Leopold Kohr, an Austrian philosopher and economist who argued that "small is beautiful," died Saturday in Gloucester, England, where he had lived for about a decade, said his biographer, Gerald Lehner. Professor Kohr was 84.
No cause of death was given.
Dr. Kohr, who used the pseudonym Hans Kohr, is best known for his studies of national economies, which led him to favor small countries and oppose broad unification projects like the European Union.
The phrase "small is beautiful" is generally associated with the late German economist Fritz Schumacher, who lived in Britain and published a book with that title in the 1970's. But Mr. Schumacher said Dr. Kohr had been his teacher, Mr. Lehner said.
In the mid-1960's, a group of Dr. Kohr's supporters raised money to try to test his theories on Anguilla, a Caribbean island that had declared its independence from Britain. But the project was not supported by the residents.
Leopold Kohr was born in Oberndorf and studied law in Austria and political theory at the London School of Economics. He served as a correspondent in the Spanish Civil War and left Austria in 1938 when it was annexed by Nazi Germany. He taught economics at Rutgers University in New Jersey in the 1940's and 50's.
