Alexandre Kafka
Encyclopedia
Alexandre Kafka was an international economist
mainly known for his work as an Executive Director in the International Monetary Fund
(IMF).
, then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. His father, Bruno Kafka, was a member of the parliament of Czechoslovakia
and a second cousin of author Franz Kafka
. He was educated in Geneva
and Balliol College at Oxford University. The invasion of Czechoslovakia by Germany
in 1939 pushed his family to emigrate, settling in Brazil
in 1940, with Kafka becoming a Brazilian citizen. As Denis Healey
, a contemporary at Balliol, would remember in his memoirs: "There were also (in Balliol) a handful of refugees from Central Europe, some of whom had to change their names. One kept his name but changed his nationality. When I was Chancellor of the Exchequer
I was astonished to meet my Czech friend, Alex Kafka, as the Brazilian Director of the IMF."
It was in his adoptive country where he began his professional career, by teaching economics at the School of Sociology and Politics in Sao Paolo. In 1944, he became economic adviser at the Federation of Industries of the State of São Paulo. In 1949 he then moved to Washington, D.C.
and joined the staff of the IMF, as Assistant Chief of the Latin American Division in the Research Department. He left after just two years to return to Brazil to organize the Brazilian Institute of Economics at the Getulio Vargas Foundation in Rio de Janeiro
. He later was an adviser to Finance Minister Eugenio Gudin. By this time, he was one of the leading figures in Brazilian economics, known for his intellectual prowess and keen wit, and had developed a worldwide reputation.
In 1956, Kafka moved north again to work at the United Nations
in New York
. For the next decade he held overlapping appointments at the UN, as a Professor at the University of Virginia
, and in various posts in Brazil
. In July 1966, he went back to the IMF for good, initially as Alternate to the Executive Director for Brazil, Mauricio Chagas Bicalho. In November, he was elected by Brazil, Colombia, the Dominican Republic, Haiti, Panama, and Peru to succeed Mr. Bicalho as Executive Director. Although he continued to hold adjunct or visiting academic positions at Virginia, Boston University
, and The George Washington University all through the 1970s and 1980s, the IMF was his main vocation from then on.
As the representative of an important group of Latin American nations, Kafka faced tough challenges during his more than three decades as Executive Director, as several of his countries faced balance of payments
crises time and again, and went to the IMF for financial assistance recurrently. The relationship between Brazil and the IMF was particularly intense.http://www.imf.org/external/country/bra/index.htm
However, from the very beginning, Kafka made it clear that he was not going to focus narrowly on relations between his constituency and the Fund. Rather, he was going to speak out for the interests of the developing world and make sure that their voices were heard. In 1966, the Compensatory Financing Facility (CFF) was just beginning to be a major source of financing for commodity-exporting countries. Some of his earliest interventions aimed to strengthen its role. Throughout his tenure on the Board, he fought to expand the usefulness of the CFF and to prevent it from being reduced to a standard conditional facility. In the 1960s, he helped formulate the Special Drawing Rights
(SDR) system in a way that would benefit developing as well as industrial countries. In the 1970s, he was instrumental in the creation and design of the Extended Fund Facility, and he helped build a consensus for the oil facilities of 1974 and 1975. Following the collapse of the Bretton Woods system
in the early 1970s, he served as Vice-Chairman of the Deputies of the Committee of Twenty, the forerunner of the International Monetary and Financial Committee (IMFC). In the 1980s, he stressed the importance of enlarged access to Fund resources, insisted that the international debt crisis could not be solved until the developed countries assumed more responsibility for it, and worked for the creation and expansion of concessional lending facilities for low-income countries. In the 1990s, he continued to advocate systemic solutions to the problems of the developing world, through innovations such as the HIPC
Initiative.
Kafka was elected Executive Director sixteen times, through many major shifts in the balance of political power in Brazil and the other countries in his constituency. For more than three decades, he was a mentor to Executive Directors and staff, a voice of reason on the Board, and a master at brevity of expression in his interventions. Above all, he had a special relationship with the staff, of which he had once been a member. Those who knew him primarily through his economic writing always looked up to him as a senior professional colleague and not just as a member of the Executive Board. Those who had the privilege of working with him on missions to his countries were impressed with his thoroughness and effectiveness in preparing for and participating in discussions with the authorities, regardless of whether the mission was to Brazil or to any other country in the region.
Alexandre Kafka retired from the IMF in October 1998, after exactly 32 years as Executive Director. Murilo Portugal, also from Brazil, was elected in his place.http://www.imf.org/external/np/omd/bios/mp.htm
Kafka died on November 28, 2007, in Washington, D.C..
A New Argument for Protectionism?, The Quarterly Journal of Economics, Vol. 76, No. 1 (Feb., 1962), pp. 163–166.
The Elasticity of Export Supply, Southern Economic Journal, Vol. 32, No. 3 (Jan., 1966), pp. 352–352.
The Brazilian Stabilization Program, 1964-6, The Journal of Political Economy, Vol. 75, No. 4, Part 2: Issues in Monetary Research, 1966 (Aug., 1967), pp. 596–631
International Liquidity: Its Present Relevance to the Less Developed Countries, The American Economic Review, Vol. 58, No. 2, Papers and Proceedings of the Eightieth Annual Meeting of the American Economic Association (May, 1968), pp. 596–603
The IMF: The Second Coming?, Essays in International Finance, No. 94. Princeton University, July 1972.
The International Monetary Fund: Reform Without Reconstruction?, Essays in International Finance, No. 118. Princeton University, October 1976.
The New Exchange Rate Regime and the Developing Countries. The Journal of Finance, Vol. 33, No. 3, Papers and Proceedings of the Thirty-Sixth Annual Meeting American Finance Association, New York City December 28–30, 1977 (Jun., 1978), pp. 795–802
Gold and International Monetary Stability, Cato Journal, Vol. 3, No. 1, Spring 1983. Available at: http://www.cato.org/pubs/journal/cj3n1/cj3n1-15.pdf
Governance of the Fund, in The International Monetary and Financial System: Developing-Country Perspectives, ed. by G.K. Helleiner. New
York: St. Martin’s Press, 1996.
Economist
An economist is a professional in the social science discipline of economics. The individual may also study, develop, and apply theories and concepts from economics and write about economic policy...
mainly known for his work as an Executive Director in the International Monetary Fund
International Monetary Fund
The International Monetary Fund is an organization of 187 countries, working to foster global monetary cooperation, secure financial stability, facilitate international trade, promote high employment and sustainable economic growth, and reduce poverty around the world...
(IMF).
Biography
Kafka was born in PraguePrague
Prague is the capital and largest city of the Czech Republic. Situated in the north-west of the country on the Vltava river, the city is home to about 1.3 million people, while its metropolitan area is estimated to have a population of over 2.3 million...
, then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. His father, Bruno Kafka, was a member of the parliament of Czechoslovakia
Czechoslovakia
Czechoslovakia or Czecho-Slovakia was a sovereign state in Central Europe which existed from October 1918, when it declared its independence from the Austro-Hungarian Empire, until 1992...
and a second cousin of author Franz Kafka
Franz Kafka
Franz Kafka was a culturally influential German-language author of short stories and novels. Contemporary critics and academics, including Vladimir Nabokov, regard Kafka as one of the best writers of the 20th century...
. He was educated in Geneva
Geneva
Geneva In the national languages of Switzerland the city is known as Genf , Ginevra and Genevra is the second-most-populous city in Switzerland and is the most populous city of Romandie, the French-speaking part of Switzerland...
and Balliol College at Oxford University. The invasion of Czechoslovakia by Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
in 1939 pushed his family to emigrate, settling in Brazil
Brazil
Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...
in 1940, with Kafka becoming a Brazilian citizen. As Denis Healey
Denis Healey
Denis Winston Healey, Baron Healey CH, MBE, PC is a British Labour politician, who served as Secretary of State for Defence from 1964 to 1970 and Chancellor of the Exchequer from 1974 to 1979.-Early life:...
, a contemporary at Balliol, would remember in his memoirs: "There were also (in Balliol) a handful of refugees from Central Europe, some of whom had to change their names. One kept his name but changed his nationality. When I was Chancellor of the Exchequer
Chancellor of the Exchequer
The Chancellor of the Exchequer is the title held by the British Cabinet minister who is responsible for all economic and financial matters. Often simply called the Chancellor, the office-holder controls HM Treasury and plays a role akin to the posts of Minister of Finance or Secretary of the...
I was astonished to meet my Czech friend, Alex Kafka, as the Brazilian Director of the IMF."
It was in his adoptive country where he began his professional career, by teaching economics at the School of Sociology and Politics in Sao Paolo. In 1944, he became economic adviser at the Federation of Industries of the State of São Paulo. In 1949 he then moved to Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
and joined the staff of the IMF, as Assistant Chief of the Latin American Division in the Research Department. He left after just two years to return to Brazil to organize the Brazilian Institute of Economics at the Getulio Vargas Foundation in Rio de Janeiro
Rio de Janeiro
Rio de Janeiro , commonly referred to simply as Rio, is the capital city of the State of Rio de Janeiro, the second largest city of Brazil, and the third largest metropolitan area and agglomeration in South America, boasting approximately 6.3 million people within the city proper, making it the 6th...
. He later was an adviser to Finance Minister Eugenio Gudin. By this time, he was one of the leading figures in Brazilian economics, known for his intellectual prowess and keen wit, and had developed a worldwide reputation.
In 1956, Kafka moved north again to work at the United Nations
United Nations
The United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace...
in New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
. For the next decade he held overlapping appointments at the UN, as a Professor at the University of Virginia
University of Virginia
The University of Virginia is a public research university located in Charlottesville, Virginia, United States, founded by Thomas Jefferson...
, and in various posts in Brazil
Brazil
Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...
. In July 1966, he went back to the IMF for good, initially as Alternate to the Executive Director for Brazil, Mauricio Chagas Bicalho. In November, he was elected by Brazil, Colombia, the Dominican Republic, Haiti, Panama, and Peru to succeed Mr. Bicalho as Executive Director. Although he continued to hold adjunct or visiting academic positions at Virginia, Boston University
Boston University
Boston University is a private research university located in Boston, Massachusetts. With more than 4,000 faculty members and more than 31,000 students, Boston University is one of the largest private universities in the United States and one of Boston's largest employers...
, and The George Washington University all through the 1970s and 1980s, the IMF was his main vocation from then on.
As the representative of an important group of Latin American nations, Kafka faced tough challenges during his more than three decades as Executive Director, as several of his countries faced balance of payments
Balance of payments
Balance of payments accounts are an accounting record of all monetary transactions between a country and the rest of the world.These transactions include payments for the country's exports and imports of goods, services, financial capital, and financial transfers...
crises time and again, and went to the IMF for financial assistance recurrently. The relationship between Brazil and the IMF was particularly intense.http://www.imf.org/external/country/bra/index.htm
However, from the very beginning, Kafka made it clear that he was not going to focus narrowly on relations between his constituency and the Fund. Rather, he was going to speak out for the interests of the developing world and make sure that their voices were heard. In 1966, the Compensatory Financing Facility (CFF) was just beginning to be a major source of financing for commodity-exporting countries. Some of his earliest interventions aimed to strengthen its role. Throughout his tenure on the Board, he fought to expand the usefulness of the CFF and to prevent it from being reduced to a standard conditional facility. In the 1960s, he helped formulate the Special Drawing Rights
Special Drawing Rights
Special Drawing Rights are supplementary foreign exchange reserve assets defined and maintained by the International Monetary Fund . Not a currency, SDRs instead represent a claim to currency held by IMF member countries for which they may be exchanged...
(SDR) system in a way that would benefit developing as well as industrial countries. In the 1970s, he was instrumental in the creation and design of the Extended Fund Facility, and he helped build a consensus for the oil facilities of 1974 and 1975. Following the collapse of the Bretton Woods system
Bretton Woods system
The Bretton Woods system of monetary management established the rules for commercial and financial relations among the world's major industrial states in the mid 20th century...
in the early 1970s, he served as Vice-Chairman of the Deputies of the Committee of Twenty, the forerunner of the International Monetary and Financial Committee (IMFC). In the 1980s, he stressed the importance of enlarged access to Fund resources, insisted that the international debt crisis could not be solved until the developed countries assumed more responsibility for it, and worked for the creation and expansion of concessional lending facilities for low-income countries. In the 1990s, he continued to advocate systemic solutions to the problems of the developing world, through innovations such as the HIPC
HIPC
HIPC may refer to:*International Conference on High Performance Computing*Heavily Indebted Poor Countries...
Initiative.
Kafka was elected Executive Director sixteen times, through many major shifts in the balance of political power in Brazil and the other countries in his constituency. For more than three decades, he was a mentor to Executive Directors and staff, a voice of reason on the Board, and a master at brevity of expression in his interventions. Above all, he had a special relationship with the staff, of which he had once been a member. Those who knew him primarily through his economic writing always looked up to him as a senior professional colleague and not just as a member of the Executive Board. Those who had the privilege of working with him on missions to his countries were impressed with his thoroughness and effectiveness in preparing for and participating in discussions with the authorities, regardless of whether the mission was to Brazil or to any other country in the region.
Alexandre Kafka retired from the IMF in October 1998, after exactly 32 years as Executive Director. Murilo Portugal, also from Brazil, was elected in his place.http://www.imf.org/external/np/omd/bios/mp.htm
Kafka died on November 28, 2007, in Washington, D.C..
Publications
The Brazilian Exchange Auction System, The Review of Economics and Statistics, Vol. 38, No. 3 (Aug., 1956), pp. 308–322.A New Argument for Protectionism?, The Quarterly Journal of Economics, Vol. 76, No. 1 (Feb., 1962), pp. 163–166.
The Elasticity of Export Supply, Southern Economic Journal, Vol. 32, No. 3 (Jan., 1966), pp. 352–352.
The Brazilian Stabilization Program, 1964-6, The Journal of Political Economy, Vol. 75, No. 4, Part 2: Issues in Monetary Research, 1966 (Aug., 1967), pp. 596–631
International Liquidity: Its Present Relevance to the Less Developed Countries, The American Economic Review, Vol. 58, No. 2, Papers and Proceedings of the Eightieth Annual Meeting of the American Economic Association (May, 1968), pp. 596–603
The IMF: The Second Coming?, Essays in International Finance, No. 94. Princeton University, July 1972.
The International Monetary Fund: Reform Without Reconstruction?, Essays in International Finance, No. 118. Princeton University, October 1976.
The New Exchange Rate Regime and the Developing Countries. The Journal of Finance, Vol. 33, No. 3, Papers and Proceedings of the Thirty-Sixth Annual Meeting American Finance Association, New York City December 28–30, 1977 (Jun., 1978), pp. 795–802
Gold and International Monetary Stability, Cato Journal, Vol. 3, No. 1, Spring 1983. Available at: http://www.cato.org/pubs/journal/cj3n1/cj3n1-15.pdf
Governance of the Fund, in The International Monetary and Financial System: Developing-Country Perspectives, ed. by G.K. Helleiner. New
York: St. Martin’s Press, 1996.
External links
- IMF Executive Board Praises Kafka’s Distinguished Record of Service - http://www.imf.org/external/np/sec/pr/1998/pr9854.htm
- Obituary in The Washington Post - http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/01/04/AR2008010403908_pf.html
- Obituary in O Globo (in Portuguese) - http://oglobo.globo.com/pais/mat/2007/11/30/327389969.asp