Víctor Luis Urquidi Bingham (3 May 1919 – 23 August 2004) was a Mexican civil servant, economist, and academic.

Biography

Víctor Urquidi was born in

Neuilly Neuilly (, ) is a common place name in France, deriving from the male given name A given name (also known as a forename or first name) is the part of a personal name quoted in that identifies a person, potentially with a middle name as we ...

, France. considered one of the most outstanding Mexican economists of the 20th century, he earned a first degree in economics at the

London School of Economics The London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) is a public university, public research university located in London, England and a constituent college of the federal University of London. Founded in 1895 by Fabian Society members Sidn ...

in 1940 and, in 1941, joined the economic studies department of the

Banco de México The Bank of Mexico ( es, Banco de México), abbreviated ''BdeM'' or ''Banxico,'' is Mexico's central bank, monetary authority and lender of last resort. The Bank of Mexico is autonomous in exercising its functions, and its main objective is to ac ...

(Mexico's central bank). In July 1944, he was a member of the Mexican delegation to the

Bretton Woods conference The Bretton Woods Conference, formally known as the United Nations Monetary and Financial Conference, was the gathering of 730 delegates from all 44 Allied nations at the Mount Washington Hotel, situated in Bretton Woods, New Hampshire, Unite ...

. He also worked at the federal

Secretariat of Finance and Public Credit The Secretariat of the Treasury and Public Credit ( es, Secretaría de Hacienda y Crédito Público, SHCP) is the finance ministry of Mexico. The Secretary of the Treasury is the head of the department, and is a member of the federal executive ...

, for the

Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean The United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean, known as ECLAC, UNECLAC or in Spanish and Portuguese CEPAL, is a United Nations regional commission to encourage economic cooperation. ECLAC includes 46 member States (2 ...

(ECLAC), and was on the Executive Committee of the Club of Rome. From 1949 to 1957 he was the editor of the journal '' El Trimestre Económico''. In 1964, Urquidi was one of the founders of the Centre for Economic and Demographic Studies of the Colegio de México, which enabled the creation of Mexico's first postgraduate course in economics. He served as president of the Colegio de México from 1966 to 1985 and, in 1989, was named

professor emeritus ''Emeritus'' (; female: ''emerita'') is an adjective used to designate a retired chair, professor, pastor, bishop, pope, director, president, prime minister, rabbi, emperor, or other person who has been "permitted to retain as an honorary title ...

. On 1 August 1960, he was elected to the National College, but resigned from it in 1968. He received the National Science and Arts Prize in 1977 and the National Demography Prize in 1994 for his research into Mexican migration to the United States. Victor Urquidi had two children by his first marriage to Marjory Jean Mattingly: Joaquín Urquidi, born in 1947, and Marina Urquidi, born in 1949, both in Washington, DC, when he was working for the

World Bank The World Bank is an international financial institution that provides loans and grants to the governments of low- and middle-income countries for the purpose of pursuing capital projects. The World Bank is the collective name for the Inte ...

. In 1982 he and Sheila Ann Breen were married and were together until Victor's death in

Mexico City Mexico City ( es, link=no, Ciudad de México, ; abbr.: CDMX; Nahuatl: ''Altepetl Mexico'') is the capital city, capital and primate city, largest city of Mexico, and the List of North American cities by population, most populous city in North Amer ...

in 2004.

Works

Most of his works were published by the

Fondo de Cultura Económica Fondo de Cultura Económica (FCE or simply "Fondo") is a Spanish language, non-profit publishing group, partly funded by the Mexican government. It is based in Mexico but it has subsidiaries throughout the Spanish-speaking world. It was founded in ...

, including: *1962: ''Viabilidad económica de América Latina'' *1996: ''México en la globalización'' *2000: ''La globalización y las opciones nacionales. Memoria'' *2005: ''Otro siglo perdido. Las políticas de desarrollo en América Latina (1930-2004)''

External links and references

Víctor Urquidi: BiographyInterview with Víctor L. Urquidi
{{DEFAULTSORT:Urquidi, Victor 1919 births 2004 deaths Mexican economists Mexican people of Basque descent Members of El Colegio Nacional (Mexico) French expatriates in the United Kingdom French emigrants to Mexico