Obituary: Doug Strachan, policeman who became development economist and academic economist

Douglas Gordon Strachan, economist and policeman. Born: 8 September, 1945. Died: 1 Augustt, 2017, aged 71.
Doug Strachan has died at the age of 71Doug Strachan has died at the age of 71
Doug Strachan has died at the age of 71

Dr Douglas Gordon Strachan, who has died aged 71, was a policeman, a development economist working in Africa, and an academic economist at the University of Strathclyde where he was also the Advisor of Studies in the Business School.

In his academic work Dr Strachan – Doug did not stand on titles – brought with him his experience of life outside academia. With younger politicians a now familiar complaint is that many of them do not have a hinterland outside of politics. In academia this issue has a long pedigree, and is particularly raised in relation to economics, where policy makers often “distil their frenzy” from academic scribblers. In his contributions as a development economist, scholar and advisor to students, Doug defied this academic stereotype, very much bringing his experience outside academia with him.

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One of five sons, he was a bright pupil at Shawlands Academy but also displayed a tendency to get up to mischief outside of school. After the mischief showed signs of getting out of hand his father gave him a choice: either join the army, or the police. He chose the latter. After training at Tulliallan Police College, from which he graduated with a commendation, he worked for six years as a police constable, with Renfrew and Bute Constabulary and then with the City of Glasgow Police.

A scholarly bent began to show through in his work. He would spend time in libraries to unearth obscure pieces of legislation under which miscreants could be brought to justice. One case concerned explosives and the nuisance caused by blasting operations.

He left the police force to resume his formal education, first at Langside College, than at the University of Strathclyde where he completed his BA (Econ) in 1974. At that time development economics was a major specialism in the David Livingstone Institute at the university. He was talent spotted, appointed to a research fellowship at this institute and registered for a Ph.D.

For the next decade he was a practising development economist in Africa. From 1975-77 he was a lecturer in economics at Haile Selassie 1st University in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. During 1978-81 he was a senior research fellow at the University of Cape Coast in Ghana where he advised on the choice and transfer of technology. His next posting, 1982-84, involved leading an EEC-funded team to advise the Ghanaian government on the choice and implementation of a development strategy. To his young family these posts provided an exotic break from schooling in Glasgow.

In 1987 he returned to Strathclyde on a full-time basis as a lecturer then senior lecturer in the Department of Economics. He was a charismatic lecturer, combining lucidity of expression with a dry sense of humour. He left a major mark on cohorts of Strathclyde students from 1994 through his post as Senior Advisor of Studies in the Business School. This role involved ensuring that each student was pursuing an appropriate curriculum and involved interviews with all new students and a majority of continuing students. In providing advice on both academic and personal matters he brought to this task the worldly wisdom and insights into human behaviour acquired during his time in the police, but without forgetting his own youthful experiences as a poacher before he became a gamekeeper.

A first theme to his academic research sprang from his experience as a development economist and concerned the view that untrammelled markets should be the cornerstone of economic development. In the early 1990s this doctrine became known as the Washington Consensus. In “Three Pillars of Wisdom”, published in 2001 (in the Review of Political Economy), he took this consensus to task, arguing that there was a good case for selective state intervention, in relation to technology transfer for example, to promote development.

A second theme to his academic research concerned how financial markets work. In contrast to the efficient markets hypothesis, he argued that financial markets were driven by waves of exuberance punctuated by periods of panic, and prone to crashes that were more endemic than exceptional. To mitigate the consequences of such crashes, strict regulation was required, not deregulation. He elaborated on this theme in 2013 in “Reflections on Soros” (published in the Journal of Economic Methodology) when he was one of the academics invited to discuss the views of the financier George Soros on the reflexive nature of financial markets.

Among his other professional activities were his work as an unpaid director of the Govan Initiative Limited, teaching at the Business School in Toulouse and advisory work in the newly liberalised Albania of the early 1990s.

Dr Strachan is survived by his wife Ellen, daughter Marjorie, son Sam and grandchildren Libby, Amelia, Zac, Coll and Rowan.

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