Eprime Eshag (, born

Urmia Urmia (; ) is the largest city in West Azerbaijan Province of Iran. In the Central District of Urmia County, it is capital of the province, the county, and the district. The city is situated near the borders of Iran with Turkey and Iraq. ...

Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI) and also known as Persia, is a country in West Asia. It borders Iraq to the west, Turkey, Azerbaijan, and Armenia to the northwest, the Caspian Sea to the north, Turkmenistan to the nort ...

, 6 November 1918 – died

Oxford Oxford () is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and non-metropolitan district in Oxfordshire, England, of which it is the county town. The city is home to the University of Oxford, the List of oldest universities in continuou ...

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, 24 November 1998) was an Assyrian-Iranian-born

Keynesian Keynesian economics ( ; sometimes Keynesianism, named after British economist John Maynard Keynes) are the various macroeconomic theories and models of how aggregate demand (total spending in the economy) strongly influences economic output an ...

socialist

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 ...

.Golestan, Ebrahim and Andrew Roth (1998) Keynes's Iranian pupil, ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

'', 11 December 1998; p. 22 He was born to an Assyrian family; his father was a preacher and his family was "of no great means." In 1936, Eshag won a scholarship from the

Bank Melli Iran Bank Melli Iran (BMI; ) is the first national and commercial retail bank of Iran. It was the largest Iranian company in terms of annual income with a revenue of 364 657 billion rials in 2016. It is the largest bank in the Islamic world and ...

to study accountancy at the

London School of Economics The London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), established in 1895, is a public research university in London, England, and a member institution of the University of London. The school specialises in the social sciences. Founded ...

. Whilst there his interests turned to economics and he was noticed by J. M. Keynes as being "''a man of promise''". After working in the Bank Melli in Tehran for a short period in 1946, he left to pursue private accountancy work. At around this time he was active in the left-wing

Tudeh Party The Tudeh Party of Iran is an Iranian communist party. Formed in 1941, with Soleiman Mirza Eskandari as its head, it had considerable influence in its early years and played an important role during Mohammad Mosaddegh's campaign to nationalize ...

. In his work, Eshag was influenced by and supported the work of

Joan Robinson Joan Violet Robinson ( Maurice; 31 October 1903 – 5 August 1983) was a British economist known for her wide-ranging contributions to economic theory. One of the most prominent economists of the century, Robinson incarnated the "Cambridge Sc ...

Michał Kalecki Michał Kalecki (; 22 June 1899 – 18 April 1970) was a Polish Marxian economist. Over the course of his life, Kalecki worked at the London School of Economics, University of Cambridge, University of Oxford, and Warsaw School of Economics, ...

as well as J. M. Keynes and was particularly noted for applying his economic knowledge in the context of development. He was appointed by the

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is the Earth, global intergovernmental organization established by the signing of the Charter of the United Nations, UN Charter on 26 June 1945 with the stated purpose of maintaining international peace and internationa ...

(UN) as an Economic Affairs Officer in the UN Secretariat and spent nearly a decade there. His period with the UN ended after a confrontation with UN Secretary General

Dag Hammarskjöld Dag Hjalmar Agne Carl Hammarskjöld (English: ,; 29 July 1905 – 18 September 1961) was a Swedish economist and diplomat who served as the second secretary-general of the United Nations from April 1953 until his death in a plane crash in Septe ...

over the latter's request that Eshag tone down his critique of western powers' role in the Congo. In 1963, Eshag became a

Fellow A fellow is a title and form of address for distinguished, learned, or skilled individuals in academia, medicine, research, and industry. The exact meaning of the term differs in each field. In learned society, learned or professional society, p ...

Wadham College Wadham College ( ) is a constituent college of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom. It is located in the centre of Oxford, at the intersection of Broad Street and Parks Road. Wadham College was founded in 1610 by Dorothy Wadham, a ...

and a lecturer at the Institute of Economics and Statistics in

Oxford University The University of Oxford is a collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the second-oldest continuously operating u ...

. He stayed at

from 1963 to his partial retirement in 1986. During this period, he continued working for the United Nations on various contracts. The most noted of his publications was his (1984) ''Fiscal and Monetary Policies and Problems in Developing Countries''.

References

20th-century British economists 1918 births 1998 deaths 20th-century Iranian economists Iranian Assyrian people People from Urmia Fellows of Wadham College, Oxford Iranian expatriate academics Iranian emigrants to the United Kingdom British people of Assyrian descent Tudeh Party of Iran members {{Iran-economist-stub