Hennipman, Pieter (1911–1994)

Abstract

Dutch economist born in Leiden, 12 September 1911, who died in Amsterdam on 3 July 1994. Hennipman belongs to the three most important economists of the Netherlands, the two others being Nicolaas Gerard Pierson (1839–1909) and Jan Tinbergen (1903–1994). He studied at the Faculty of Economics of the University of Amsterdam, and was taught economic theory by H. Frijda and economic history by N.W. Posthumus. He took his Master’s degree in 1934, and in 1938 became reader in economics at the University of Amsterdam, next to his beloved teacher Frijda. He continued his work on his dissertation and received his doctorate in July 1940, in time to enable Frijda, who soon after had to flee from the Nazis, to act as his director of his thesis. Of Hennipman’s impressive work on economic motive and economic principle a much-enlarged edition appeared after the Second World War in 1945. The book presents a detailed historical-critical survey of the manifold varieties of homo economicus, concluding that the scope of economics is not restricted to the behaviour of such an animal. It is argued that the concept of economic welfare is subjective and devoid of specific content and that economics cannot be normative. His work shows the influence of the Austrian subjectivist way of thinking and Lionel Robbins’ Essay (1932). In 1945 Hennipman became Professor of Economics at the University of Amsterdam.