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Oral history interview with Hans W. Singer, 2000.

Creator: Singer, H. W. 1910-2006
Project: United Nations intellectual history project (UNIHP).
(see all project interviews)
Phys. Desc. :Transcript 106 pages Sound recording 4 audiocassettes
Location: Columbia Center for Oral History
Full CLIO record >>

Biographical Note

UN Economist

Scope and Contents

Background and childhood: born November 29, 1910 in Elberfeld, Germany, member of the Jewish minority, eldest child, father served as medical corps doctor in Germany army, mother, housewife; education: Diploma of Economics, University of Bonn, 1929-32, Kings College, Cambridge University; career: lecturer in political economy, University of Glasgow, 1946, 22 years as economist for United Nations [UN] beginning 1947, involvement in economic aspects of United Nations Children's Fund [UNICEF], Department of Economic Affairs, World Food Programme [WFP], United Nations Research Institute for Social Development [UNRISD], Economic Commission for Africa [ECA], and African Development Bank, director of Economic Division of United Nations Industrial Development Organization [UNIDO], 1967-69, honorary fellow at Institute of Development Studies at University of Sussex; themes: experience of economic hyperinflation in Germany after WWI leading to interest in economic and social issues, Prebisch/Singer thesis of deteriorating terms of trade, effect of thesis on international public policy discourse and policy in '50s and '60s, influences of League of Nations on UN, effects of Cold War on economic work, UN leadership, involvement and writing of UNICEF publication, accusations of communism during McCarthy period, Development Decade (1960s), employment and economic inequalities in poor nations, family reminiscences, colleague reminiscences

Subjects

Access Conditions

Copyright by the Ralph Bunche Institute for International Studies, The Graduate Center, The City University of New York, 2000

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