Anthony de Jasay is an Anglo-Hungarian economist living in France. He is the author of The State (Oxford, 1985), Social Contract, Free Ride (Oxford 1989) and Against Politics (London,1997). His latest book, Justice and Its Surroundings, was published by Liberty Fund in 2002.
Born in Hungary, De Jasay was educated at Szekesfehervar and Budapest, taking a degree in Agriculture. In 1947-48 he worked as a free-lance journalist, his activity forcing him to flee from the country in 1948. After two years in Austria, he emigrated to Australia in 1950 and took a part-time course in Economics at the University of Western Australia. Winning a Hackett Studentship, he went to Oxford in 1955 and was elected a research fellow of Nuffield College where he stayed till 1962, publishing papers in the Economic Journal, the Journal of Political Economy and other learned journals.
In 1962 he moved to Paris and worked there as a banker, first in an executive capacity and then on his own account, till 1979, doing investment business in several European countries and the United States. In 1979, he retired to the Normandy coast where he still lives. He has a wife and three children.
While his initial interest and training were in economics, he has later turned to political philosophy, and his writings draw on both. He has published five books, several of which have been translated into a total of six languages, as well as numerous articles, mainly in English but also in French and German. He is widely considered as one of the foremost classical liberal philosophers.
