Pierre Émile Levasseur (December 8, 1828 - 1911), was a French economist.

He was born and educated in Paris, France. He began teaching in the lycée at Alençon in 1852, and in 1857 became professor of rhetoric at Besançon. He returned to Paris to become professor at the lycée Saint Louis, and in 1868 he was chosen a member of the academy of moral and political sciences, in 1872 he was appointed professor of geography, history and statistics in the College de France, and subsequently became also professor at the Conservatoire des arts et métiers and at the École libre des sciences politiques (which later became known as the Institut d'études politiques de Paris or its widely known nickname of Sciences Po).

Levasseur was one of the founders of the study of commercial geography, and became a member of the Council of Public Instruction, president of the French society of political economy and honorary president of the French geographical society.

His numerous writings include:

• Histoire des classes ouvrières en France depuis la conquète de Jules-César jusqu'à la Révolution (1859)
• Histoire des classes ouvrières en France depuis la Révolution jusqu'a nos jours (1867)
• L'Etude et l'enseignement de la géographie (1871)
• La Population française (1889-1892)
• L'Agriculture aux Etats-Unis (1894)
• L'Enseignement primaire dens les pays civilisés (1897)
• L'Ouvrier américain (1898)
• Questions ouvrières et industrielles sous la troisième République (1907)
• Histoire des classes ouvrières et de l'industrie en France de 1789 à 1870 (1903-1904)
• Grand Atlas de géographie physique et politique (1890-1894).

This entry was originally from the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.