Peter Thomas Bauer

Peter Bauer was a central figure in the 20th-century debates over economic development, foreign aid, and the role of institutions ... His pioneering work in development economics, which began with his study of the Southeast Asian rubber industry in the 1940s and his classic 1954 book, West African Trade, led him to question and later overturn many of the beliefs held by mainstream development experts. His path-breaking work was primarily carried out while at the London School of Economics and Political Science, where he taught from 1960 to 1983.

Professor Bauer was chosen for his pioneering work in the field of development economics, where he stood virtually alone for many years as a critic of state-led development policy with its emphasis on central planning and external foreign aid. From 1948 when The Rubber Industry was published to the publication in 2000 of From Subsistence to Exchange, Bauer wrote books that challenged the prevailing development orthodoxy, including the myth that poverty is self‐​perpetuating. Through a half century of scholarship, Bauer was an outspoken champion of global economic liberty.