Kazimierz Laski

Kazimierz Laski (* December 15, 1921 in Warsaw ) is a Polish- Austrian economists. He is considered one of the most important international reception are representative of Postkeynesianismus in Austria.

Career

Kazimierz Laski studied in the years 1945-1954 Political Economy in Warsaw at the Academy of Political Sciences ( Akademia Nauk Politycznych ), at the School of Planning and Statistics ( SzkoĹ Główna Planowania i Statystyki, SGPiS ) and in the doctoral program at the Institute of Social Sciences at the Central Committee of the Polish United workers' Party (Institute Nauk Społecznych przy KC PZPR, INS). He received his doctorate in 1954 with the work " accumulation and consumption during the industrialization of People's Poland ".

Łaski worked from 1949 at the SGPiS to start as an assistant to Włodzimierz Brus. In 1955 he was awarded the title of professor and was appointed associate professor at the Chair of Political Economy at the Faculty of Foreign Trade SGPiS 1960. He led the scientific and didactic work of the Department. In this role, he won Michał Kalecki, one of the most important Polish economists, after its re-immigration to Poland for keeping courses at the SGPiS. Incidentally taught Łaski on INS and after its dissolution at the College of Social Sciences of the Central Committee of the Polish United Workers' Party ( Wyższa SzkoĹ Nauk Społecznych przy KC PZPR, WSNS ). In the years 1957-1960 was Łaski Vice Dean and Dean of the Faculty of Economics of production and in the years 1961-1963 Vice-Rector of the SGPiS, responsible for scientific activities. He took part in the work of the Main Council of Higher Education as a member of the presidency in the years 1961-1963 and as a full member in the years 1964-1966. He was one of the founders of the planning course for economists from developing countries, Chairman of the Science Council and subsequently deputy chairman of this course in 1963-1968. Łaski was in the years 1965-1968 president of the Warsaw Branch of the Polish Economic Society.

In 1960 was Łaski Ford Fellow at the Institut de sciences économiques appliquées at François Perroux in Paris, in 1964, a visiting professor at the Institute for Advanced Studies and Scientific Research ( 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 anti-Semitic and anti-intellectual campaign of the People's Republic of Poland in the years 1968-1969 ( about 20,000 Jewish citizens were a total of at this time forced to emigrate ) were students and colleagues exposed the stem around Michał Kalecki harsh, politically motivated attacks. So while Kazimierz Laski left in November 1968 Poland definitely has lived in Austria since that time. Łaski was initially in the years 1969-1971 Research Fellow 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. 's Activities at WIFO led to cooperation and intensive exchange among others with the Austrian economist Kurt W. Rothschild and Josef Steindl and the Czech- Austrian economist Friedrich Levcik. In 1971 Łaski was a full professor at the Johannes Kepler University Linz and consultant of the Vienna Institute for International Economic Studies ( wiiw ). In 1991 Łaski emeritus at the Johannes Kepler University of Linz and was 1991-1996 Director of the Vienna Institute for International Economic Studies ( wiiw ). In 1990 Łaski worked as an official adviser to the then minister and head of the Central Planning Office, Jerzy Osiatyński. In addition Łaski was in 1994-1995 "fellow " at the Institute for Advanced Study Berlin. Since 1996, Kazimierz Laski has worked as a scientific consultant to the wiiw.

Work

Early phase at the INS and SGPiS (1945-1961)

Kazimierz Laski studied in a time in which the Marxist economics won their administrative victory at Polish universities. Of the early days of his scientific work Łaski says in an interview: " At first I was, as usual in the early 1950s, dogmatic Marxist. Really to economics I came after I met Michał Kalecki. In between was a development from the dogmatic to the critical Marxists and then completely away from it. " During his doctoral studies at the INS Łaski immersed himself in the confrontation with Marx works primarily with the" capital ". Like many, he was greatly impressed by the Marxian schemes of reproduction in Volume II of Capital. The contradiction between accumulation and consumption in the course of industrialization was the subject of his dissertation: " accumulation and consumption during the industrialization of People's Poland " (1954). In the period of the " Polish October " in 1956 Łaski came slowly under the influence of Michał Kalecki, who had returned early in 1955 from the U.S. to Poland. This influence can be seen already in Laski's publications this time about the balance in the consumer market. The Marxian schemes have been used to answer the question of the causes of inflation and shortage of goods in the centrally planned economy. In his publications to Łaski broke slowly from the dogmatic Marxism and he won a certain critical distance. However, he did not go beyond the critique of economic policy. After his former view were the causes of inflationary pressures in the subjective moment in the mistakes that makes the central planners, whose lack of willingness to learn from his mistakes in the past, and last but not least in the insufficient discipline the manager and the worker nationalized companies. Łaski not questioned that unbiased information collected in the center and physically consistent plans could be drawn up.

The period of close cooperation with Michał Kalecki (1961-1968)

With the entry of Michał Kalecki in the SGPiS in 1961 began a new chapter for scientific activity Łaski. Łaski belonged to the inner circle of Kalecki staff and the emphasis of his work shifted to the theory of growth of the socialist economy. He presented (along with Włodzimierz Brus ) at the Congress of the International Economic Association in Vienna ( in 1962 ) one of the main papers and published in " Ekonomista " numerous essays that similar issues were dedicated, such as growth factors of the national income, influence of foreign trade on the rate of growth, Role of the choice of production methods in determining the growth rate of consumption and the national income. Among other things, he examined the effects of a one-time reduction of the capital coefficient on the short-and long -term proportions of the growth process. Łaski also published more general essays on full employment, allocation of resources, as well as developing countries. A long-standing dispute with the growth theory culminated in the larger work, " On the theory of socialist reproduction ." This book was considered a standard work on the theory of growth under socialism, was used as a textbook at the Polish universities and translated into Czech. Łaski initiated together with Michał Kalecki a seminar was devoted to the theory of growth and very quickly especially young scientists became the rallying point of a group who were interested in planning theory. From this group came some scholars who have made a name for himself in Poland and abroad. Another focus of scientific and educational activity Laski made ​​the course for economists from developing countries. The circle around Michał Kalecki point of attack was an anti-Semitic campaign in 1968. A not to be underestimated, although not the only, cause of this campaign was the intellectual independence of the circle. This independence was contrary to the totalitarian claim of the system, although the circle around Michał Kalecki occupied a clearly pro-socialist stance. Łaski then emigrated to Austria.

Time in Austria before the transformation crisis (1968-1989)

In Austria Łaski initially worked with in the creation of the Department for International Economic Studies at the Austrian Institute of Economic Research ( WIFO). He continued here continued his theoretical work on the theory of growth 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 viewed primarily as a distribution category and the rate of interest primarily as an instrument of choice of production methods. Even under the condition of the golden rule of accumulation soft the two from each other when capital-intensive technological progress is assumed. After the call to the chair of economics at the Johannes Kepler University Linz Łaski expanded his scientific and didactic activity. One of his closest colleagues in Linz was Kurt W. Rothschild. On the one hand he had been teaching his students - in addition to the general theory of John Maynard Keynes - the knowledge of the Kaleckischen approach, especially the dynamics of the capitalist economy and the economic theory. On the other hand, he grappled with the Marxian theory and participated in the flared up again so-called transformation discussion. His critical attitude towards the labor theory of value 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" was even the relationship between the rate of exploitation and the rate of profit, especially in case of technical progress, questioned. Łaski also participated in the discussion of the theory of the falling rate of profit to fall. At the same time he continued the Ostforschung, the main direction of his scientific work. Łaski published work on the proportions of expanded reproduction and the role of capital imports in the socialist economy. He extended his investigations in the areas of inflation by considering the foreign trade, and the " second economy ". Other topics of his research made ​​at this time with problems of national accounts, problems of consumption comparisons in the East and in the West, especially the comparability of price indices in the market and planned economy. Łaski remained in close contact with Włodzimierz Brus, the beginning of the 1970s was a professor at Oxford. The main result of their many years of scientific collaboration was the book " Marx and the Market " (1989). It includes the final statement of the authors with the theory and practice of " real" socialism on the eve of its collapse. Since the 70s Łaski also joined an intensive research collaboration with Josef Steindl and the Indian post-Keynesian economists Amit Bhaduri.

Time in Austria after the collapse of the state socialist economies (1989 to present)

With the breakup of the communist bloc of states is Łaski devoted himself intensely to the transformation process in Central, Eastern and südösteuropäischen countries in general and in particular the one in Poland. Łaski criticized this proposed and carried out by various international organizations supply-side measures of the " Washington Consensus" in the form of shock therapy, ie fastest possible liberalization and privatization. He predicted in 1989 in contrast to the mainstream, and many other economists, then also occurred, sharp contraction in production levels and the long recession in the early 90s in the transition countries. In his years as director of the Vienna Institute for International Economic Studies ( wiiw ) ( 1991-1996 ) built Łaski the institute into an internationally renowned research center of the analysis of economic and socio-economic processes of central, eastern and south-eastern European transition region. In addition, Kazimierz Laski devoted to work intensively developing the Kaleckischen approach and its application to the new economic realities. Łaski put in several articles the fundamental error of a basic tool of neoclassical theory and the neoclassical synthesis - the model of the Aggregate supply Aggregate versus demand (AS- AD model ) - open. By means of demand-driven analysis, he examines still current growth processes and problems of European countries and the USA, as well as issues of European cohesion process. So he took, inter alia, in the essay "From Accession to Cohesion: Ireland, Greece, Portugal and Spain and Lessons for the Next Accession " (2003) critically the initial success of the EU cohesion countries under scrutiny, an analysis of their accuracy is has come true at the latest during the economic crisis from 2007.

Publications (selection )

• From Marx to the Market: Socialism in Search for in Economic System ( Wlodzimierz Brus with ), 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, U.S., 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 Roman ), 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