Friedrich August von Hayek (Hayek)

Memory Nobel Prize 1974. Economics


British economist Friedrich August von Hayek was born in Vienna. He was the son of August von Hayek, a member of local health insurers and part-time professor of biology, University of Vienna, and Felicitas (nee Yurashek) Hayek. His maternal grandfather was a professor of public law at Vienna University and the head of the Central Statistical Office of Austria. In 1917, after graduating from high school, X. was drafted into the Austrian army and served as an artillery officer on the Italian front.

Returning in 1918. after the conclusion of peace in Vienna, X. enrolled in the University of Vienna, where he studied law, economics, philosophy and psychology. Although initially he was fascinated by the ideas of socialism and nationalism, which were the most popular ideological trends in postwar Vienna, he subsequently became a fierce opponent of. The first step X. in the fight against these ideologies, which became his life, was the organization of the Association of Democratic students at the University.

After receiving in 1921, Mr.. the Vienna University degree of Doctor of Laws X. began working at the Austrian Bureau of the settlement of war claims, which at that time led the economist Ludwig von Mises. Simultaneously, he resumed his studies at Vienna University and in 1923. received his doctorate in economics. After completing his dissertation X. spent a year in the U.S. as a researcher, an assistant Jeremy Jenks at New York University. He also listened to lectures on the economic cycle, which is at Columbia University read Wesley Mitchell and John Clarke, as well as participated in the collection of statistical material for the magazine 'Business annalz' ( "Business Annals").

Returning to Austria in the public service in 1924, X. became a member of a private seminar Mises, thereby entering into a select group of influential economists and philosophers, who met several times a month for discussions on current economic issues. Being under the influence of empirical studies of the economic cycle, which at that time were conducted in the United States, X. in 1927. persuaded the Austrian government to create an institution to conduct similar studies in Austria.

During the 20-ies. X. published many articles on trade cycle, monetary theory and economic policy. In 1929, Mr.. He began lecturing at the University of Vienna, and the following year was invited to read four lectures at the London School of Economics (LSE). These lectures, published in 1931. entitled 'prices and production' ( "Prices and Production"), served as the basis for crediting X. the position of visiting professor at the LSE, where he was then appointed professor of economics and statistics.

London X. was the initiator of one of the longest economic debate 30-ies. In 1930. John Maynard Keynes published his 'Treatise on Money' ( "Treatise on Money"), a review which X. wrote for the magazine 'Business' ( "Economica"). In response, Keynes asked the Italian economist Piero Sraffa a Marxist to write for the magazine 'Economy' Journal '( "Economic Journal"), who edited Keynes, book reviews, X. 'Prices and Production'. There followed a long and angry debate in the form of a series of comments, responses and statements. Ultimately, each of any significant figure in British economics took part in this dispute.

In essence, the theory of trade cycle X. based on the Austrian theory of capital. According X., there exists an equilibrium structure of capital formation. During the economic boom (as in the late 20's.) Is forced savings, due to credit expansion (even if the price level unchanged), which leads to an increase in capital stock in excess of the desired size. Sooner or later this overaccumulation of capital in comparison with voluntary savings leads to a crisis. Concept X. anticipated the monetarist explanation of the Great Depression, this Milton Fridmenom.

At the same time, X. argued that depression was characteristic of excessive consumption, coupled with the wrong economic policies. Most unemployment was caused not relevant to the needs of aggregate demand, as Keynes argued, and distortions, as persistently claimed X., in the relative prices. These biases in turn, formed due to unforeseen changes in money supply, leading to an imbalance between supply and demand of labor in the economy-wide. Only the market mechanism, concluded X., can correct this imbalance and bring the system back to equilibrium, as expansionist and interventionist policies privitelstva was not necessary or productive.

Although most observers believed that the dispute ended in favor of the Keynesians, the theory X. played the role of the lighthouse for the development of macroeconomics, which occurred nearly forty years later. Example, . he considered, . that expansionary fiscal and monetary policies may lead to an expansion of aggregate output in the short term, . but because of its impact on relative prices in the long run will increase and unemployment, . and inflation,
. This conclusion anticipated the Friedman theory of 'natural rate' of unemployment and showed an accurate description of 'stagflation' 70-ies. Adoption X. about, . that the theory of macroeconomic events in need of microeconomic foundation, . and the concentration of his attention on the difficulties of establishing the differences between changes in relative and absolute prices (caused by changes in money supply) have formed the core of the revolution 'rational expectations' in macroeconomics,
.

Another significant contribution of X. in economic theory was his book 'Pure Theory of Capital' ( "The Pure Theory of Capital"), published in 1941. In it, instead of to determine capital as a tangible factor, measurable, X. began to examine the length of time (or the number of intermediate stages or products) required for the transformation of raw materials into finished goods. This was done in accordance with the early Austrian theory of capital. According X., lowering the interest rate (or increase productivity of new investments) will lengthen the period of production: firms will adopt a more devious technological methods and resorting to a greater division of labor. Raising interest rates would lead to a decrease in intermediate stages of development and to produce less complex products. Unorthodox for his time and often difficult to understand, a new restoration X. Rights theory in the classical interpretation of the capital with great difficulty were implemented in the modern economic analysis.

While in monetary economics X. Keynesianism led his resistance, he drew attention to the political economy of socialism. His criticism of socialism is not based on faith in the effectiveness of capitalism (which emphasizes a neoclassical political economy of welfare), . and on the belief, . that the centralized socialist planning will never be able to respond so quickly, . a market mechanism, . the constant fluctuations in the levels of demand and supply,
. Moreover, according to X., under socialism there is no information about the preferences of consumers and commercial production technology, which is necessary for the calculation of equilibrium prices and quantities of goods. The main advantage of free markets is that prices contain all the information necessary for consumers and firms to make rational economic decisions at a much lower cost than in any other system. Here and governments can not improve market outcomes, and the concept of 'market failure' or 'imperfect competition', in terms of X. (except for what is happening on government decrees in cases where the government provides legal rights and the rule of trade unions), completely meaningless.

Book X. "The Road to Serfdom '(" The Road to Serfdom ", 1944) was his attack on socialism. In terms of policy arguments, X. addressed to its regular readers. He claimed, . that democratic governments, . who perceived these socialist aims, . as the equal distribution of income, . and a socialist tactics of intervention in market relations, . as the setting of price controls, . with the inevitable doom turned into totalitarian regimes,
. Similarly, any attempt to introduce competitive markets in a totalitarian state will eventually cause a political upheaval, t. to. freedom of choice, the underlying market is incompatible with the objectives of autocratic.

The Soviet invasion of Hungary in 1956. and in Czechoslovakia in 1968, when both countries attempted to economic liberalization for the transition to a market economy, seemed to justify a dystopian vision of X. Many of his later works on political philosophy and legal theory, . published in the form of books - 'The Constitution of liberty' ( "Constitution of Liberty", . 1960), . three-volume edition of the 'Law, . law and freedom '( "Law, . Legislation, . and Liberty, . 1972), . - Sharpened his arguments in favor of, . that totalitarianism can fight, . only carrying a reliance on free markets and legally binding restrictions on state intervention in the economy,
.

The success and popularity of his book 'The Road to Serfdom' led to the fact that X. received several invitations to visit the United States in the postwar years. In 1950, Mr.. X. resigned from his post at the LSE and was appointed professor of social sciences and ethics, University of Chicago, where he remained until 1962.

The years spent in Chicago, had for X. highly productive. He led an interdisciplinary seminar, the participants which included George Stigler and Milton Friedman. He also published numerous books, articles, pamphlets on the history of social thought, law theory, scientific methodology and even in psychology. In 1963, Mr.. He returned to Europe to take the post of professor of economic policy at the University of Freiburg (West Germany). After retirement in 1968, he moved to the University of Salzburg, where he spent nine years old, full of disappointment. This university is not only lacked a special program on economics and not assigned the appropriate degree, but few of its staff members or students showed interest in the economic views of the X. or his political philosophy. In 1977. He returned to Freiburg and no longer leave him.

X. shared the Nobel Memorial Award 1974. Economics with Gunnar Myrdal "for fundamental work on the theory of money and economic fluctuations and in-depth analysis of the interdependence of economic, social and institutional phenomena '. In his Nobel lecture X. left to the economists' criticism of uncritical acceptance of 'exclaim' (by this word he understood the grave, . based on incorrect or not relevant to the merits of initial assumptions, . on the basis of econometric models which were built, . expressed only in the quantitative measurements) and in an effort to predict the impact of expansionary monetary and fiscal policies on the basis of, . what he called 'claim to knowledge',
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In 1926, Mr.. X. married Ellen Von Fritch. They have a son and daughter. After her divorce from his first wife he had in 1950, Mr.. married Helene Vitterlich. In 1938. He was granted British citizenship.

In addition to the Nobel Prize, X. received many other awards, including the Medal for achievements in science and art of the Austrian government (1976). He is a member of the British Academy, the Austrian Academy of Sciences. Argentine Academy of Economic Sciences. He was also awarded numerous honorary degrees and titles.