XENOPHON ZOLOTAS

Xenophon Zolotas was Professor of Political Economy at the University of Athens (1931-1968), Member of the Academy of Athens since 1952, Governor of the Bank of Greece (1944-1945, 1955-1967 and 1974-1981), Coordination Minister in the caretaker government of D. Kioussopoulos (1952) and in the national unity government of K. Karamanlis (1974) and Prime Minister of the allparty coalition government (1989-1990). He studied law at the University of Athens and economics at the University of Leipzig, where he completed his doctoral thesis Greece at the stage of industrialisation. He continued his studies in Paris and London. He contributed like no other to establishing economics as a science in Greece, by systematically supporting research and helping young economists to pursue further education abroad. With his university textbook Theoretical Economics (1942), he introduced modern approaches to the teaching of economics in Greece, based on the use of mathematical and statistical methods. He authored countless books, treatises and articles, many of which were translated into other languages. He was also the editor (1931-1967) of one of Greece’s leading journals, the Hellenic Review of Economic and Political Sciences. He resigned from the Bank of Greece (1967) and from the University of Athens (1968) in protest against the military dictatorship. He dominated post-war economic policymaking and, as a central banker, he remained committed to monetary stability. At the same time, he was also active abroad, participating in international economic organisations and committees. He served as Governor of the International Monetary Fund for Greece (1946-1967 and 1974-1981) and a member of the “Group of Four”, which worked on the creation of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).