Georges de Ménil (born December 4, 1940) is a macroeconomics policy advisor, European political commentator, and professor emeritus of economics in France and the United States.
He was Enseignant-Chercheur at l'EHESS.
Early years
Educated at Phillips Exeter Academy, Harvard University (BA), and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (PhD), he was one of the four co-authors of a 1966 historical study edited by sociologist Laurence Wiley, Chanzeaux, a village in Anjou.Chanzeaux a village in Anjou. (editor Laurence Wylie) Harvard University Press, 1966. de Ménil’s PhD thesis focused on how wage rates are determined, and was published by MIT Press as "Bargaining: Monopoly Power vs. Union Power."Bargaining Monopoly Power vs. Union Power. MIT Press, Cambridge Massachusetts, 1971. It employed an economic model cited by Solow in a later work.Ian M. McDonald and Robert M. Solow, "Wage Bargaining and Employment," American Economic Review, Vol. 71, No. 5 (December 1981), pp. 896-908. Reference to George de Menil's model is on p. 902. He worked as head of the Quarterly Forecasting Model Group of the French Ministry of Finance.Nation Bureau of Economic Research https://www.nber.org/chapters/c9790.pdf In 2000, he published Economic Reform in Ukraine: The Unfinished Agenda, jointly edited with Anders Aslund.Ukrainian Economic Reform: The Unfinished Agenda. (edited with Anders Aslund), M.E. Sharpe, Armonk NY, 2000.
De Ménil made efforts to reform the Ukrainian and Romanian,Profile of Georges de Ménil's work, including in Ukraine and Romania, with the Center for Social and Economic Research (CASE) http://www.case-research.eu/en/node/51508 and later the Yugoslav banking systems.“Restructuring of the Yugoslav Banking System,” Report of a UNDP and Kennedy School of Government team of experts, 2001 In 2004 he defended the idea of a European constitution, but called into question enshrining social rights within it, a position he put forth in a book written for a Euro-sceptic French audience "Quelle Constitution pour l’Europe?".Quelle Constitution pour l’Europe? (edited with Thierry Chopin), Fondation Robert Schuman, 2004. He is treasurer of the American Foundation for the Paris School of Economics.
Subsequent career In 2007 he published a book written for a lay audience looking at French social problems from the angle of American experiences: inner-city ghettos, unemployment, immigration, educational failings. The book, Common Sense: Pour débloquer la société française,Common Sense: pour débloquer la société française. Odile Jacob, Paris, 2007. makes an unpopular case (in France) in favor of affirmative action, lowering the minimum wage (known in French as the SMIC), and charging sliding-scale fees for university education.Radio discussion on France Culture about the book Common Sense http://www.franceculture.fr/oeuvre-common-sense-pour-d%C3%A9bloquer-la-soci%C3%A9t%C3%A9-fran%C3%A7aise-de-georges-de-m%C3%A9nil.html On the basis of this book, the Academy of Moral and Political Sciences at the Institut de France awarded him in 2007 a prize for an outstanding publication in the social sciences.
In January 2015, de Menil was awarded a prize from France’s Société d’Economie Politique for an article in the journal Commentaire querying the role of economists in causing the 2008 global economic crisis and urging greater prudence and humility across the social sciences.G de Menil “La science économique et le contrôle du risque macroéconomique : une illusion dangereuse » in Commentaire 2014 https://www.societedeconomiepolitique.org/sites/default/files/146_DEMENIL.PDF In April 2015, he was appointed one of ten external members to the division of Political Economy, Statistics and Finance of the French Académie des Sciences Morales et Politiques.List of correspondent members of the Académie des Sciences Morales et Politiques http://www.asmp.fr/presentation/correspondants.htm In 2008, he contributed to a report published by that academy on the topic of teaching methods for economics
References
External links CV