ECONOMISTS from Belgium

Top 5

The following people are considered by Pantheon to be the most legendary Belgian Economists of all time. This list of famous Belgian Economists is sorted by HPI (Historical Popularity Index), a metric that aggregates information on a biography’s online popularity.

1. Silvio Gesell (1862 - 1930)

With an HPI of 60.28, Silvio Gesell is the most famous Belgian Economist.  His biography has been translated into 30 different languages on wikipedia.

Johann Silvio Gesell (German: [ɡəˈzɛl]; 17 March 1862 – 11 March 1930) was a German-Argentine economist, merchant, and the founder of Freiwirtschaft, an economic model for market socialism. In 1900 he founded the magazine Geld-und Bodenreform (Monetary and Land Reform), but it soon closed for financial reasons. During one of his stays in Argentina, where he lived in a vegetarian commune, Gesell started the magazine Der Physiokrat together with Georg Blumenthal. In 1914, it closed due to censorship. The Bavarian Soviet Republic, in which he participated, had a violent end and Gesell was detained for several months on a charge of treason, but was acquitted by a Munich court after a speech he gave in his own defense.

2. Gustave de Molinari (1819 - 1912)

With an HPI of 55.72, Gustave de Molinari is the 2nd most famous Belgian Economist.  His biography has been translated into 19 different languages.

Gustave de Molinari (French: [də mɔlinari]; 3 March 1819 – 28 January 1912) was a Belgian political economist and French Liberal School theorist associated with French laissez-faire economists such as Frédéric Bastiat and Hippolyte Castille.

3. Philippe Van Parijs (b. 1951)

With an HPI of 48.55, Philippe Van Parijs is the 3rd most famous Belgian Economist.  His biography has been translated into 20 different languages.

Philippe Van Parijs (French: [filip vɑ̃ paʁɛjs]; born May 23, 1951) is a Belgian political philosopher and political economist, best known as a proponent and main defender of the concept of an unconditional basic income and for the first systematic treatment of linguistic justice. In 2020, he was listed by Prospect as the eighth-greatest thinker for the COVID-19 era, with the magazine writing, "Today’s young UBI enthusiasts draw on the books and tap the networks of this Belgian polymath, who championed it before it was fashionable. For decades, he has warned that our proclaimed freedoms to start businesses or raise children count for nothing without the real freedom that comes with a basic income".

4. Bernard Lietaer (1942 - 2019)

With an HPI of 47.21, Bernard Lietaer is the 4th most famous Belgian Economist.  His biography has been translated into 16 different languages.

Bernard Lietaer (7 February 1942 – 4 February 2019) was a Belgian civil engineer, economist, author, and educator. He studied monetary systems and promoted the idea that communities can benefit from creating their own local or complementary currency, which circulate parallel with national currencies.

5. Gunter Pauli (b. 1956)

With an HPI of 46.10, Gunter Pauli is the 5th most famous Belgian Economist.  His biography has been translated into 17 different languages.

Gunter Pauli is an entrepreneur, economist, and author born in 1956 in Antwerp (Belgium). He is best known for his main work, The Blue Economy. He has lived on 4 continents, is fluent in 7 languages, is a resident of Japan since 1994 and spends most of his time in South Africa.