Hans Singer

Sir Hans Singer (29 November 1910 – ) is a development economist best known for the Prebisch-Singer hypothesis, which states that the terms of trade move against producers of primary products. He is one of the primary figures of heterodox economics. A German, he received a PhD in economics from Cambridge University in 1936, and was deeply affected by the ideas of John Maynard Keynes. In 1947 he was one of the first three economists to join the new Economics Department of the United Nations, in which he remained for the next two decades. In 1969, he left to join the influential Institute for Development Studies at the University of Sussex in England.

During his time at the United Nations, Singer was the Director of the Economic Division of the UN Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO), Director of the United Nations Research Institute for Social Development (UNRISD), and was closely involved in the creation of the Bretton Woods Framework and the post-World War II international financial institutions. Eminent fellow economist Sir Alex Cairncross has said of Singer that "There are few of the developing countries that he has not visited and still fewer that he has not advised. He must have addressed a wider variety of academics and a wider variety of places about a wider variety of subjects than any other economist, living or dead."

Singer is most famous for his co-credit with Raul Prebisch for the Prebisch-Singer hypothesis, the treatment of which is standard in university texts on economic development. However, the two economists did not collaborate, having come to similar conclusions separately. Singer's supporters are quick to point out that it appears that Singer wrote down the thesis before the more well-known Prebisch. The fundamental insight of the hypothesis is that, in a world system in which poorer nations specialize in primary products such as raw minerals and agricultural products that are then shipped to industrialized nations that, in turn, make advanced products to be sold poorer nations, all of the benefits of international trade will go to the wealthy nations.

As a result of this deduction, Singer was a passionate advocate for increased foreign aid, in a variety of forms, to the developing world to offset the disproportionate gain to developed nations through trade. He attempted to create a 'soft-loan' fund, which offers loans at interests rates below the free market, to be administered by the United Nations but was systematically blocked by the United States and the United Kingdom, who wished to retain control of money flowing out of the UN.

Singer was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II in 1994. In 2001 the UN World Food Program awarded him the Food for Life award in recognition of his contribution to the battle against world hunger. [1] In November 2004, Singer was awarded the first Lifetime Achievement Award from the Development Studies Association. [2]

Other References

Shaw, John, Sir Hans W. Singer: The Life and Work of a Development Economist, Palgrave MacMillan, 2002 ISBN 0333711300

Singer, Hans Wolfgang and John-Ren Chen, Development Economics and Policy: The Conference Volume to Celebrate the 85th Birthday of Professor Sir Hans Singer Palgrave MacMillan, 1998. ISBN 0312210418