Costin Murgescu | |
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Born | Constantin Ion Murgescu October 27, 1919 |
Died | August 30, 1989 | (aged 69)
Other names | V. Borcea |
Academic background | |
Alma mater | Bolyai University Bucharest Academy of Economic Studies |
Influences | Petru Comarnescu, Dimitrie Gusti, Mihail Manoilescu, Victor Slăvescu, Gheorghe Zane |
Academic work | |
Era | 20th century |
School or tradition | |
Institutions | University of Bucharest Institute of Economic Conjecture Romanian Academy Institute of South-East European Studies |
Main interests | Economic history, political economy, economic forecasting, management science, economic sociology, political philosophy, Romanian literature |
Influenced | Victor Babiuc, Eugen Dijmărescu, Mugur Isărescu, Bogdan Murgescu, Napoleon Pop |
Costin Ion Murgescu (Romanian pronunciation: [kosˈtin iˈon murˈdʒesku], birth name Constantin Ion Murgescu;[1] October 27, 1919 – August 30, 1989) was a Romanian economist, jurist, journalist and diplomat. A supporter of fascism during his youth, he switched to communism by the end of World War II, and became an editor of the Communist Party daily organ, România Liberă. He taught at the University of Bucharest and worked for the Institute of Economic Conjecture. Having campaigned for multilateralism in world affairs as early as 1944, he helped to distance Romania from the Soviet Union after 1964, and later represented his country at the United Nations. He wrote extensively, publishing works on the effects of land reform and industrialization, on the history of economic thought, and on Romania's relations with the Comecon and the First World.
An innovator among the Romanian communist intellectual and professional elite, Murgescu spent his final decades questioning the assumptions of Marxian economics. At the Institute for World Economy, which later became a branch of the Romanian Academy, he trained a new generation of like-minded economists. Shortly before his death, he was involved in dissidence against the Nicolae Ceaușescu regime. Although he did not live long enough to witness the 1989 Revolution, he played an indirect part in shaping the economic policies to which the country turned in post-communism. The estranged son of Lieutenant Colonel Murgescu, a convicted war criminal, Costin Murgescu was married to Ecaterina Oproiu, a Romanian writer and social commentator. He was survived by his nephew and disciple, historian Bogdan Murgescu.