The online seminar will be held from 6pm to 7:30pm (Geneva), 12pm-1:30pm (New York). Zoom Online Seminar. Registration required.
The Seminar seeks to foster discussions that encompass both case studies and comparative approaches, and enable to put in historical perspective questions of debt sustainability, debt forgiveness, conditionality and political control.
18 Apr. 2024: Guy Pierre (Universidad Autónoma de la Ciudad de México)
"How was the Odious Debt Repaid: The Domestic Loan of 1947/Comment la dette odieuse fut repayée: L´'emprunt intérieur de 1947"
Discussants: Ronald Gabriel (Banque de la République d'Haïti), Rebeca Gomez Betancourt (University of Lyon 2), Remy Montas (Independent)
Guy Pierre is a Haitian Historian and Professor of Economic History at the Universidad Autónoma de la Ciudad de México (UACM). He was formerly professor at the UAM-Iztapalapa and at the Université d’Etat d’Haïti. His is Honorary President and Co-Founder of the Asociación de Historia Económica del Caribe. His last book "La crise de 1929 et le développement du capitalisme en Haïti" was published in 2016 by Cambridge University Press. Although ostensibly about the impact of the Great Depression on Haiti, it is in fact an economic history of the country covering the period from the mid-nineteenth century to the Second World War. Guy Pierre has greatly improved the understanding of Haitian economy, which lacks easily accessible data on the most important statistics.
Ronald Gabriel is the Governor of the Banque de la République d'Haïti (BRH). He is a doctoral student in International Economics, with a focus on Development Economics, at the Institut des Sciences, des Technologies et des Études Avancées in Haiti. He also holds a Master's degree in International Economics from the University of Montreal. He was Head of the Research Department at the Banque de la République d'Haïti, and Chief Economist for more than 12 years, specializing in macroeconomic analysis, monetary policy, public finances and public policies.
Rebeca Gomez Betancourt is full Professor of Economics at the University of Lyon 2 and Researcher at Triangle, UMR-CNRS. She has held appointments as Visiting Professor at Universidad of los Andes, Bogota-Colombia, at Universidade Federal Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte-Brazil, and at De Paul University, Chicago. She served as President of the French Association for the History of Economic Thought. Her work focuses on the history of monetary thought (particularly in the U.S.), but also on women & economics, Latin American economic thought, US monetary history, and classical political economy. She has published on the history of the Federal Reserve System, the quantity theory of money, and monetary regimes in Latin America & India.
Remy Montas is a former Economist at the Centre de Techniques de Planification et d’Economie Appliquée (C.T.P.E.A) in Haïti. He has published "La pauvrete en Haïti: situation, causes et politiques de sortie" (2005) and "Face à l'Opinion: Rémy Montas, économiste. Relations Haiti-Dominicanie" (2006) where he discusses economic relations between Haiti and the Dominican Republic, including industry and tariffs.
Please register here The seminar will be held in French. Ce séminaire aura lieu en français.
The Seminar takes an interdisciplinary approach, aiming to bring together scholars from diverse academic backgrounds. In particular, it will invite historians, economists and legal scholars to debate their perspectives and engage in fruitful exchanges. It seeks in particular to foster discussions that encompass both case studies and comparative approaches and enable to put in historical perspective questions of debt sustainability, debt forgiveness, conditionality, political control, etc.
The Haiti Seminar is led by Marc Flandreau at the University of Pennsylvania in partnership with the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies in Geneva, and the School of Social Sciences and Government of the Tecnológico de Monterrey in Mexico.
The Seminar is conceived to operate over a three-year period, commencing in 2023-24. The project will distribute a series of research grants. In particular, 10 Doctoral Prizes of 5,000 USD each will be awarded to registered PhD students located anywhere in the world and working on the history and economics of sovereign debt, a funding initiative supported by Crédit Mutuel, Paris.
The Seminar takes place online on Thursdays at 12pm (Haiti Time)/ 6 pm (Paris Time).
It will be concluded by an academic conference in the Summer of 2026.
Inquiries: haiti.seminar@sas.upenn.edu
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