Andrés studied Pharmacy and Science (Physics and Mathematics) at the Central University of Madrid. In 1912, he attended the lectures on Metaphysics given by Professor José Ortega y Gasset. In 1914, he enrolled in the doctoral program in Science in which Professor Jose Echegaray taught Mathematical Physics. Dr. Andrés began to teach that subject in the Student Residence. In order to study Celestial Mechanics, he moved to Paris in 1919 granted by the Commission of Extension Studies. During that time in Paris, he discovered his passion for economics, reading Vilfredo Pareto as well as his vocation as a writer. Influenced by the Spanish Generation of 27 and inspired by the humour of Ramón Gómez de la Serna he wrote “Sentimental-dancing” in 1925 and the stage play “Tarari” in 1929. This multifaceted man was also an accomplished dancer. He graduated with a law degree from the University of Madrid in 1924. In Madrid, he established relationships with the finest intellectuals of the first third of the 20th century, such as Unamuno, Valle Inclan, Azorin, Ramón y Cajal and Ortega y Gasset, who would describe Andrés Alvarez as "a man who is always in the process of becoming someone new, due to his pursuit of so many diverse enterprises.

Andrés held the chair of Political Economy at the University of Oviedo in 1942. In 1944, he accepted an academic position at the recently created Faculty of Political Sciences and Economics of Madrid, in which he served as Dean from 1944 to 1946. In 1945, he assumed the chair of Economic Theory and remained in that position until his retirement in 1961. In addition, he joined The Royal Academy of Moral and Political Sciences in 1948. In 1966 he was appointed as Chairman of the European Association of Commerce.

He published articles about Market Morphology mainly in the four specialized magazines in this area, which were “Magazine of Political Studies”, “Magazine of Political Economy”, “Currency and Credit” and “Annals of Economy”. In 1954, under the direction of Manuel de Torres, Andrés fostered the preparatory works to draw the first annual input-output table of the Spanish Economy referred to that year which  wasn’t  published until 1958, He also worked in a second  table referred to 1958.

 

Luis Perdices de Blas y Estrella Trincado Aznar

 

Writings by Valentín Andrés Álvarez in the UCM Library

Writings about Valentín Andrés Álvarez in the UCM Library

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