Leroy-Beaulieu, Pierre-Paul (1843–1916)

Abstract

French economist and journalist, Leroy-Beaulieu was born at Paris in 1843; he died there in 1916. His father was a Prefect and a Deputy under Louis-Philippe, his older brother a famous historian and a director of the Ecole des Sciences Politiques. His son Pierre, with whom he is sometimes confused, was also an economist. Initially trained in law, Paul Leroy-Beaulieu turned to economics in his early twenties, launching this new career with a prize-winning essay in 1867 on the effects of the moral and intellectual conditions of the working class on the rate of wages. Soon thereafter, he began collaborating on the Revue des deux mondes, and in 1871 he became editor of the Journal des débats. Two years later he founded the Economiste française, for which, as editor, he wrote weekly articles, missing only once in 43 years.