Jaroslav Vaněk (20 April 1930 – 15 November 2017) was a Czech American

economist An economist is a professional and practitioner in the social sciences, social science discipline of economics. The individual may also study, develop, and apply theories and concepts from economics and write about economic policy. Within this ...

and professor emeritus of

Cornell University Cornell University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university based in Ithaca, New York, United States. The university was co-founded by American philanthropist Ezra Cornell and historian and educator Andrew Dickson W ...

known for his research on economics of participation ( labour-managed firms,

worker cooperative A worker cooperative is a cooperative owned and Workers' self-management, self-managed by its workers. This control may mean a Company, firm where every worker-owner participates in decision-making in a democratic fashion, or it may refer to one ...

s) and, in his earlier career, on the theory of international trade. He graduated ( matura) from a high-school in Prague, and left/emigrated shortly after the communist putsch of 1948. He received his diploma in statistics, mathematics and economics at the Sorbonne (1952), and a postgraduate degree in economics at the

University of Geneva The University of Geneva (French: ''Université de Genève'') is a public university, public research university located in Geneva, Switzerland. It was founded in 1559 by French theologian John Calvin as a Theology, theological seminary. It rema ...

(1954). In 1955 he left for the US, where in 1957 he received his PhD from the

Massachusetts Institute of Technology The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a Private university, private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Established in 1861, MIT has played a significant role in the development of many areas of moder ...

. In 1964 he became professor of economics, and in 1969 of the international economics at Cornell University, where he directed from 1970 his program ''Participation and Labor Managed Systems'', he also worked on strategies for its implementation in post-communist countries (1990s). He was a visiting professor at the Belgrade's Institute of Economics (1972), the Catholic University of Louvain, Belgium (1974), the Netherlands Institute for Advanced Studies in Humanities and Social Sciences (1975–6) and the International Institute of Social Studies in The Hague (1978). In 1971, Vaněk worked as an advisor to the government of

Peru Peru, officially the Republic of Peru, is a country in western South America. It is bordered in the north by Ecuador and Colombia, in the east by Brazil, in the southeast by Bolivia, in the south by Chile, and in the south and west by the Pac ...

and in 1978–79 to the Prime Minister of

Turkey Turkey, officially the Republic of Türkiye, is a country mainly located in Anatolia in West Asia, with a relatively small part called East Thrace in Southeast Europe. It borders the Black Sea to the north; Georgia (country), Georgia, Armen ...

. In addition, he advised a number of participatory enterprises/ employee-owned companies worldwide. In 1986 he founded and since directs the STEVEN Foundation (Sustainable Technology and Energy for Vital Economic Needs) that develops technologies suitable for the developing countries. He was an important contributor to the Heckscher–Ohlin model, which provides a

macroeconomic Macroeconomics is a branch of economics that deals with the performance, structure, behavior, and decision-making of an economy as a whole. This includes regional, national, and global economies. Macroeconomists study topics such as output/ GDP ...

attempt of explanation of international trade and countries' specializations. Vaněk wrote ''The General Theory of Labour-Managed Market Economies'', a seminal work on self-management. His work in the economics of participation included ''The Participatory Economy: An Evolutionary Hypothesis and a Strategy for Development'' which reviewed behaviour of labour-managed firms in more social spheres beyond their interests in net revenue per worker.Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1971; https://www.amazon.com/dp/0801491487

Publications

* ''International Trade: Theory and Economic Policy'', 1962 * * ''General Equilibrium of International Discrimination: The Case of Customs Unions'', Harvard University Press, 1965 * ''Estimating foreign resource needs for economic development: theory, method, and a case study of Colombia'', with Richard Bilsborrow, McGraw-Hill, 1967 * ''Maximal Economic Growth'', 1968 * ''Producer Co-operatives and Labor-managed Systems'', Edward Elgar, 1968 * ''General Theory of Labor-managed Market Economies'', Cornell University Press, 1970
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online
* * (editor) ''Self-Management: Economic Liberation of Man'', Penguin Books, 1975 * ''The Labor-Managed Economy: Essays'', Cornell University Press, 1977 * ''Crisis and Reform: East and West, Essays in Social Economy'', private publication, 1989
in Slovak: ''Kríza a reforma: Východ a západ, Eseje o sociálnej ekonomike'', translated by Jaroslava Perlakiová. Bratislava 1990
in Czech: ''Krize a reforma: Východ a Západ, Eseje o společenské ekonomice'', translated by Jan Sýkora, Prague 1990 * ''Unified Theory of Social Systems: A Radical Christian Analysis'', Emeritus Publications, Cornell University, 2000
availabl
online

References

*
Ярослав Ванек
(Jaroslav Vaněk, biography)'', Russian translation (available a
gallery.economicus.ru
from Mark Blaug's publication ''Great economists since Keynes: introduction to the lives and works of one hundred modern economists'', Barnes & Noble 1985, Edward Elgar 1998 *
Ярослав Ванек: Биографический словарь: зарубежные экономисты, 2002 г.
(Jaroslav Vaněk, Biographic Dictionary: International Economists, 2002)'', biography (available a
vocable.ru

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Vanek, Jaroslav 1930 births 2017 deaths 20th-century American economists Czechoslovak economists Massachusetts Institute of Technology alumni Cornell University faculty Socialist economists American people of Czech descent People from Prague