Clément Colson (13 November 1853 – 24 March 1939) was a French

political economist Politics () is the set of activities that are associated with making decisions in groups, or other forms of power relations among individuals, such as the distribution of status or resources. The branch of social science that studies poli ...

. He was born in

Versailles The Palace of Versailles ( ; ) is a former royal residence commissioned by King Louis XIV located in Versailles, Yvelines, Versailles, about west of Paris, in the Yvelines, Yvelines Department of Île-de-France, Île-de-France region in Franc ...

and died in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

. Colson was honorary president of the

Société d'économie politique The Société d’Economie Politique () is a French learned society concerned with political economy. It was founded in 1842 to provide a forum for discussion of free trade, a subject of violent debate at the time, and has continued to organize dis ...

from 1929 to 1933.''Le Temps'', 26 mars 1939
/ref> Colson was trained as an engineer and became Inspecteur-général des ponts et chaussées. He lectured on political economy at Ecole Polytechnique, Ecole des ponts et chaussées, and

Ecole Libre des Sciences Politiques Sciences Po () or Sciences Po Paris, also known as the Paris Institute of Political Studies (), is a public research university located in Paris, France, that holds the status of ''grande école'' and the legal status of . The university's unde ...

. His lectures were public in book form which brought him public notice. He made contributions to statistical techniques in economics. His first book was on transport statistics. He ended his career as president of the finance section of the Council of State (1920) and finally vice-president of the Council of State ( 1923-1928 ). Elected, the April 30, 1910, a full member of the political economy, statistics and finance section, in the chair of Émile Cheysson , he presided over the Academy of Moral and Political Sciences in 1922. In 1925 he spoke out in favour of the devaluation of the franc , which once again attracted the disapproval of the government.

References

French civil engineers École Polytechnique alumni École des Ponts ParisTech alumni Corps des ponts Conseil d'État (France) 1853 births 1939 deaths French economists People from Versailles Fellows of the Econometric Society {{France-academic-bio-stub