Fred Hirsch (6 July 1931 – 10 January 1978) was an Austrian-born British economist and professor of

international studies International relations (IR), sometimes referred to as international studies and international affairs, is the scientific study of interactions between sovereign states. In a broader sense, it concerns all activities between states—such as ...

at the

University of Warwick The University of Warwick ( ; abbreviated as ''Warw.'' in post-nominal letters) is a public research university on the outskirts of Coventry between the West Midlands (county), West Midlands and Warwickshire, England. The university was founded i ...

Biography

He was born in Vienna. In 1934, after the

Austrian Civil War The Austrian Civil War (german: Österreichischer Bürgerkrieg), also known as the February Uprising (german: Februarkämpfe), was a few days of skirmishes between Austrian government and socialist forces between 12 and 16 February 1934, in Aust ...

, his family emigrated to Britain. Hirsch graduated with first class honours from the

London School of Economics , mottoeng = To understand the causes of things , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £240.8 million (2021) , budget = £391.1 millio ...

in 1952 before working as a financial journalist on ''

The Banker ''The Banker'' is an English-language monthly international financial affairs publication owned by ''The Financial Times'' Ltd. and edited in London, United Kingdom. The magazine was first published in January 1926 through founding Editor, Brend ...

'' and ''

The Economist ''The Economist'' is a British weekly newspaper printed in demitab format and published digitally. It focuses on current affairs, international business, politics, technology, and culture. Based in London, the newspaper is owned by The Econo ...

'' (financial editor, 1963–1966). He was a senior adviser to the

International Monetary Fund The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is a major financial agency of the United Nations, and an international financial institution, headquartered in Washington, D.C., consisting of 190 countries. Its stated mission is "working to foster globa ...

, from 1966 to 1972 where he worked on international monetary problems. Afterwards he spent two years as a research fellow at Nuffield College, Oxford, from 1972 to 1974, where he started working on his book ''The Social Limits to Growth'' (RKP, 1977), having previously written ''The Pound Sterling: A Polemic'' (V Gollancz, 1965), ''Money International'' (Allen Lane, The Penguin Press, 1967), and ''Newspaper Money: Fleet Street and the search for the affluent reader'' (with David Gordon) (Hutchinson, 1975) . In 1975 he joined the University of Warwick as Professor of

International Studies International relations (IR), sometimes referred to as international studies and international affairs, is the scientific study of interactions between sovereign states. In a broader sense, it concerns all activities between states—such as ...

. A year later he developed

amyotrophic lateral sclerosis Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), also known as motor neuron disease (MND) or Lou Gehrig's disease, is a neurodegenerative disease that results in the progressive loss of motor neurons that control voluntary muscles. ALS is the most comm ...

leading to his death on January 10, 1978.

Limits to Growth

Hirsch's most influential book concerned the inherent limits to growth, including both the concept of

positional goods Positional goods are goods valued only by how they are distributed among the population, not by how many of them there are available in total (as would be the case with other consumer goods). The source of greater worth of positional goods is thei ...

and what he called the 'commercialisation effect'.

Positional goods

The concept of positional goods helps explain why, as Hirsch told the New York Times, material growth can "no longer deliver what has long been promised for it - to make everyone middle-class". Positional goods are those that derive their value specifically from their scarcity - cannot be distributed more widely as the doing so would undermine their construction of high status value. Hirsch's concept helps explains why, as economic growth improves overall quality of life at any particular level, doing "better" than how your grandparents lived does not translate automatically into doing "well", if there are as many or more people ahead of you in the economic hierarchy. For example, if you are the first in your family to get a college degree, you are doing better. But if you were at the bottom of your class at a weak school, you may find yourself less eligible for a job than your grandfather, who was only a high school graduate. "The value to me of my education - the satisfaction I derive from it - depends upon how much education the man ahead of me in the job line has."

Commercialization effect

Hirsch also highlighted the danger that the quality of a product/service was diminished as a result of supplying it commercially (something perhaps most obvious in the case of sex); market exchange – as for example with gift giving – diminishes the inherent value of the transaction by subordinating social well-being to the commodification impulse.

Michael J. Sandel Michael Joseph Sandel (; born March 5, 1953) is an American political philosopher and the Anne T. and Robert M. Bass Professor of Government Theory at Harvard University Law School, where his course Justice was the university's first course t ...

has recently echoed Hirsch in challenging the belief that the commercialization process does not affect the product in question, highlighting the importance of what Hirsch calledMichael J. Sandel, ''What Money Can't Buy'' (2012) p. 120-1 "the effect on the characteristics of a product or activity of supplying it exclusively or predominantly on commercial terms rather than on some other basis – such as informal exchange, mutual obligation, altruism or love, or feelings of service or obligation"

References

External links

On Markets and Morality
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hirsch, Fred 1978 deaths Jewish emigrants from Austria to the United Kingdom after the Anschluss 1931 births 20th-century British economists Writers from Vienna Jewish economists Austrian Jews British Jews Alumni of the London School of Economics Academics of the University of Warwick British financial writers 20th-century British male writers British male journalists 20th-century British journalists The Economist people Neurological disease deaths in England Deaths from motor neuron disease Financial Times people