Paul Löwenthal

Paul Löwenthal (1 September 1936 – 8 February 2022) was a Belgian economist and professor at the Université catholique de Louvain (UCLouvain). His work focused primarily on conjunctural analysis, economic policy and public finance. Alongside his academic career, he was durably committed to the defence of human rights, notably within the Ligue des droits de l'homme and Amnesty International. From the 2000s onwards, he also published works on secularism, moral pluralism and democracy.

Biography Education and early career Löwenthal was of German and Lithuanian Orthodox Jewish descent on his father's side and Flemish Catholic on his mother's side. He completed his secondary education with the Jesuits at the Collège Saint-Michel, Brussels, where he taught conjunctural economics, economic policy and public finance. He published extensively in academic journals, notably in the Cahiers économiques de Bruxelles and in Recherches Économiques de Louvain (now the Louvain Economic Review, published by Cambridge University Press), and contributed to international institutional debates, including in the context of International Monetary Fund consultations. In 1981, he was a co-author, alongside Jacques Drèze, Fabrizio Padoa-Schioppa and other colleagues, of a major editorial on the Belgian economy in crisis published in the same review.

From 1989 onwards, he redirected his focus towards the coordination of economic policies, particularly regarding integration between unequally developed economies.

Political and institutional engagement Löwenthal served as an adviser to Charles-Ferdinand Nothomb during his tenure as Belgian Minister of the Interior, a position from which he subsequently resigned. He was also associated with the Federal Planning Bureau, contributing to economic forecasting and analysis at national level.

Human rights engagement Between 1995 and 2007, Löwenthal worked on economic and social human rights within the Ligue des droits de l'homme and Amnesty International in French-speaking Belgium. During his stays in Latin America, he collaborated with Amnesty International in collecting testimonies from political dissidents and prisoners, contributing to documentation of human rights violations in the region.

After his emeritation, he became involved in prison education. Through the association La Touline, which supports inmates pursuing higher education, he provided weekly remedial economics sessions at Nivelles Prison for detainees enrolled at university, combining academic content with discussion of current economic affairs.

Religious and secular engagement As UCLouvain's representative to the Conseil interdiocésain des laïcs (CIL), the interdiocean council for lay Catholics in French-speaking Belgium, from 1996 to 2001,

Works on secularism and democracy As emeritus professor from 2001, Löwenthal turned to political philosophy, focusing in particular on the place of religions and philosophical convictions within the secular state.

Selected publications Books Analyse conjoncturelle, De Boeck-Université, 1988. Une économie politique, De Boeck-Université, 1989. Économie et finances publiques, De Boeck-Université, 1993 (2nd ed. 1996). L'État laïque vu par un catholique, Labor, 2004. Un droit, des morales. Valoriser l'État laïque, P.I.E. Peter Lang, 2008. "Conjonctures nationales et politiques européennes : quelles coordinations ?", Cahiers économiques de Bruxelles, pp. 95–104. "Société civile et participation politique. Le cas de la coopération au développement", Mondes en développement, 2005/1, no. 129, pp. 59–73. "Le travail, langue d'Ésope de l'économie ?", ARC, Analyse, October 2017. "Le pirate et le naufragé", Politique, 2017.