Carl Menger

Carl Menger of Wolfensgrün ( born February 23, 1840 in New characrterized, Galicia, † February 27, 1921 in Vienna ) was an Austrian economist. He is considered the first representative of the Austrian school of economics and made in the field of value and price theory a name.

Life

1867 Doctorate in Law. in Krakow; 1872 Habilitation in Vienna with Lorenz von Stein, 1873 ao, 1879-1903 Full Professor of Political Economy and Statistics in Vienna, 1876-78 Teacher of the Crown Prince Rudolf. Carl Menger goes with his 1871 published work principles of economy theory as the spiritual father of the Austrian " marginal utility school." In the book he put forward the theory that the value of a property by the subjective appreciation of his most recent unit ( " unit limit " ) is determined ( marginal utility analysis). Based on this, economic theory was later used by Eugen von Böhm- Bawerk, Friedrich von Wieser systematically extended (in the technical and social ), Ludwig von Mises and Friedrich August von Hayek.

In 1873 he was appointed at the age of 33 years as a professor of economics at the University of Vienna.

In 1883, he sparked controversy in particular the so-called methods of economics with the Historical School with his investigations of the method of the social sciences and political economy, in which he was supported by his disciples Eugen von Böhm- Bawerk and Friedrich von Wieser. This is considered as actual birth of the Austrian School.

Menger was from 1876 teacher and close friend of the Austrian Crown Prince Rudolf. A 1878 published radical- liberal polemic, which criticized the Austrian aristocracy, was considered a joint work of the two. The friendship lasted until Rudolf's not completely clarified suicide in 1889.

In the 1890s, Menger focused on the area of monetary theory.

Menger's increasing pessimism about the Austrian, German and European education system and the political situation in 1903 brought him to abandon his teaching career and retire into private life. In 1911, he was still learning Ludwig von Mises know, who continued his work and which he valued highly. But even this friendship could not reduce Menger depression. He held the general shift away from liberalism, free trade and capitalism for a road to perdition and saw it as confirmation by the outbreak of the First World War. Almost completely ignored he died in Vienna in 1921 and was in a grave of honor in Vienna's Central Cemetery (Group 0, number 1, number 88) was buried.

Carl Menger was the father of the mathematician Karl Menger.