The economic tradition founded by Carl Menger in the 1870s, distinctive for its subjective theory of value, its emphasis on time and capital structure, its skepticism of mathematical modeling, and its general defense of free markets. Mises and Hayek are the central 20th century figures, with Hayek winning the Nobel Prize in 1974 for work that drew on the Austrian framework. The tradition remains active today through institutions like the Mises Institute and the Foundation for Economic Education.
Tradition
Austrian School Economics
The economic tradition founded by Carl Menger in the 1870s, distinctive for its subjective theory of value and skepticism of mathematical modeling.
Thinkers
Thinker
Friedrich Hayek
1899–1992
Friedrich Hayek was the Austrian-British classical liberal economist who won the Nobel Prize for showing how dispersed knowledge makes markets work and central planning fail
ThinkerLudwig von Mises
1881–1973
Ludwig von Mises was an Austrian classical-liberal economist whose argument that socialism could not work shaped the entire libertarian intellectual tradition
ThinkerMurray Rothbard
1926–1995
Murray Rothbard was an American anarcho-capitalist economist who pushed Austrian theory to the complete abolition of the state and built the most systematic libertarian framework of the 20th century
ThinkerHans-Hermann Hoppe
1949–
Hans-Hermann Hoppe is a radical libertarian economist of the Austrian school whose "argumentation ethics" and critique of democracy became foundational to modern anarcho-capitalist thought
Related through shared thinkers