Bairoch. Genève : Ed. Passé Présent, 1995.
- Bouda Etemad and Jean Batou, "Paul Bairoch (1930-1999)" in Revue d'histoire suisse, vol. 49, n° 3, 1999, pp. 391–394.
- Patrick Verley, "In Memoriam: Paul Bairoch (1930-1999)", Revue économique, Vol. 51, No. 2.
- A. M. Piuz, "Paul Bairoch", Journal of European Economic History, vol 29, no. 1, 2000