Spain’s Targeting of Former Harvard Professor Provokes Trans-Atlantic Outcry

BARCELONA—In just two months, Andreu Mas-Colell, an internationally renowned economist and former Harvard professor, went from making the most of a peaceful retirement in his hometown of Barcelona to facing allegations by the Spanish state that could end result in the seizure of his belongings.

Mr. Mas-Colell, 77 yrs outdated, was the economic system minister of Catalonia, a affluent location in northeast Spain, from 2010 to 2016. He is accused by Spain’s Court of Auditors, an administrative entire body that oversees general public accounts, of taking part in an alleged misuse of thousands and thousands of euros by allegedly encouraging to endorse Catalonia’s quest for independence from Spain, which culminated in an unlawful referendum in 2017.

On Tuesday, the Court of Auditors imposed a penalty of up to €2.8 million on Mr. Mas-Colell, equal to about $three.three million, as portion of proceedings against 34 former Catalan officers accused of illegally shelling out a complete of €5.4 million. The accused have to spend the hefty penalties right before they can attractiveness against them in courtroom.

Mr. Mas-Colell, whose textbook on microeconomics is greatly utilised at U.S. universities, has been a professor at Harvard University and the University of California, Berkeley, as well as in Spain. The accusations against him have sparked an outcry among the fellow economists in the U.S., Europe and Asia.

“Those of us who have dealt with professor Mas-Colell for many yrs as colleagues, students, and co-authors know that he is a individual of the utmost integrity,” wrote 54 well known economists from about the earth in a letter printed in the Spanish newspaper El País on June 22. Amongst the signatories have been 33 Nobel Prize winners, such as Joseph Stiglitz, Amartya Sen and Robert Shiller.