Basil Yamey
{{Short description|South African economist (1919–2020)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}
{{more citations needed|date=October 2008}}
{{Infobox academic
| name = Basil Selig Yamey
| image = Basil Yamey.jpg
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| honorific_suffix = {{post-nominals|size=100%|CBE|FBA}}
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| birth_date = 4 May 1919
| birth_place = Cape Town, South Africa
| death_date = {{death date and age|2020|11|9|1919|5|4|df=y}}
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| education = University of Cape Town
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| occupation = Economist, Professor
| employer = London School of Economics
| notable_works = Art & Accounting
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| awards = CBE, Fellow of the British Academy
| website =
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Basil Selig Yamey CBE FBA (4 May 1919 – 9 November 2020) was a South African economist and expert in the history of accounting.{{cite journal | author=Christopher J Napier | title=Vale Basil S. Yamey | journal=Accounting History | year=2021 | volume=26 | issue=2 | pages=332–335 | doi=10.1177/10323732211009907 | s2cid=234771976 | doi-access=free }}{{cite web |author1 = Thomas, Jim |author2= Baden-Fuller, Charles |author1-link= |author2-link= Charles_Baden-Fuller| url= https://www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/documents/4937/Memoirs-21-03-Yamey.pdf |title= Basil Selig Yamey (4 May 1919 - 9 November 2020) - Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the British Academy, 21, 47–70 |date= 2023 |publisher= The British Academy |access-date=6 July 2025}}
Career
He was born in Cape Town in South Africa in May 1919,[https://books.google.com/books?id=hshtAAAAMAAJ&q=Basil+S.+Yamey+May+4,+1919 Profile of Basil Yamey] and educated at the University of Cape Town. For many years he was a professor at the London School of Economics. He was a part-time member of the Monopolies and Mergers Commission from 1966 to 1978, and author of many books and articles, including one on the economics of underdeveloped countries co-authored with Peter Thomas Bauer.{{cite web|title=World Connect|url=http://worldconnect.rootsweb.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=GET&db=:a43826&id=I372|access-date=22 August 2013}}
Yamey's interest in rational economic decision-making led him to study historical accounting records. Yamey rejected the claim by Werner Sombart that the double-entry bookkeeping system was a pre-condition, or at least an important stimulating factor, for the emergence of modern capitalism. Yamey combined his interest in Accounting History with his love of art (he was a trustee of the National Gallery, London from 1974 to 1981 and of the Tate Gallery, London from 1978 to 1981) in his book Art & Accounting, a richly-illustrated survey of paintings portraying commercial scenes and business-people. He died in November 2020 at the age of 101.[https://iea.org.uk/a-trip-down-memory-lane/ A trip down memory lane]
Selected bibliography
=Journal articles=
- {{cite journal | author1=Peter Thomas Bauer | author-link=Peter Thomas Bauer |author2=Basil S. Yamey | title=Economic Progress and Occupational Distribution | journal=The Economic Journal|doi=10.2307/2226978|jstor=2226978|year=1951|volume=61| issue=244 |pages=741–755}}
- {{cite journal|author1=Basil S. Yamey|year=1949|title=Scientific bookkeeping and the rise of capitalism|journal=The Economic History Review|doi=10.1111/j.1468-0289.1949.tb00108.x|jstor=2589824|volume= 1|issue=2–3|pages=99–113}}
- {{cite journal|author1=Basil S. Yamey|year=1972|title=Predatory Price Cutting: Notes and Comments|journal=The Journal of Law & Economics|volume=15|issue=1|pages=129–142|doi=10.1086/466730|jstor=725017|s2cid=153377713}}
=Books=
- {{cite book | author=Peter Thomas Bauer |author-link = Peter Thomas Bauer | author2=Basil S. Yamey | title=The Economics of Under-developed Countries |url= https://archive.org/details/economicsofunder00baue |url-access= registration | publisher=Cambridge University Press | year=1957 |via= Internet Archive}}
- {{cite book | author1=Basil S. Yamey | title=Essays on the history of accounting |url= https://archive.org/details/essaysonhistoryo0000yame |url-access=registration | location=New York | publisher=Arno Press | year=1978 | isbn=0-405-10933-4 |via= Internet Archive}}
- {{cite book | author1=Basil S. Yamey | title=Art & Accounting | location=New Haven | publisher=Yale University Press | year=1989 | isbn=0-300-04227-2}}
References
{{Reflist}}
External links
- {{Internet Archive author |sname= Basil Yamey}}
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{{Authority control}}
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Category:Academics of the London School of Economics
Category:20th-century South African economists
Category:South African academics
Category:Fellows of the British Academy
Category:University of Cape Town alumni
Category:Honorary Fellows of the London School of Economics
Category:South African Commanders of the Order of the British Empire
Category:South African men centenarians
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