Kurt Mandelbaum (13 November 1904 – 28 September 1995), also known as Kurt Martin and Curt Martin, was a German-British economist known for his pioneering contribution in the field of the economics of development. In his youth Mandelbaum was involved with leftist politics and had several years at the Frankfurt School for Social Research. During the war worked with allied intelligence and subsequently joined the Oxford Institute of Statistics. Whilst at Oxford he undertook his study of the problems of recovery in S.E. Europe. This small book which was to become one of core texts for the new discipline, stressed * the need to mobilize savings, * the need for infrastructure, * the extent of disguised rural unemployment, * the need for calculating inter-industry calculations (anticipating the use of input-output analysis). In 1950 he moved to Manchester and with his colleague W. Arthur Lewis helped establish the Department of Economics at the

University of Manchester The University of Manchester is a public university, public research university in Manchester, England. The main campus is south of Manchester city centre, Manchester City Centre on Wilmslow Road, Oxford Road. The University of Manchester is c ...

as a major centre in Development Economics research and teaching. After retiring from Manchester he worked for a further seventeen years at the

Institute of Social Studies An institute is an organizational body created for a certain purpose. They are often research organisations ( research institutes) created to do research on specific topics, or can also be a professional body. In some countries, institutes ...

The Hague The Hague ( ) is the capital city of the South Holland province of the Netherlands. With a population of over half a million, it is the third-largest city in the Netherlands. Situated on the west coast facing the North Sea, The Hague is the c ...

. Mandelbaum (also known as Kurt Martin and Curt Martin) was one of a group of emigre economists from

Central Europe Central Europe is a geographical region of Europe between Eastern Europe, Eastern, Southern Europe, Southern, Western Europe, Western and Northern Europe, Northern Europe. Central Europe is known for its cultural diversity; however, countries in ...

who played a large role in founding the discipline of

development economics Development economics is a branch of economics that deals with economic aspects of the development process in low- and middle- income countries. Its focus is not only on methods of promoting economic development, economic growth and structural c ...

in the UK, during and shortly after World War II. In general these economists doubted the usefulness of

neoclassical economics Neoclassical economics is an approach to economics in which the production, consumption, and valuation (pricing) of goods and services are observed as driven by the supply and demand model. According to this line of thought, the value of a go ...

with its presumptions of smoothly operating markets and saw the role of the state as being key to the development process. The industrialization debates in the USSR in the 1920s were their starting point.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mandelbaum, Kurt German development economists 1904 births 1995 deaths 20th-century German economists German emigrants to the United Kingdom Academics of the Victoria University of Manchester