Home>Philippe Martin: The Legacy of a Leading Economist
28.02.2024
Philippe Martin: The Legacy of a Leading Economist
Philippe Martin, Professor at Sciences Po within the Department of Economics and Dean of the School of Public Affairs, passed away in December 2023. He will be deeply missed at Sciences Po but also by the research community in economics as a whole – in particular at the CEPR, the CAE, the AFSE…
We wanted to share a few words from some of his closest colleagues and a look back at his invaluable research work by two of his co-authors and Sciences Po colleagues, Nicolas Cœurdacier and Thierry Mayer.
A true hero to the research community
José De Sousa, Professor at Pantheon-Assas university, gave a tribute to Philippe Martin on the French Economic Association (AFSE) website. He recalled that “his ability to simplify and present complex and sophisticated reasoning in an accessible and intuitive way was both remarkable and inspiring". An avid reader of his columns for the newspaper Libération, Pr. De Sousa frequently included them in his teachings ”to illustrate the relevance of applied economics", for instance “The bitter cost of coffee” ("Le coût amer du café" in French) or “Behind the scenes of the ‘Made in France’ label" ("Les dessous du 'made in France’" in French). He worked with Philippe Martin, Nicolas Berman and Thierry Mayer on the article Time to Ship During Financial Crises, in which they showed that delays in the delivery of goods around the world exacerbate the impact of financial crises on trade.
The Centre for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR) considers Philippe Martin to be a “true CEPR hero”. He wasn't only CEPR's Vice President for Europe but also a Research Fellow in three programmes – International Macroeconomics and Finance, International Trade and Regional Economics and Macroeconomics and Growth – as well as a member of four Research and Policy Networks. The CEPR set up a page to collect tributes, 46 have already been published. Some of his closest colleagues and co-authors got involved to honour his memory.
Nicolas Cœurdacier, a fellow Professor of Economics at Sciences Po, praised his “tireless support to young researchers and his commitment to passing on his knowledge and experience to his students, with remarkable pedagogy”. Pierre-Olivier Gourinchas, Research Director and Economic Counsellor at the International Monetary Fund, and Hélène Rey, Professor of Economics at London Business School, consider themselves lucky to have been his co-authors. They describe his work “on trade and wars, economic geography and public policies, globalisation and financial crises, European policies, exchange rates and trade” as “extremely creative and influential”.
Sciences Po's Department of Economics also contributed to this moving tribute to their first chair, from 2008 to 2013, that ensured their astonishing development by “mixing the best international practices with a certain creativity in the design of the department