Hayek, Friedrich August von


Hayek, Friedrich August von

(frē`drĭkh ougo͝ost` fôn hī`ək), 1899–1992, British economist, b. Vienna. He was raised and educated in Austria and taught at the London School of Economics in the 1930s, where he gained attention for his criticism of KeynesKeynes, John Maynard, Baron Keynes of Tilton
, 1883–1946, English economist and monetary expert, studied at Eton and Cambridge. Early Career and Critique of Versailles
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. He expressed his commitment to free markets and his concern about government intervention and aversion to its control of the means of production in The Road to Serfdom (1944). The economic policies of British Prime Minister Margaret ThatcherThatcher, Margaret Hilda Roberts Thatcher, Baroness,
1925–2013, British political leader. Great Britain's first woman prime minister, nicknamed the "Iron Lady" for her uncompromising political stance, Thatcher served longer than any other British prime minister in the 20th
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 were significantly influenced by his ideas, and his economic philosophy also helped to foster the global capitalism of the late 20th and early 21st cents. In his later years Hayek wrote works that focused on the fields of philosophy, psychology, and epistemology, including as The Counter-Revolution of Science: Studies in the Abuse of Reason (1952). He was awarded the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences in 1974.

Bibliography

See his collected works, ed. by W. W. Bartley 3d et al. (17 vol., 1989–); N. Wapshott, Keynes Hayek (2011).

Hayek, Friedrich August von

 

Born May 8, 1899, in Vienna. British economist; representative of the London school of bourgeois political economy.

Hayek graduated from the University of Vienna in 1921. He was director of the Austrian Institute for Economic Research from 1927 to 1931. He was a professor at the universities of London (1931–50), Chicago (1950–62), and Freiburg (1962–69); in 1970 he became a visiting professor at the University of Salzburg.

Hayek’s economic theories attempt to combine the psychological method of the Austrian school with mathematical theories and idealist philosophy. Hayek regards capital as an eternal category, inherent in all socioeconomic structures. He denies the existence of exploitation and class antagonisms within capitalist society. He advanced a theory according to which economic crises of overproduction are caused by excessive capital investment and an incorrect credit policy of the banks. As a means of averting crises, Hayek suggests lowering the level of consumption of the workers (especially during recessions and depressions) and cutting back on their wages, as well as stimulating savings. Hayek is a strong opponent of any intervention by the bourgeois government in economic life and of the most modest concessions to the workers. He crudely distorts the theory and practice of the building of communism.

Hayek was awarded a Nobel Prize in 1974.

WORKS

Prices and Production. London, 1931.
Monetary Theory and the Trade Cycle. New York, 1933.
The Pure Theory of Capital. Chicago, 1942.
Individualism and Economic Order. Chicago, 1948.
Studies in Philosophy, Politics and Economics. Chicago, 1967.
Freiburger Studien. Tübingen, 1969.
Profits, Interest and Investment, 3rd ed. New York, 1969.

REFERENCES

Bliumin, I. G. Kritika burzhuaznoi politicheskoi ekonomii, vols. 2–3. Moscow, 1962.
Seligman, B. Osnovnye techeniia sovremennoi ekonomicheskoi mysli. Moscow, 1968. (Translated from English.)

M. P. EVTIKHIEV