Ernst Louis Étienne Laspeyres (; 28 November 1834 – 4 August 1913) was a German economist. He was '' Professor ordinarius'' of

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and

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or '' State Sciences'' and cameralistics (public finance and administration) in

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(now Tartu),

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, and finally for 26 years in

Gießen Giessen, spelled in German (), is a town in the German state () of Hesse, capital of both the district of Giessen and the administrative region of Giessen. The population is approximately 90,000, with roughly 37,000 university students. Th ...

. Laspeyres was the scion of a

Huguenot The Huguenots ( , ; ) are a Religious denomination, religious group of French people, French Protestants who held to the Reformed (Calvinist) tradition of Protestantism. The term, which may be derived from the name of a Swiss political leader, ...

family of originally Gascon descent which had settled in

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in the 17th century, and he emphasised the

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pronunciation of his name as a link to his Gascon origins.

Work

Laspeyres is mainly known today for his 1871 development of the index number formula method for determining price increases, used for calculating the rate of

inflation In economics, inflation is an increase in the average price of goods and services in terms of money. This increase is measured using a price index, typically a consumer price index (CPI). When the general price level rises, each unit of curre ...

. A type of this calculation is known today as the

Laspeyres Index A price index (''plural'': "price indices" or "price indexes") is a normalized average (typically a weighted average) of price relatives for a given class of goods or services in a specific region over a defined time period. It is a statistic des ...

. In addition to his accomplishments in price indices, Laspeyres may be counted as one of the fathers of

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as an academic-professional discipline in

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, and as one of the main unifiers of economics and statistics by “developing ideas which are today by and large nationally and internationally reality: quantification and

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; expansion of official statistics; cooperation of official statistics and economic research; and integration of the economist and the statistician in one person.” (Rinne 1983) In economics, Laspeyres was to some extent a representative of the Historical School and certainly of '' Kathedersozialismus''. The surname ''Laspeyres'' is of Gascon origin; his ancestors were

Huguenots The Huguenots ( , ; ) are a Religious denomination, religious group of French people, French Protestants who held to the Reformed (Calvinist) tradition of Protestantism. The term, which may be derived from the name of a Swiss political leader, ...

who settled in Berlin in the 17th century. How he pronounced his surname is uncertain, but likely as "Las-pay-ress".

Bibliography

Books by Laspeyres: * ''Wechselbeziehungen zwischen Volksvermehrung und Höhe des Arbeitslohns'', 1860 * ''Geschichte der Volkswirtschäftlichen Anschauungen der Niederländer und ihrer Literatur zur Zeit der Republik'', 1863 * ''Der Einfluß der Wohnung auf die Sittlichkeit'', 1869 Articles by Laspeyres: * “Mitteilungen aus Pieter de la Courts Schriften. Ein Beitrag zur Geschichte der niederländischen Nationalökonomik des 17. Jahrhunderts” in ''Zeitschrift für die gesamte Staatswissenschaft'', 1862 * “Hamburger Warenpreise 1851-1860 und die kalifornisch-australische Geldentdeckung seit 1848. Ein Beitrag zur Lehre von der Geldentwertung” in ''Jahrbücher für Nationalökonomie und Statistik'', 1884 * “Die Berechnung einer mittleren Warenpreissteigerung” in ''Jahrbücher für Nationalökonomie und Statistik'', 1871 * “Welche Waren werden im Verlaufe der Zeiten immer teurer? – Statistische Studien zur Geschichte der Preisen” in ''Zeitschrift für die gesamte Staatswissenschaft'', 1872 * “Statistische Untersuchungungen über die wirtschaftliche und soziale Lage der sogenannte arbeitenden Klassen” in ''Concordia Zeitschrift für die Arbeiterfrage'', 1875 * “Die Kathedersocialisten und die statistischen Congresse. Gedanken zur Begründung einer nationalökonomischen Statistik und einer statistischen Nationalökonomie” in ''Deutsche Zeit- und Streit-Fragen'', 1875 * “Zur wirtschaftlichen Lage der ländlichen Arbeiter im deutschen Reich” in ''Zeitschrift für die gesamte Staatswissenschaft'', 1876 * “Preise (Die Bewegungen der Warenpreise in der zweiten Hälfte des 19. Jahrhunderts)”, voce nell'enciclopedia ''Meyers Konversations-Lexikon'', 1883 * “Statistischen Untersuchungen zur Frage der Steuerüberwälzung” in '' Finanz-Archiv'', 1901 * “Einzelpreise und Durchschnittspreise vegetalischer und animalischer Produkte in Preußen während der 75 Jahre 1821 bis 1895” in ''Zeitschrift, Prussia, Statistisches Bureau'', 1901

Notes

References

* * * * Rinne, Horst (1981). “Ernst Louis Etienne Laspeyres, 1834–1913”. ''Jahrbücher für Nationalökonomie und Statistik'', vol. 196, pp. 194–215. * Rinne, Horst (1983). “Étienne Laspeyres” in ''Neue Deutsche Biographie'', vol. 13. Berlin: Duncker & Humblot, pp. 660–661. {{DEFAULTSORT:Laspeyres, Etienne 1834 births 1913 deaths Academic staff of the University of Giessen German economists German statisticians Academic staff of Riga Technical University Historical school economists