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.