For more than half a century, Gross Domestic Product (GDP) has been viewed as the dominant indicator of economic and social progress. Its visibility and increasingly widespread use have contributed to the incorrect identification of economic growth (that is, increased GDP) with improved...

In Belgium as in France, the period between the wars was marked by a monetary stabilization in 1926 and a devaluation in the middle of the 1930s. This article compares the context and the consequences of these apparently similar exchange rate policies. The economic consequences of the...

The socioeconomic development of most European countries has been largely shaped by social dialogue, by negotiations between employers and workers representatives. To that respect, Belgium has played a pivotal role. The Belgian post-WW2 institutions, aimed at fostering social dialogue, are often...

We present a simple mathematical model for the transition to a sustainable economy in order to explore the long-run evolution of an economy that achieves environment protection, full recycling of material resources and limitation of greenhouse gas emissions. The main concern is to investigate...

[fre] Les « banques mixtes » qui ont soutenu l’expansion industrielle de la Belgique au XIXe siècle et au début du XXe siècle ont été scindées en 1934-35 en banques de dépôt d’une part et sociétés de portefeuille d’autre part. Cette réforme, introduite en temps de crise pour...

In the middle of the twentieth century, Belgium seems to have undergone a fairly rapid transformation from a relatively low-wage economy to a high-wage economy. How could Belgian business handle this change in its cost structure? Was it through exceptional technical progress? The best-known...

Professor L.H. Dupriez (1901-1986), founder of the Economic and Social Research Institute (IRES) and of the Department of Economics at the Catholic University of Louvain, was a leading figure in both the theory and the application of economics in Belgium during the 20th century. His personal...

The growth of the Belgian economy since 1945 is surveyed with emphasis on the distinction between open and sheltered sectors. Relatively slow growth to around 1960 is explained by a move away from traditionally liberal industrial policies that began in the crisis of the 1930s, by the squeeze on...