Tribute to Edwin Le Héron

Our eminent French economist colleague, Edwin Le Héron, passed away on 23 April 2025 in Bordeaux. A professor at Sciences Po Bordeaux since 1987, he was the founder and long-standing president of the Association pour le Développement des Études Keynésiennes (ADEK), established in 2000. ADEK has brought together French-speaking post-keynesian economists and organized major international post-keynesian conferences in Dijon, Grenoble, and Lille.

A committed Keynesian, Edwin Le Héron collaborated with Alain Barrère in the 1980s and played a pivotal role in advancing pluralism in French academic economics. He consistently supported the recruitment and integration of heterodox economists. He was a member of the Board of Directors of both the Association Française d’Économie Politique (AFEP) and the collective “Économistes Atterrés.” In recognition of his academic and civic contributions, he was named Chevalier de la Légion d’honneur – one of the highest honors awarded by the French Government – in 2017.

He served on the editorial boards of the Brazilian Journal of Political Economy, the European Journal of Economics and Economic Policies, and Économie Appliquée. He was also an associate editor of the Journal of Post Keynesian Economics.

Edwin Le Héron played a central role in the theoretical debate surrounding the endogenous money hypothesis in the 1990s, helping to reconcile it with Keynes’s notion of liquidity preference. This led to a pragmatic and influential vision of central banking. In 2007, he co-edited the volume Aspects of Modern Monetary and Macroeconomic Policies with Philip Arestis and Eckhard Hein (Palgrave Macmillan, London).

From the early 2000s onward, he was France’s foremost promoter of stock-flow consistent (SFC) modeling. As a key member of the international SFC community inspired by Wynne Godley’s work at the Levy Economics Institute, he participated in the Wynne Godley Memorial Conference in 2011 and served on the advisory board of Joseph Stiglitz’s SFC research group (2012–2018).

Among his many scholarly contributions, the following works stand out for their impact and their engagement with the research conducted at the Levy Institute:

• Le Héron, E. (2012). “A Debate with Wynne Godley on the Neutrality of Fiscal Policy.” In D. Papadimitriou & G. Zezza (Eds.), Contributions in Stock-Flow Modeling: Essays in Honor of Wynne Godley. Palgrave Macmillan.
• Le Héron, E. (2011). “Confidence and Financial Crisis in a Post-Keynesian Stock-Flow Consistent Model.” European Journal of Economics and Economic Policies: Intervention, 8(2).
• Le Héron, E. (2008). “Monetary and Fiscal Policies in a Post-Keynesian Stock-Flow Consistent Model.” In R. Wray & M. Forstater (Eds.), Keynes and Macroeconomics after 70 Years: Critical Assessments of the General Theory. Edward Elgar.
• Le Héron, E., & Mouakil, T. (2008). “A Post-Keynesian Stock-Flow Consistent Model for the Dynamic Analysis of Monetary Policy Shock on Banking Behavior.” Metroeconomica, 59(3).
• Le Héron, E., & Carré, E. (2006). “Credibility versus Confidence in Monetary Policy.” In R. Wray & M. Forstater (Eds.), Money, Financial Instability and Stabilization Policy. Edward Elgar.

The academic community has lost a rigorous scholar, a generous colleague, and a tireless advocate for pluralism in economics. We extend our deepest condolences to his wife and two daughters.