Hans Singer's Life a Testimony to the Power of Ideas

In a well-known toast to the Royal Economic Society in 1945, British development theorist Hans Singer assigned to economists the role of "trustees of the possibility of civilization." Today we might say trustees of the possibility of civilized globalization. He was referring, of course, to the role of economics as a "moral" science and to economists' responsibility to design public policies that address the failures of markets alone to ensure a just as well as efficient distribution.Hans Singer, or Sir Hans as he became known, died in late February at the age of 95. His ideas continue to matter -- see the obituaries in the British press and in the New York Times. We in the ideas business should all be so fortunate!Singer was the father of the Singer-Prebisch view, which said countries dependent on primary commodities would not benefit from free trade. The debate goes on today, for example on the likely development impact of the Doha round. In one corner is Harvard Professor Dani Rodrik (who is also chair of CGD's Advisory Committee), doubting deeply the benefits of liberalization alone; in the other is CGD/IIE joint senior fellow Bill Cline, estimating that almost 500 million people could be pulled from poverty (See his CGD book: Trade Policy and Global Poverty) My own view is that for poor countries dependent on commodities, globalization, is like "stormy days" so enjoy fair weather but be prepared too..Development practitioners should check out the obituaries in the Economist and the Guardian -- respectively what we might call the UK's right of center and left of center newspapers. The Economist obituary worries over the damaging consequences of the Singer-Prebisch thesis: "giving third-world countries licence to pursue import-substitution schemes behind protective tariffs as their main development strategy." I liked more The Guardian obituary written by Richard Jolly, former Chief Economist of the UNDP and economic historian of the UN. Sir Richard Jolly notes a second key contribution of Sir Hans Singer: from his post at the UN he fought for the idea of soft loans to poorer countries -- against the resistance of the then World Bank President! Shades of the recent debate over loans vs. grants in the World Bank's IDA window, and over pricing and instruments at the World Bank 40 years later.