George Christopher Archibald

George Christopher Archibald (30 December 1926 – 22 February 1996), also known as Chris Archibald, was a British economist, researcher, and professor. He briefly held the title of 2nd Baron Archibald in 1975.

Archibald was born in Scotland, the eldest son of Dorothy Archibald and George Archibald, 1st Baron Archibald. He attended Phillips Exeter Academy in New Hampshire for his secondary education. He earned a bachelor's degree in history from Cambridge University in 1943. Following his graduation, he served in the military during World War II and participated in military activities in Palestine.

After his military service, Archibald completed a Bachelor of Science degree in economics at the London School of Economics (LSE) in 1951. Subsequently, he taught in Otago, New Zealand. In 1955, he returned to the London School of Economics to join the faculty. During his time at LSE, he was among the founding members of the Staff Seminar on Methodology, Measurement and Testing.

In 1964, Archibald left LSE to join the newly established University of Essex, where he was appointed to a professorship in 1967. His contributions were influential in developing the university into a prominent research center for social sciences within the UK during the 1960s.

In 1971, Archibald moved to the University of British Columbia. That same year, he married Daphne May Vincent Henman, his second wife. Upon the death of his father, he declined inheritance of the peerage, asserting that hereditary honors were "empty honors."

Archibald's academic work includes significant publications. In collaboration with R. G. Lipsey, he authored "Monetary and Value Theory: A Critique of Lange and Patinkin" in 1958, which applied Patinkin's theory to stock flows and stock equilibrium, marking a pioneering development in modern monetary economics. In 1967, he published "Refutation or Comparison" in The British Journal for the Philosophy of Science, analyzing the limits of measurement and testing in scientific inquiry. His 1992 book, "Information, Incentives, and the Economics of Control," published by Cambridge University Press, is regarded as an important contribution to the field of economics and regulation. A revised edition was reissued in 2005.

Archibald retired from the University of British Columbia in 1991 and subsequently returned to Britain. He passed away on 22 February 1996.