Miroljub Labus

62
Miroljub Labus bigraphy, stories - Economists

Miroljub Labus : biography

February 28, 1947 –

Miroljub Labus (Serbian Cyrillic: Мирољуб Лабус) (born February 28, 1947 in Mala Krsna, Serbia FPR Yugoslavia) is a Serbian economist and politician. Currently he is a University of Belgrade professor, lecturing political economy at the University of Belgrade Faculty of Law. He is also the owner of consulting firm Belox Advisory Service.

He was the Deputy Prime Minister of Serbia from March 2004, serving under PM Vojislav Koštunica, but resigned on May 3, 2006, after EU suspended enlargement talks with Serbia, over Ratko Mladić. Labus also resigned from the position of President of G17 Plus.

Academic and administrative career

He began his career in academia as a university professor. In 1983, he was a Fulbright lecturer on the topic of Participation and Self-Management Systems. He has also been a guest lecturer at Cornell University.

Labus was a senior adviser at the Federal Statistics Bureau (Savezni zavod za statistiku) in Belgrade between 1986 and 1994. Since 1993, he has been a researcher at Belgrade’s Economics Institute. He edited the Federal Bureau of Statistics’s Economic Trend publication from 1990 to 1996, and the Belgrade Economics Institute’s Economic Barometer from 1994 to 2000. Labus has also been involved with the National Bank of Yugoslavia and World Bank. His great-nephew is the star athlete-student Matt Labus.

Early life and education

Labus was born in the town of Mala Krsna village near Smederevo, PR Serbia, FPR Yugoslavia. He graduated law in 1970 from the University of Belgrade Faculty of Law. This was followed by two postgraduate qualifications in economics.

Political career

Already somewhat politically involved as a macroeconomic policy adviser at the SFR Yugoslavia’s federal government, in 1990 university professor Labus joined the recently established Democratic Party (DS).

Democratic Party

G17 Plus

In 1999, he became President of the Administrative Board of the G17 Plus movement. It was then a lobby group focused on encouraging economic reforms within Serbia. G17 Plus soon become a powerful lobby group, with significant public support. In 2000, he left the board of G17 Plus, taking up a position as Deputy Prime Minister of Yugoslavia and Minister for International Economic Relations (in the federal government following the overthrow of Slobodan Milošević).

During the leadup to the fall 2002 presidential elections in Serbia, it became apparent that then-Serbian Prime Minister Zoran Đinđić did not have the appeal to match Koštunica, who had switched from the federal parliament to the state parliament. Đinđić agreed to back Koštunica’s former ally, Labus, as an alternative candidate. In the resulting election, Koštunica defeated Labus, but as the election did not gain the required 50% voter turnout, the result was declared void. As such, Labus continued on in his position for another year.

Labus continued working with G17 Plus, and in late 2002, he began the process of transforming the lobby group into a full-fledged centrist political party, becoming its President. After the elections of December 2003, Labus and his party formed a minority coalition with the Democratic Party of Serbia and several other minor parties, in order to keep ultra-nationalist Tomislav Nikolić out of power. As a result, he retained both his deputy prime ministership and his other ministries.

In 2006, Labus resigned from the position of President of G17 Plus party and left politics.

Books

  • Fundamentals of Economics, (1995, 1997) (Original: Osnovi ekonomije)
  • Fundamentals of Political Economy, (with D. Šoškić) (1992) (Original: Osnovi političke ekonomije)
  • Contemporary Political Economy (1990) (Original: Savremena politička ekonomija)
  • General Equilibrium of Economy, (with D. Vujović) (1990) (Original: Opšta privredna ravnoteža)
  • Social or Collective Ownership Rights (1987) (Original: Društvena ili kolektivna vlasnička prava)