Faculty ‘meet’ to pay tribute to Professor Peter Sinclair

Prof Peter Sinclair

Staff from the School of Economics ‘gathered’ last night on Zoom conferencing to pay tribute to the esteemed economist Peter Sinclair, who sadly passed away on 31 March 2020 aged 73, after spending some weeks in intensive care battling Covid-19.

Academics raised a toast to Sinclair, each from their own homes.

He had visited Kent as recently as 2019 giving the talk ‘Rebalancing the UK Economy’, and also for the Money Macro and Finance PhD workshop, hosted here on 19-20 April 2018.

Professor Tony Thirlwall was first to lead the tributes “I was very sad to hear the news that Peter Sinclair has succumbed to the coronavirus. He was a fine theoretical and applied economist, and a superb and inspiring editor of the Oxford Economics Papers for many years, as well as organiser of the annual Hicks lecture in Oxford before he left for Birmingham. His humour and sense of fun were legendary.”

On the Zoom gathering people shared remembrances.

“It was great to have Peter visit Kent so recently,” Dr Alfred Duncan shared. “Our students really enjoyed his lecture on the challenges facing the UK economy.”

Professor Miguel Leon-Ledesma recollected that Sinclair used to be able to say “hello or good morning in about seventy different languages.” And Professor Robert Fraser, joining from his home in Australia told us “you were struck by what an amazing man he was.”

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