Fritz Machlup
Fritz Machlup (/ˈmɑːxluːp/; German: [ˈmaxlʊp]; December 15, 1902 – January 30, 1983) was an Austrian-American economist known for his work in information economics.[1] He was President of the International Economic Association from 1971 to 1974.[2] He was one of the first economists to examine knowledge as an economic resource,[3] and is credited with popularising the concept of the information society.[4]
Fritz Machlup
December 15, 1902
January 30, 1983 (aged 80)
New York University
(1971–83)
Princeton University
(1960–71)
Johns Hopkins University
(1947–59)
University at Buffalo
(1935–47)
Early life and career[edit]
Machlup was born to Jewish parents in Wiener-Neustadt, then in the Austro-Hungarian Empire. His father was a businessman who owned two factories that manufactured cardboard.[5] In 1920, he began studying economics at the University of Vienna, where he received his dr.rer.pol in 1923.[6] At Vienna, he attended lectures by Friedrich von Wieser, and participated in seminars organised by Ludwig von Mises.[7]
In 1933, he moved to the United States, where he was a research fellow at the Rockefeller Foundation from 1933 to 1935.[6] After the Nazi seizure of Austria in 1938, Machlup remained in the United States, and became a naturalised citizen of the US in 1940.[8] He was the Frank H. Goodyear Professor of Economics at the University at Buffalo from 1935 to 1947,[6] and held visiting positions at various universities around the US, including Harvard, Columbia, and Stanford.[6]
From 1947 to 1960, he was the Abram G. Hutzler Professor of Political Economy at Johns Hopkins University, during which time he served as a research fellow at the Ford Foundation in 1957-58.[6] He was the Walker Professor of Economics and International Finance at Princeton University between 1960 and 1971, where he also directed the International Finance Section.[6] He was a consultant to the Treasury Department from 1965 to 1977.[6] From 1971 till his death in 1983, he was a professor of economics at New York University.[6] His key work was The Production and Distribution of Knowledge in the United States (1962), which is credited with popularizing the concept of the information society.[4]
Machlup was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1961, and the American Philosophical Society in 1963.[9][10] He served as President of the American Economic Association in 1966,[11] and was President of the International Economic Association from 1971 to 1974.[2]
Shortly before his death, he completed the third in a series of ten planned volumes collectively called Knowledge: Its Creation, Distribution, and Economic Significance.[12] Machlup also helped form the Bellagio Group in the early 1960s, and joined its direct successor, the Group of Thirty, in 1979.[5][13]