Leszek Balcerowicz | |
|---|---|
 Balcerowicz in 1991 | |
| Deputy Prime Minister of Poland | |
| In office 31 October 1997 – 8 June 2000 | |
| President | Aleksander Kwaśniewski |
| Prime Minister | Jerzy Buzek |
| In office 12 September 1989 – 23 December 1991 | |
| President | Wojciech Jaruzelski Lech Wałęsa |
| Prime Minister | Tadeusz Mazowiecki Jan Krzysztof Bielecki |
| Minister of Finance | |
| In office 31 October 1997 – 8 June 2000 | |
| Prime Minister | Jerzy Buzek |
| Preceded by | Marek Belka |
| Succeeded by | Jarosław Bauc |
| In office 12 September 1989 – 23 December 1991 | |
| Prime Minister | Tadeusz Mazowiecki Jan Krzysztof Bielecki |
| Preceded by | Andrzej Wróblewski |
| Succeeded by | Karol Lutowski |
| President of The National Bank of Poland | |
| In office 10 January 2001 – 10 January 2007 | |
| President | Aleksander Kwaśniewski Lech Kaczyński |
| Prime Minister | Jerzy Buzek Leszek Miller Marek Belka Kazimierz Marcinkiewicz Jarosław Kaczyński |
| Preceded by | Hanna Gronkiewicz-Waltz |
| Succeeded by | Sławomir Skrzypek |
| Chairman of the Freedom Union | |
| In office 1 April 1995 – 18 December 2000 | |
| Preceded by | Tadeusz Mazowiecki |
| Succeeded by | Bronisław Geremek |
| Personal details | |
| Born | (1947-01-19)19 January 1947 (age 78) |
| Political party | Freedom Union,Partia Demokratyczna – demokraci.pl |
| Spouse | Ewa Balcerowicz |
| Children | Maciej (b. 1972) & Wojciech (b. 1980) & Anna (b. 1984) |
| Profession | Economist |
| Academic background | |
| Influences | Hayek ·Thatcher ·Friedman |
| Academic work | |
| Notable ideas | Balcerowicz Plan |
| Part ofa series on |
| Liberalism in Poland |
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Leszek Henryk Balcerowicz (pronounced[ˈlɛʂɛk balt͡sɛˈrɔvit͡ʂ] ⓘ; born 19 January 1947) is a Polish economist, statesman, and Professor atWarsaw School of Economics. He served as Chairman of theNational Bank of Poland (2001–2007) and twice asDeputy Prime Minister of Poland (1989–1991, 1997–2001).
In 1989, he became Minister of Finance inTadeusz Mazowiecki's first non-communist government and led thefree-market economic reforms, proponents of which say they have transformed Poland into one of Europe's fastest growing economies,[1][2][3][4] but which critics say were followed by a large increase in unemployment.[5] In 2007, he founded the Civic Development Forum (Forum Obywatelskiego Rozwoju) think-tank and became the chairman of its council.
In 1970 he graduated with distinction from the Foreign Trade faculty of the Central School of Planning and Statistics inWarsaw (currently:SGH Warsaw School of Economics).[6] Balcerowicz received hisMBA fromSt. John's University in New York, in 1974 and doctorate from the Central School of Planning and Statistics in 1975.[6]
He was a member of the Polishcommunist party (Polish United Workers' Party) from 1969 until the declaration ofmartial law in Poland, in 1981.[7] In the late 1970s he participated in an economic-advisory team associated with the prime minister ofPeople's Republic of Poland.[8] In 1978–1980 he worked at theInstitute of Marxism-Leninism. Later he became an economics expert in the pro-democracy independent trade unionSolidarity (NSZZ "Solidarność").
From 1989 to 1991 and also between 1997 and 2000 he was the Deputy Prime Minister andFinance Minister of Poland. Between 1995 and 2000 he was the chairman ofFreedom Union, a centrist free-market political party.[9] On 22 December 2000 he became the Chairman of the National Bank of Poland.[10] He was also a columnist forWprost, a Polish news magazine.[11]
On 11 November 2005, the President of Poland,Aleksander Kwaśniewski, awarded L. Balcerowicz with theOrder of the White Eagle for his "contribution to Poland's economic transformation".[12] In 2006 he was elected member ofGaleria Chwały Polskiej Ekonomii, a hall of fame for "outstanding Polish economists".[13]
Balcerowicz was a member of theCommission on Legal Empowerment of the Poor, an independent initiative hosted by theUNDP and the first global initiative to focus specifically on the link between exclusion, poverty and the law.[7] He is also a member of the influential Washington-based financial advisory body, theGroup of Thirty, and is a board member of renowned Washington, D.C. think-tank thePeterson Institute. Fellow ofCollegium Invisibile.[14]
Since 11 June 2008 Balcerowicz has been a member of the board ofBruegel, the Brussels-basedthink tank oninternational economics.[15]
Since 2007, he has led the Civil Development Forum (Polish:Forum Obywatelskiego Rozwoju), a think-tank with a mission of "increasing active support of the society for a wide range of individual freedoms (especially economic freedom), and – what goes with it – for strengthening the rule of law in the country".[16]
In 2016, he was appointed asrepresentative of theUkrainian President in theCabinet of ministers.[17]
He is a recipient of the ChileanOrder of Merit.
TheBalcerowicz Plan was a series of reforms, which brought the end tohyperinflation, dismantled inefficient economic structures, and balanced the national budget.[18] The prices of most consumer goods were freed and caps for annual increases established in state-sector employees' wages. Poland's currency, thezloty, was made convertible within the country's borders. This resulted in a substantial increase in prices and had forced state-owned companies while making them economically competitive. This amounted to a two-year shock to the Polish economy.[19] Among other actions included in the plan was the negotiation of a significant reduction (approximately 50%) of the debts inherited from thePolish People's Republic.[20] In 1998, Balcerowicz was awarded theEuromoney Finance Minister of the Year Award for his accomplishments as a finance minister.[21]
The severity of the reforms was controversial and made Balcerowicz an object of criticism by some politicians in Poland. The reforms impoverished and vanished economic opportunities of already struggling social groups such as low-educated, rural and low-income workers. This resulted in Poland becoming a deeply divided and polarised society.[22] This led to the rise of populist movements that gained popularity through dissatisfaction with the reforms - this included the left-wing agrarianSelf-Defence of the Republic of Poland (which became known for its slogan "Balcerowicz must go!"), far-rightLeague of Polish Families, and laterLaw and Justice.[23] The plan was decried as "economic genocide" by the leader of Self-Defence,Andrzej Lepper.[24] A slowly on-going rise in discontent continued into the 2000s, and in 2002, when asked about the Balcerowicz Plan, 78% of Poles described their economic situation as bad, and nearly 40% preferred to live in socialist Poland - amongst rural residents and skilled workers, this figure rose to 50%.[22]
On the other hand, neoliberal economists and experts such as Krzysztof Sobczak,Jeffrey Sachs (who personally advised Balcerowicz),[25] andJacek Rostowski agree that without introducing such radical changes, Poland's economic success and steady economic growth would not have been possible.[26][27][28] Other economists and political scientists criticised the plan -Adam Przeworski described Balcerowicz Plan as a "a puretrickle-down model of reforms", and argued that Balcerowicz neglected the social costs of the reform, focusing only on growth.[29] The economic growth produced by the reforms did not trickle down to average citizen.[30]
Polish economistTadeusz Kowalik argues that Balcerowicz's reforms were a failure, stating that the good economic performance of Poland in comparison to other post-communist Poland was caused by much better initial economic conditions. Kowalik accuses Balcerowicz of squandering a unique opportunity of creating a fair and egalitarian socio-economic system, instead creating a system "whose trademarks became mass and permanent unemployment, for many years the highest in Central Europe and then the highest in the EU; one of the highest income disparities; the dismantling of the welfare state. Added to this was the breaking down of workers' negotiating power. The shock operation meant consenting to the introduction of the worst variety of capitalism into Poland."[31]
Balcerowicz was also criticised by Polish economist and former Finance MinisterGrzegorz Kołodko, who described Balcerowicz Plan as "shock without therapy". Kołodko notes that Balcerowicz promised only a slight increase in unemployment and poverty, while in reality Polish GDP fell by 20% and rendered millions of Poles unemployed. According to Kołodko, "Balcerowicz is praised only by people from the same camp as him - representatives of Polish neoliberalism".[32] Kołodko notes the excessive scale of reductions in household incomes (including real wages), as after two months of the reforms, real wages in Poland fell by over 40%. He also adds that since the reforms resulted in the industrial production falling by over 30%, that cost alone makes the reform impossible to be regarded as successful, regardless the future stabilisation. Lastly, Kołodko believes that Balcerowicz acted irrationally, as the plan did not manage to eliminate inefficient companies, but instead blindly discriminated against state-owned companies, denying them investment loans and granting them to private companies instead, regardless of their economic performance. Kołodko concludes that the Balcerowicz Plan was "creative destruction".[33]
High unemployment remained a problem for some two decades after the implementation of the reforms, leaving certain poverty-stricken regions with structural unemployment.[5] Reducing unprofitability of the state-owned companies required significant layoffs. Even though over 2 million Poles emigrated[34] from Poland since its entry into the EU, until 2010s, the unemployment level remained at 13%.[35] Populist politicianAndrzej Lepper, the leader of the populist Self-Defence(Samoobrona) party, created the slogan: "Balcerowicz must go" (Balcerowicz musi odejść), echoing the disgruntlement felt by some Poles with Balcerowicz's plan.[36] However, since 2013, the unemployment rate has not exceeded 10% and in 2019 has reached the record low of 3.8%.[37]
During the Eurozone crisis Balcerowicz has been an outspoken supporter for fiscal discipline and has been frequently dubbed the anti-Bernanke for his scorn of distortionary fiscal stimulus. In various articles he has developed a comparison between the fiscally-profligatePIGS (Portugal,Italy,Greece andSpain) and the fiscally-disciplined BELLs (Bulgaria,Estonia,Latvia andLithuania).[38] Responsible fiscal policy brings about better growth outcomes, claims Leszek Balcerowicz.[38] He has many followers among East European economists, most prominentlySimeon Djankov, Deputy prime Minister and Minister of Finance ofBulgaria between 2009 and 2013.[39]
Balcerowicz was a competitive athlete in his youth. In 1966, he became Poland's youth champion in cross country at the distance of 1500 metres.[40] Since 1977, he has been married to Ewa Balcerowicz, an economist. He has three children.
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| Political offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | President of theNational Bank of Poland 2001–2007 | Succeeded by |
