Singer, Sir Hans Wolfgang

▪ 2007

      German-born British economist (b. Nov. 29, 1910, Elberfeld, Ger.—d. Feb. 26, 2006, Brighton, East Sussex, Eng.), was a leading development economist noted for his groundbreaking work on poverty. Singer was educated (1929–33) at the University of Bonn but fled Nazi Germany in 1933. On the personal recommendation of economist Joseph Schumpeter, he studied with John Maynard Keynes at King's College, Cambridge. Singer later worked (1947–69) at the United Nations and taught economics (1969–2006) at the University of Sussex. He was perhaps best known for the controversial Prebisch-Singer hypothesis (developed independently in 1949–50 by Singer and Argentine economist Raúl Prebisch), in which Singer argued that less-developed countries, which rely on primary commodity exports, fared poorly in long-term trade with industrialized nations. His other unorthodox ideas included support for food aid, and he played a key role in the establishment of the UN's World Food Programme (1961) and Development Programme (1965). Singer was knighted in 1994.

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