My father, Wilfred Beckerman, who has died aged 94, was a renowned economist who combined a distinguished academic career, primarily as fellow of Balliol College, Oxford, with equally influential periods as an economic adviser for government. He was highly active (skiing into his 80s), a twinkly-eyed man with a good sense of humour whose love of learning and intellectual debate never left him.
Born in London, the fifth of six children of poor Jewish immigrant parents, Moishe, a tailor, and Mattl, a seamstress, he left school at 15 but continued to study in his spare time. In 1943, aged 18, he joined the Royal Navy and quickly rose to officer rank. Having persuaded the LSE to let him briefly study there before joining up, despite not having the required academic qualifications, he was then eligible for the government’s scheme to allow ex-servicemen to complete their tertiary education free after the war had ended.
Once demobbed in 1946, he donned his officer’s uniform and armed with only chutzpah and any documents that might impress college authorities, he walked along King’s Parade, Cambridge, going into college after college, asking if they might allow him to study economics there. The first few said “no” but eventually, Trinity College said yes. “Luck,” Wilfred always said, “plays such a big part in life.”
In 1952, he joined the OECD (the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) in Paris, and in the same year married Nicole Ritter. They went on to have three children, Stephen, Sophia and me. At the OECD he rose to be head of division, developing his interests primarily in welfare economics. In 1964, he was appointed fellow of Balliol College, Oxford, although from 1967 he also worked as economic adviser to the president of the Board of Trade, Anthony Crosland, a post which placed him at the heart of the economic policies of the Wilson government.
In 1969, he became professor and head of the department of political economy at UCL and, whilst there, was a key adviser on the first Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution.
He returned to Balliol in 1975, and continued to teach there until mandatory retirement, aged 67. Among the many pupils who came to him for weekly tutorials were Yvette Cooper, Seumas Milne, Matthew Syed and Stephanie Flanders.
After Oxford, he continued to write books and taught a highly popular course at UCL. His last lecture was delivered six weeks before his death.
Nicole died in 1979 and my father married Joanna Pasek in 1991. She survives him, as do their daughter, Beatrice, Joanna’s daughter, Agnieszka, and Stephen, Sophia and me.
