LSE – Poland interesting facts

Bronislaw Malinowski arrived at the LSE’s Anthropology Department in 1910, helping it rise to prominence as he developed what is known as British social anthropology. He is one of the most distinguished academics in the history of the London School of Economics. In honor of Malinowski, the LSE runs the annual Malinowski Memorial Lectures.

• Biography
• Malinowski Memorial Lectures
• Malinowski photographs

The Rybczynski Theorem (applied in International Trade) is named after Polish-born English economist Tadeusz Rybczynski (1923 – 1998) who did his BSc in Economics at the LSE and later went on to make big £ millions in the City. The theorem says that when one of two factors of production (K, L) is increased there is a relative increase in the production of the good using more of that factor, which leads to a corresponding decline in that goods relative price (see also Hecksher-Ohlin Theory)

• Rybczynski Theorem

Beyond the LSE’s official international listing of prominent Alumni who have achieved success and leadership in politics, academics, business, finance & media, there are a number from Poland (and naturally we are very proud of this fact):

• Prof. Marek Belka
  Former Prime Minister of Poland, Chairman of the Council for International Coordination of Iraq and Director of Economic Policy in Iraq, Minister of Finance, Chief Adviser to the President of Poland, consultant to various organizations.

• Edward Franciszek Szczepanik
  Polish economist, last Prime Minister of the Polish Government in exile in London. Studied before WWII at the Warsaw School of Economics, gaining his MSc and PhD at the LSE under Professors Friedrich von Hayek and Lionel Robbins after World War II.

• Prof. Stanislaw Gomulka
  Reader in Economics at LSE, Chief Economist of PZU SA, former adviser to the Ministry of Finance, co-designer of the Balcerowicz Plan (Poland’s ‘shock therapy’ reforms under a team of economists headed by Leszek Balcerowicz, including Gomulka, Jeffrey Sachs, Stefan Kawalec and Wojciech Misiag).

• Wieslaw Rozlucki
  CEO Warsaw Stock Exchange 1991-2006, former adviser to the Minister of Finance.

• Prof. Zygmunt Bauman
  One of the world’s most renown sociologists and philosophers, during his stay at the LSE he published his first paper on British socialism. Bauman's research interests focus around social stratification, the labour movement, the nature of modernity, postmodernity, and ethical issues surrounding it.

  Bauman became very popular after publishing his book on the presumed connection between the ideology of modernity and the Holocaust. Winner of the European Amalfi Prize for Sociology & Social Sciences, and the Theodor W. Adorno Award.

• Tadeusz Rybczynski
  Polish-born English economist (see Rybczynski Theorem at top of page).

• Leopold Labedz
  Conservative Anglo-Polish historian, studied at the LSE following World War II, headed London’s KOR office, strong opponent of communism, advocate of Solidarity, political prisoners in the USSR, and one of Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn’s main champions.

• Manfred Lachs
  Longest-serving judge at the International Court of Justice (1967 – 1993), greatly involved with diplomacy and the development of international law after World War II. Professor of law, attended the LSE after studying at the University of Krakow.

• Prof. Jacek Rostowski
  Professor at the Central European University in Budapest, former Chairman of the Macroeconomic Policy Council at the Polish Ministry of Finance.

• Prof. Adam Ostaszewski, Mathematics Department, Centre for Discrete and Applied Mathematics
• Dr. Anita Prazmowska, International History Department
• Dr. Malwina Luczak, Mathematics Department, Centre for Discrete and Applied Mathematics
• Dr. Ela Klecun, Information Systems Department

Silvana Tenreyro’s and Francesco Caselli’s (both LSE) research paper on Is Poland the Next Spain? can be found here.

LSE Alumni Club in Poland

The PFLSE (Polish Friends of the LSE) alumni club in Poland website: http://www.bas.org.pl/bas/alumni_lse.jsp