Marcel Alfons Gilbert van Meerhaeghe (Wetteren, 12 April 1921 – Ghent, 22 March 2014) was a Belgian economist, professor, publicist and columnist.
Marcel van Meerhaeghe was Professor of International Economic Relations at the State University of Ghent.
In his long and distinguished career, Professor van Meerhaeghe gave important contributions to economics and also to the interpretation of economic events. His rare ability to combine theoretical and practical analyses made particularly valuable his scientific works.
Life and career
1939–1987
Initially Marcel van Meerhaeghe thought about a military career. In 1939 he passed the entrance exams for the École Royale Militaire (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.
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 Koloniale Hogeschool (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, he worked as economic advisor in the Belgian Ministry of Economic Affairs, as 'faculty advisor' of the NATO Defence College in Paris (1953–54) and as an advisor to the Minister of Foreign Trade.
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. 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 Affairs (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 Conseil Central de l'Économie, the umbrella institution of the Belgian federal social and economic dialogue.
Since 1971 he was also a member of the board of the Belgian-Luxemburg Exchange Control (Institut Belgo-Luxembourgeois du Change), 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. He also featured as a regular columnist in the newspaper The Standaard between 1988 and 1996.
Luc Versele, since 2017 chairman of the Belgian bank Crelan, was an assistant of Professor van Meerhaeghe at Ghent University.
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. 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).
A significant part of van Meerhaeghe's work belongs to what is commonly labelled as the American theory of public choice. 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.