Pascal Salin

Pascal Salin
Born (1939-05-16) May 16, 1939
Nationality French
Institution Université Paris-Dauphine
School or
tradition
Austrian School
Alma mater University of Bordeaux
Instituts d'études politiques
Awards Chevalier de la Légion d'honneur
Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres

Pascal Salin (born May 16, 1939) is a French economist, professor emeritus at the Université Paris-Dauphine and a specialist in public finance and monetary economics. He is a former president of the Mont Pelerin Society (1994 to 1996).

Biography

After undergraduate studies in law at the University of Bordeaux, Salin studied economics in Paris and graduated from the Instituts d'études politiques. While graduating in sociology with a licence, he started a doctorate in economics and obtained his agrégation d'économie. At the age of 22, he lectured in economics at the universities of Paris, Poitiers, and Nantes. In 1970, he became University Professor at the Université Paris-Dauphine where he stayed until his retirement in 2009. At Dauphine he co-founded the Jean-Baptiste Say research center in economics.[1]

Salin has been a consultant for the International Monetary Fund, the United Nations, the Food and Agriculture Organization, and the Harvard Institute for International Development. He is a frequent contributor to the French newspapers Le Figaro[2] and Les Echos.[3] He has published several articles in many other French media outlets such as Le Monde.[4] He also publishes in the Wall Street Journal Europe.[5] Mathieu Laine and Jörg Guido Hülsmann co-edited a festschrift in honor of Salin in 2006.[6] He was made Chevalier de la Légion d'honneur and Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres, as well as Officier des Palmes Académiques. He was awarded the Prix renaissance de l'économie in 1986.[7]

Work

In the 1960s and 1970s, Salin was influenced by Milton Friedman and monetarism, Jacques Rueff and his view of the international monetary order,[8] as well as Harry Gordon Johnson and his monetary approach to the balance of payments. Robert Mundell's work also played a part in Salin's own approach to economics, especially regarding the topics of supply-side economics and optimum currency areas. Salin aided in awarding Mundell the degree of Doctor Honoris Causa from the Université de Paris-Dauphine in 1992.[9] Salin and his colleague, Emil-Maria Claassen, contributed to the European research on these subjects throughout the 1960s and 1970s.

Salin later became interested in the Austrian school of economics. In addition to Friedrich Hayek, who was one of Salin's intellectual mentors, Salin has been influenced by the works of Frédéric Bastiat, Israel Kirzner, Ludwig von Mises, Murray Rothbard, and Jean-Baptiste Say. Salin opposes full-reserve banking and supports unregulated free banking and fractional reserves.[10] He rejects the theory of John Maynard Keynes and sees it as an aberration in the evolution of economic ideas.[11]

Selected bibliography

Salin publishes primarily in French and has mostly published works in monetary theory and policy. In the 1970s and 1980s, he authored many articles on the European monetary system. In recent years, he has published books defending the system of free enterprise and the philosophy of classical liberalism in France. Among his works of note are:

Notes

  1. See the center's webpage: CRJBS.
  2. See for instance his article on the health insurance market: Ouvrir l'assurance-maladie à la concurrence européenne.
  3. See for his instance his article on the social value added tax.
  4. See his article on taxation.
  5. See for instance his article on Sarkozy's War on Profit.
  6. L'homme libre : Mélanges en l'honneur de Pascal Salin, Les Belles Lettres, Paris 2006, ISBN 978-2251443140.
  7. The Prix renaissance de l'économie is awarded by the Cercle Renaissance, a conservative society.
  8. See for instance François Bourricaud's et Pascal Salin's book, Présence de Jacques Rueff, published by Omnibus, 1991.
  9. The official decision was published in 1991, see the official statute.
  10. See for instance: "Free Banking and Fractional Reserves: A Comment". Quarterly Journal of Austrian Economics. Ludwig von Mises Institute. 1 (3): 61–65. Fall 1998.
  11. He stated in the Quebecois Libre: "La théorie keynésienne représente une aberration dans l'histoire des idées économiques. Elle repose en effet sur une approche directement en termes collectifs (par définition de variables macroéconomiques) en ignorant le caractère rationnel et volontaire de l'action humane."
This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 7/24/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.