Marcel Alfons Gilbert van Meerhaeghe (12 April 1921 – 22 March 2014Obituary by Professor Domenico da Empoli (La Sapienza University, Rome) in Journal of Public Finance and Public Choice (from 1983 until 1997: Economia delle Scelte Pubbliche), Vol. XXX, 2012–1/3, p. 123 (published in 2014).) was a Belgian economist, professor, publicist and columnist.

Marcel van Meerhaeghe was Professor of International Economic Relations at the State University of Ghent.

Life and career

1939–1987

Initially Marcel van Meerhaeghe thought about a military career. In 1939 he passed the entrance exams for the Royal Military Academy (ERM). After the campaign of 1940 followed about seven months as a prisoner of war in a German camp (an intervention of King Leopold III resulted in the release of the ERM-students).

At Ghent University (Belgium) van Meerhaeghe obtained a master's degree in Economic Sciences in 1944 (first diet: July) and a Masters in Political Science and Sociology, also in 1944 (second diet: September). As regards the economics studies he attended the lectures given by Professor Raoul Miry who was the counterpart of Professor Gaston Eyskens of the university of Leuven.Bulletin d'Information et de Documentation, Banque Nationale de Belgique, Vol. II, N° 1, July 1937, editorial by Louis Franck (Governor), pp. 1–6.

In 1946 he obtained his PhD: Aviation in the traffic economy : the Belgian case in particular.

In 1947 he became part-time lecturer political economy at the Colonial University of Belgium (Antwerp) and in 1955 part-time lecturer colonial economy at the University of Ghent.

Before becoming Professor of economics and international economics at the University of Ghent in 1957,Sartonia (George Sarton Chair of the History of Sciences), Volume 19 (Academia Press, Ghent 2006), pp. 191–193. he worked as economic advisor in the Belgian Ministry of Economic Affairs,In 1945 he had started using data about the local economic policy in the town of Mechelen. as 'faculty advisor' of the NATO Defence College in Paris (1953–54)Hence his concern about proliferation (cf. the CoCom and his successor). and as an advisor to the Minister of Foreign Trade.D. Hesbois et al., Inventaire des archives de Jean-Charles, baron Snoy et d'Oppuers (1848–1961), State Archives in Belgium, BE-A0510 (Brussels 1988), pp. 96 and 183 (correspondence of 1956).

His interest covered all types of international academic cooperation and face-to-face interaction, which is why in September 1959 he was appointed visiting professor at the Official University of Belgian Kongo and Ruanda-Urundi in Elisabethville for the courses Histoire des doctrines sociales et économiques and Histoire des doctrines économiques.Rijksuniversiteit te Gent, Liber Memorialis 1913–1960, Deel III (ed. by prof. Theo Luykx) pp. 216–218. He obtained a visiting professorship at the universities of Amsterdam in 1962 and Constantine (Algeria) in 1975, as well as becoming a visiting fellow at Wolfson College, Cambridge in 1973.

Between 1961 and 1969 he was Vice-President and (since 1964) President of the Prices Commission, an advisory body to the Minister for Economic AffairsM. van Meerhaeghe, The Belgian Prices Commission, Review of World Economics, Hambourg, IC, Bd. 99, n° 2, 4. Trimester 1967, pp. 257–273. (replaced in 1969 by the Commission pour la régulation des prix: Royal Decree 3 June 1969).

Between 1962 and 1969 he was co-opted as a member of the , the umbrella institution of the Belgian federal social and economic dialogue.Le conseil central de l'économie: Fonctionnement réel et activité, comparaison avec le projet de loi organisant la fusion du C.C.E. et du conseil national du travail (III), Courrier Hebdomadaire du , juin 1964/20 (n° 245–246), p. 33.

Since 1971 he was also a member of the board of the Belgian-Luxemburg Exchange Control (Institut Belgo-Luxembourgeois du Change),M.A.G. van Meerhaeghe, The Belgium-Luxemburg Economic Union, Tilburg, SUERF Series 54 A, 1987. (A series of papers about monetary politics and financial systems of the Société Universitaire Européenne de Recherches Financières, founded near Paris in 1963.) chaired by the Governor of the Belgian National Bank, until November 2002 when this institution was dissolved (Euro).

Between 1972 and 1980 he was a member of the conseil général of the Caisse générale d'épargne et de retraite.

At its editors' request, van Meerhaeghe started a column in the Flemish business magazine Trends in 1975.There, since 1978, he worked with Johan Van Overtveldt who later became the chief editor: J. Van Overtveldt, The Chicago School (Agate, Chicago 2007). He also featured as a regular columnist in the newspaper The Standaard between 1988 and 1996.

, since 2017 chairman of the Belgian bank Crelan, was an assistant of Professor van Meerhaeghe at Ghent University.Luc Versele – de flandrien van het bankwezen, Durf Denken – Communitymagazine van de Ugent, January 2016, pp. 24–27.

M. van Meerhaeghe was always steadfast in taking a strictly independent line of argument. By all means he was an individualist – one might say a 'loner' – concurring with the suggestion of A. Einstein that the ideal occupation for the theoretical scientist is that of a lighthouse keeper. Unfortunately, sometimes he was misunderstood by persons driven by ignorance, superficiality and envy towards the well-heeled.Peter Heyrman, Inventaris van het archief André Vlerick (1919–1990), p. 187 (Kadoc, Leuven 2002). An example of a rule of best practice that leads to controversy when publicly stated: «A firm that puts the ethical considerations of other stakeholders such as employees first and business second could undermine the overall welfare of the firm and its shareholders/owners and even its employees» (van Meerhaeghe quoted by Professor Tom Turner and Dr. Lorraine Ryan).T. Turner and L. Ryan, Corporate social responsibility and independent employee representation: A Case of ethical confusion and contradictions, in Proceedings of the 11th Multidisciplinary Academic Conference (MAC Prague consulting s.r.o., Prague 2017), pp. 78–86.

A significant part of van Meerhaeghe's work belongs to what is commonly labelled as the American theory of public choice.Russell S. Sobel and Jennis J. Taylor, The Last 30 Years of Public Choice: An Analysis of Author and Institution Rankings, Public Choice, September 2004, Volume 120, Iss. 3–4, pp. 331–352. He advocated great concern for a sound use of government means (struggle against profligacy) and was favourable towards Taxpayers Associations (USA, Sweden, Federal Republic of Germany) that facilitate the contacts between the authorities and the public opinion.M.A.G. van Meerhaeghe, Een bond van belastingbetalers? (Trends, 1 March 1979, pp. 57–58), quoted in Fr. Loeckx and R. Van Dionant, Eléments de la Science des Impôts, Part 2 (Ministry of Finance, Brussels 1982), p. 387 (p. 393 in the Dutch edition).

Emeritus

After his Belgian retirement on 1 October 198625 jaar Faculteit Economische Wetenschappen RUG 1968–1993, eds. L. De Smet and J. Denduyver (Fac. Ec. en Toegepaste Ec. Wet., Ghent October 1993), pp. 6 and 32. van Meerhaeghe was successively visiting professor in international economics and European integration at the Centre of International Studies of the Tilburg University (1987),Economologues – Liber Amicorum voor Theo van de Klundert, ed. by A.B.T. van Schaik (Tilburg University, Department of Economics, 2001), pp. 24–25. at the London School of Economics, London University (academic year 1987–88 – the Belgian Chair), at the University of Turin (1989–92: Professor Count di Robilant of the Faculty of Law; 1997–98: Faculty of Economics) and during the academic years 1993–95 at the university of Rome (La Sapienza).

In 1987–1988 he was 'Special Adviser to the Commission of the European Communities', more particularly to Mr Willy De Clercq, former Belgian Vice Prime Minister and a member of the Commission (1985–1989: Commissioner for External Relations, responsible for international relations and foreign trade).At that time van Meerhaeghe was also a member of 'Europe-12 – Research and Action Committee on the EC', created in 1986. This committee published the series European Community Membership Evaluated.

M. van Meerhaeghe was member of the academic advisory council of the Brussels think-tank Institut Européen (Institutum Europaeum : 1979–2002)Joseph Schumpeter, Methodological Individualism, Michiel van Notten's translation of chapter VI of Schumpeter's (1908) Wesen und Hauptinhalt der theoretischen Nationalökonomie (Institutum Europaeum, Brussels 1980), p. i. and the conservative think-tank Centre for the New Europe (1993–2009). At the last one he published The Information Policy of the European Commission (Vol. 4, Zellik April 1995).Do Ideas Matter? Essays in Honour of , ed. by (CNE, Brussels July 2001), p. 160.Dr. Chris R. Tame, The Euro-Sceptical Directory (The Hampden Press, London 2002), p. 154. Since 1988 he was a Life Member of the Mont Pèlerin Society.Jacques Van Offelen, Mont Pèlerin Society – Inventory of the General Meeting Files 1947–1998 (Liberaal Archief vzw, Gent 2004), p. 70.

Between 1986 and 2009 he chaired the Board of Directors of Centrale Kredietverlening (CKV),Commissie voor het Bank- en Financiewezen – Prudentieel Toezicht, Ciculaire D1 357 aan de revisoren (depositobeschermingsregeling), 2 March 1995, p. 3. a small savings bank.Annual report 2006 (Waregem 2007).

M. van Meerhaeghe was one of the 165 German-speaking Professors of Economics who signed the Declaration « The Euro starts too early » (date: February 1998).Financial Times, 9 February 1998 (http://www.glasnost.de/db/DokZeit/9802euro.html).

Legacy

M. van Meerhaeghe is the author of 22 books (editor of 4 collective works) and about 160 articles.

Theory must reflect reality