Bryan Hopkin

Sir Bryan Hopkin (7 December 1914 – 10 October 2009) was a Welsh economist. He spent a lot of his career giving economic advice to the British government. At other times he taught economics at university. He did not agree with the economic policies of Margaret Thatcher.

Life

Hopkin went to Barry Grammar School and then studied at St John's College, Cambridge, where he was a student of John Maynard Keynes. He then studied at Manchester University.

In 1941, during the Second World War, Hopkin was working as a civil servant at the Ministry of Health. Winston Churchill chose him to be part of the government's statistical team. He spent many years advising the government, before becoming Professor of Economics at Cardiff University in 1972.

He became head of the Government Economic Service in 1973, and gave advice to Denis Healey. It was a hard time for Healey because the unions were asking for big pay increases and inflation was rising. Hopkin helped Healey to persuade people to stick to the pay policy he had made. Then Hopkins returned to work at the university, from where he criticized Margaret Thatcher's policies. The economy was not going well, and Mrs Thatcher wanted to make cuts in government spending. Hopkin and many other economists disagreed. They thought the government should spend money instead to help the economy.

Hopkin was made CBE in 1961 and knighted in 1971. In 1938 he married Renée Recour (d. 2002), and they had two sons. Sir Bryan Hopkin died in Bedford.