Editorial to the special issue on the economics of Kazimierz Łaski

In October 2015 the Polish–Austrian Kaleckian economist Kazimierz Łaski, professor emeritus at the Johannes Kepler University Linz and former scientific director of the Vienna Institute for International Economic Studies (wiiw), passed away at the age of 94. Łaski was born in Poland in 1921 into a Jewish family. He managed to survive the Nazi–German occupation and the Holocaust under very severe circumstances. In post-war Poland he studied in Warsaw at the Communist Party's School of Social Sciences. Then, at the Main School of Planning and Statistics, he did his doctoral work and rose from assistant to professor and vice-dean. He became a member of the circle around Michał Kalecki after the latter's return to Poland (in 1955). When, in the late 1960s, this group became the target of an antisemitic campaign, Łaski lost his positions and emigrated to Austria. There he became a professor of economics at the Johannes Kepler University Linz, and then, after his retirement from the university, he became the scientific director of the Vienna Institute for International Economic Studies (wiiw). After retirement from this position, he maintained his affiliation with the wiiw until his death.