Leszek Balcerowicz

Leszek Balcerowicz
Leszek Balcerowicz
Born	Leszek Henryk Balcerowicz; January 19, 1947 (age 79); Lipno, Poland
Occupation(s)	Economist, public official, professor
Years active	1970–present
Known for	Balcerowicz Plan, Chairman of the National Bank of Poland, Deputy Prime Minister of Poland
Notable work	Socialism, Capitalism, Transformation; Wolność i rozwój: ekonomia wolnego rynku; Post-Communist Transition: Some Lessons; Towards a Limited State; Institutional Systems and Economic Growth; Zagadki wzrostu gospodarczego; Odkrywając wolność. Przeciw zniewoleniu umysłów; Wzrost gospodarczy w Unii Europejskiej; Trzeba się bić. Opowieść biograficzna; Euro Imbalances and Adjustment: A Comparative Analysis

Leszek Henryk Balcerowicz (born 19 January 1947) is a distinguished Polish economist, public official, and Professor at the Warsaw School of Economics. He held the position of Chairman of the National Bank of Poland from 2001 to 2007 and served twice as Deputy Prime Minister during the periods 1989–1991 and 1997–2001.

In 1989, Balcerowicz was appointed Minister of Finance in Tadeusz Mazowiecki's inaugural post-communist administration. He spearheaded the market-oriented economic reforms that are widely acknowledged for propelling Poland into one of Europe’s most rapidly expanding economies. Nevertheless, these changes have been criticized for causing a notable increase in unemployment rates. In 2007, he established the Civic Development Forum (Forum Obywatelskiego Rozwoju), a think tank, and assumed the role of chairman of its council.

Biography

Balcerowicz graduated with honors in 1970 from the Foreign Trade faculty at the Central School of Planning and Statistics in Warsaw (currently known as SGH Warsaw School of Economics). He completed his MBA at St. John's University in 1974 and earned a doctorate from the Central School of Planning and Statistics in 1975.

He was affiliated with the Polish communist party (Polish United Workers' Party) from 1969 until the imposition of martial law in 1981. During the late 1970s, he served as an advisor to the prime minister of the People's Republic of Poland. Between 1978 and 1980, he was employed at the Institute of Marxism-Leninism, subsequently becoming an economic consultant for the pro-democracy trade union Solidarity.

Balcerowicz held the offices of Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister between 1989–1991 and again from 1997–2000. From 1995 to 2000, he led the centrist liberal party Freedom Union. On 22 December 2000, he was named Chairman of the National Bank of Poland. Additionally, he contributed as a columnist to Wprost, a prominent Polish news magazine.

On 11 November 2005, President Aleksander Kwaśniewski honored him with the Order of the White Eagle in recognition of his pivotal role in Poland’s economic transformation. In 2006, Balcerowicz was inducted into Galeria Chwały Polskiej Ekonomii, a hall celebrating eminent Polish economists.

His involvement extends to various notable institutions such as the UNDP-supported Commission on Legal Empowerment of the Poor, the Washington-based financial advisory Group of Thirty, and serving on the board of directors at the Peterson Institute in Washington, D.C. He is also a Fellow at Collegium Invisibile. Since June 2008, he has been a board member at Bruegel, an international economics think tank headquartered in Brussels.

Since its inception in 2007, Balcerowicz has chaired the Civil Development Forum (Forum Obywatelskiego Rozwoju), advocating for economic liberty and reinforcing legal governance within Poland.

In 2016, he was designated as a representative of the Ukrainian President within Ukraine’s Cabinet of Ministers. Furthermore, he has been awarded Chile's prestigious Order of Merit.

Balcerowicz Plan

The Balcerowicz Plan encompassed a set of economic reforms aimed at halting hyperinflation, eliminating inefficient institutions, and achieving a balanced national budget in Poland. It introduced the liberalization of consumer price controls, limited wage growth within the public sector, and enabled domestic convertibility of the Polish zloty. These initiatives compelled state-owned enterprises to enhance their competitiveness, triggering a two-year period of economic adjustment. Additionally, the plan secured negotiations that reduced Poland’s inherited debt from the Polish People's Republic by approximately half. In recognition of his efforts, Balcerowicz was honored with the Euromoney Finance Minister of the Year Award in 1998.

The reforms generated controversy as they disproportionately affected vulnerable populations, including those with limited education, rural communities, and low-income workers, thereby exacerbating social divisions. This climate fostered the rise of populist groups such as the leftist agrarian Self-Defence of the Republic of Poland, the far-right League of Polish Families, and eventually Law and Justice. Detractors condemned the plan as "economic genocide," with widespread public dissatisfaction continuing well into the 2000s.

Neoliberal economists like Krzysztof Sobczak, Jeffrey Sachs—who served as an advisor to Balcerowicz—and Jacek Rostowski maintain that without such sweeping reforms, Poland’s economic achievements would have been improbable. Conversely, critics including Adam Przeworski viewed it as a purely trickle-down strategy that overlooked social consequences, with most benefits failing to reach ordinary citizens.

Economist Tadeusz Kowalik argues that Poland’s relative economic improvements stemmed more from favorable initial conditions than from the reforms themselves. He asserts that Balcerowicz missed a critical chance to establish an equitable socio-economic framework, instead fostering high unemployment rates, widening income inequality, dismantling welfare programs, and weakening labor unions—effectively introducing a severe form of capitalism.

Former Finance Minister Grzegorz Kołodko characterized the plan as "shock without therapy," highlighting that real GDP contracted by 20%, millions lost their jobs, and real wages declined by over 40% shortly after its rollout. Kołodko criticizes Balcerowicz for indiscriminately withdrawing support from state-owned enterprises in favor of private businesses regardless of their performance. He concludes that the plan represented "creative destruction," imposing substantial social and industrial costs that challenge claims of its success.

Criticism

Persistent high unemployment afflicted Poland for nearly twenty years following the reforms, with some regions experiencing entrenched structural joblessness. Efforts to reduce losses in state-owned companies necessitated large-scale layoffs. Despite more than two million Poles emigrating after EU accession, unemployment rates hovered around 13% until the early 2010s. Populist politician Andrzej Lepper, leader of the Self-Defence (Samoobrona) party, captured widespread dissatisfaction with his slogan "Balcerowicz must go" (Balcerowicz musi odejść). However, since 2013 unemployment has consistently remained below 10%, reaching an unprecedented low of 3.8% in 2019.

The BELLS

Throughout the Eurozone crisis, Balcerowicz emerged as a prominent proponent of fiscal prudence, earning the moniker "anti-Bernanke" due to his opposition to distortionary fiscal stimulus measures. He contrasted fiscally irresponsible PIGS nations (Portugal, Italy, Greece, Spain) with fiscally disciplined BELLs countries (Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania). According to him, sound fiscal policies are fundamental to stronger economic growth. His perspectives have significantly influenced numerous economists across Eastern Europe, notably Simeon Djankov, who served as Bulgaria’s Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister from 2009 to 2013.

Private life

During his younger years, Balcerowicz excelled as a competitive runner, securing the title of Poland’s youth champion in the 1500 metres cross country event in 1966. He has been married to economist Ewa Balcerowicz since 1977, and together they have three children.

Honorary doctorates

1993 University of Aix-en-Provence, France
1994 University of Sussex, United Kingdom
1996 DePaul University, United States
1998:
- University of Szczecin, Poland
- Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń, Poland
- Staffordshire University, United Kingdom
- Abertay University, United Kingdom
1999 University of Economics in Bratislava, Slovakia
2001 Viadrina European University, Germany
2002:
- University of the Pacific, Peru
- University of Iaşi, Romania
2004 University of Duisburg, Germany
2006:
- University of Economics in Katowice, Poland
- Poznań University of Economics, Poland
- Wrocław University of Economics, Poland
- University of Gdańsk, Poland
2007 Warsaw School of Economics, Poland
2008:
- University of Warsaw, Poland
- University of New South Wales, Australia
2009 Babeş-Bolyai University, Romania
2011 Central Connecticut State University, United States
2015 Universidad Francisco Marroquín, Guatemala

Selected publications

Socialism, Capitalism, Transformation, Central European University Press, Budapest, 1995
Wolność i rozwój: ekonomia wolnego rynku, Znak, Kraków, 1995
Post-Communist Transition: Some Lessons, Institute of Economic Affairs, London, 2002
Towards a Limited State, World Bank, 2003
Institutional Systems and Economic Growth, in Challenges of Globalization. Imbalances and Growth, edited by Anders Åslund and Marek Dąbrowski, Peterson Institute for International Economics, pp. 153–199, Washington, DC, 2008
Zagadki wzrostu gospodarczego (Puzzles of Economic Growth), Leszek Balcerowicz, Andrzej Rzońca, C.H. Beck Sp. z o.o., Warsaw, 2010
Odkrywając wolność. Przeciw zniewoleniu umysłów, Leszek Balcerowicz, ZYSK i S-KA Wydawnictwo, 2012
Wzrost gospodarczy w Unii Europejskiej (Economic Growth in the European Union), Lisbon Council e-book, Leszek Balcerowicz (main author), A. Rzońca, L. Kalina, A. Łaszek, 2013
Trzeba się bić. Opowieść biograficzna, Leszek Balcerowicz, Marta Stremecka, Wydawnictwo Czerwone i Czarne, Warsaw, 2014
Euro Imbalances and Adjustment: A Comparative Analysis, The Cato Journal, no. 3, 2014

External links