George Christopher Archibald (30 December 1926 – 22 February 1996), briefly 2nd Baron Archibald in 1975, also known as Chris Archibald, was a British economist, a researcher and professor. He played a significant role in building the new

University of Essex The University of Essex is a public university, public research university in Essex, England. Established by royal charter in 1965, Essex is one of the original plate glass university, plate glass universities. Essex's shield consists of the an ...

into a premier UK research centre for the

social sciences Social science is one of the branches of science, devoted to the study of societies and the relationships among individuals within those societies. The term was formerly used to refer to the field of sociology, the original "science of soci ...

in the 1960s.

Richard Lipsey Richard George Lipsey, (born August 28, 1928) is a Canadian academic and economist. He is best known for his work on the economics of the second-best, a theory that demonstrated that piecemeal establishing of individual first best conditions w ...

(1996), a friend and colleague, in reviewing Archibald's last book, ''Information, Incentives, and the Economics of Control'' (1992) usefully summarises his approach to economics. He was "firmly in the camp of those who accept the practical value of the price system as a coordinator of decentralized decision making while rejecting the cruder versions of Chicagoism that everything produced by the price system is optimal." And while emphasising "the virtues of the price system" noted that "its unaided operations were, in his own words, 'not beyond human wit to improve upon.'" (Lipsey, 1996, p1005-6) Archibald was born in

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...

, the first son of

Dorothy Archibald Dorothy Archibald, Lady Archibald (January 1895 – 22 July 1960) was a British politician. Born in Liverpool as Dorothy Holroyd, she studied for a year at the University of Liverpool, then at Girton College, Cambridge. After completing her stu ...

and

George Archibald, 1st Baron Archibald George Archibald, 1st Baron Archibald CBE (21 July 1898 – 25 February 1975) was a British Labour politician. Early life Archibald was the son of George W. Archibald, of Glasgow, and was educated at St George's Road Elementary School and Alan ...

. He completed high school at

Phillips Exeter Academy (not for oneself) la, Finis Origine Pendet (The End Depends Upon the Beginning) gr, Χάριτι Θεοῦ (By the Grace of God) , location = 20 Main Street , city = Exeter, New Hampshire , zipcode ...

New Hampshire New Hampshire is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the northeastern United States. It is bordered by Massachusetts to the south, Vermont to the west, Maine and the Gulf of Maine to the east, and the Canadian province of Quebec t ...

, and received his

bachelor's degree A bachelor's degree (from Middle Latin ''baccalaureus'') or baccalaureate (from Modern Latin ''baccalaureatus'') is an undergraduate academic degree awarded by colleges and universities upon completion of a course of study lasting three to six ...

in history from

Cambridge University , mottoeng = Literal: From here, light and sacred draughts. Non literal: From this place, we gain enlightenment and precious knowledge. , established = , other_name = The Chancellor, Masters and Schola ...

in 1943. After military service in

WWII World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

and

Palestine __NOTOC__ Palestine may refer to: * State of Palestine, a state in Western Asia * Palestine (region), a geographic region in Western Asia * Palestinian territories, territories occupied by Israel since 1967, namely the West Bank (including East ...

, he completed a Bachelor of Science in economics at 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 1951. After graduation Archibald taught in Otago, New Zealand, but returned to the London School of Economics (LSE) in 1955 and was appointed to the staff. He was one of the founding members of the LSE Staff Seminar on Methodology, Measurement and Testing. He left LSE in 1964 to join the staff at the newly created University of Essex, where he received a professor's chair in 1967. In 1971, he moved to the

University of British Columbia The University of British Columbia (UBC) is a public university, public research university with campuses near Vancouver and in Kelowna, British Columbia. Established in 1908, it is British Columbia's oldest university. The university ranks a ...

. Also in 1971 he married Daphne May Vincent Henman, his second wife. Upon the death of his father, instead of becoming Baron Archibald, he renounced the peerage, expressing the opinion that hereditary honours were empty honours. He retired from the University of British Columbia in 1991 and returned to Scotland.

Selected publications

* with R. G. Lipsey (1958) "Monetary and Value Theory: A Critique of Lange and Patinkin" ''The Review of Economic Studies'' 26(1): pp. 1–22, , applied Patinkin's theory to stock flows and stock equilibrium and developed that relationship for the first in modern monetary economics. * (1967) "Refutation or Comparison" ''The British Journal for the Philosophy of Science'' 17(4): pp. 279–296, , detailed some of what measurement and testing can and cannot accomplish. * (1992) ''Information, Incentives, and the Economics of Control'' Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, England, (new edition republished in 2005), is considered a staple in the field.

References

* Lipsey, Richard G., (1996) "Obituary: George Christopher Archibald, 1926-1996" ''The Canadian Journal of Economics / Revue canadienne d'Economique'' 29(4): pp. 1004–1006 {{DEFAULTSORT:Archibald, George Christopher 1926 births 1996 deaths 20th-century British economists 2 Fellows of the Econometric Society