Franz Gehrels was a German-American economist und university teacher. In his scientific work he devoted himself in particular to the further development of the theory ofinternational trade relations. In the 1970s he became an internationally recognized pioneer of advanced theory of international trade, among others by providing cutting-edge research on the optimal structure of trade and capital taxes.
Life
Franz Gehrels, the son of the physician Frank Gehrels and his wife Marie, b. Barsoe was born in 1922 in Eckernförde, Northern Germany. His parents emigrated with their two-and-a-half-year-old son to the US in March 1924 via Bremerhaven and Ellis Island, New York City, to San Mateo, California. Franz Gehrels was married to Katharine Gehrels, b. Fechner. The couple has two daughters. After his studies and doctorate at Stanford University, Gehrels taught 22 years economics with a focus on international trade relations at Indiana University, a year before at University of Minnesota, and another year at Johns Hopkins University. Shortly after the end of World War II, Gehrels, being a professor of the Fulbright program in Mainz and Frankfurt, traveled to Germany on behalf of the US military administration . His task was to take stock of the available and unburdened German economists, at a time when many scientists occupied the reorganized chairs solely on the basis of their pro-French or anti-Nazi stance instead of their scientific qualifications. Under the influence of his wife, also born in Germany, he moved back to Germany at the age of 55. From 1977 to 1990 Gehrels was full professor of economics, with particular emphasis on international trade relations at the Faculty of Economics of the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München. His research interests were in the areas of foreign trade and macroeconomics and economic growth. Thereafter, he was an emeritus at the Seminar for International Business Relations of the LMU.cs.
Publications (selection)
;Books
Franz Gehrels: Außenwirtschaftstheorie. Oldenbourgs Lehr- und Handbücher der Wirtschafts- u. Sozialwissenschaften. De Gruyter Oldenbourg, Reprint 2017,
Franz Gehrels: Essays in Macroeconomics of an Open Economy . Springer, London, 1991,
Franz Gehrels: Optimal Growth with Many Sectors. Peter Lang GmbH, Internationaler Verlag der Wissenschaften, Berlin, 2002
Franz Gehrels: "Multipliers and Elasticities in Foreign-Trade Adjustments". Journal of Political Economy, Volume 65, Number 1, pp. 76
Franz Gehrels: "Wachstum durch Investition in Wissenschaft und Bildung". Weltwirtschaftliches Archiv, Bd. 94, pp. 215–233
Franz Gehrels: "Optimal Restrictions on Foreign Trade and Investment". The American Economic Review, Vol. 61, No. 1, pp. 147–159,
Franz Gehrels: "Trade impediments, domestic goods, and the transfer problem". Review of World Economics, September 1978, Volume 114, Issue 3, pp. 481–498
Franz Gehrels: "Foreign investment and technology transfer: Optimal policies". Review of World Economics, December 1983, Volume 119, Issue 4, pp. 663–685
Franz Gehrels: "Risk Averse, Time Optimizing Behavior Of Households: Comparison With German Microcensus Data". In: Essays in Macroeconomics of an Open Economy, 1991, pp. 72–96
Franz Gehrels: "Random Economic Disturbances and Lagged Countermeasures". Atlantic Economic Journal, June 2005, Volume 33, Issue 2, pp. 151–157
Franz Gehrels: "On Optimal Social Investment in the Sciences and Humanities". Atlantic Economic Journal, Volume 38, Issue 3, pp. 325–330
Franz Gehrels: "United States and German RealCapital Formation and Social Investment in the Sciences and Humanities". Atlantic Economic Journal'', Volume 41, Issue 3, pp. 225–229
Awards
President of the International Atlantic Economic Society, Atlanta; 1996–1997
Best Article 2005 Award of the Atlantic Economic Journal, Vol. 4, December 2006, for his article Franz Gehrels: "Random Economic Disturbances and Lagged Countermeasures". Atlantic Economic Journal, which appeared in the June 2005 issue of the AEJ.
