Profile Major Works Resources

Fritz Machlup, 1902-1983

Photo of F.Machlup

Austrian economist at the Johns Hopkins University and Princeton, working primarily in industrial organization and international finance.

Born in Wiener-Neustadt, Austria, Fritz Machlup enrolled at the University of Vienna in 1920, receiving his doctorate in 1923 under Friedrich von Wieser and  Ludwig von Mises. Machlup did not stay in academia, but moved on into the private sector, working as a cardboard manufacturer, and an occasional journalist.   In 1933, Machlup left Austria on a Rockefeller fellowship to visit the United States and decided to accept a position at the University of Buffalo in 1935.  Before beginning, Machlup spent several months winding up his affairs in Europe, and spent several months as a visitor at the LSE in 1935-36.

With frequent visits to Washington to serve on government panels and research, Fritz Machlup decided to move to the Johns Hopkins University in 1947.  He subsequently moved again in 1960 to Princeton, to succeed Jacob Viner.  He would remain at Princeton until his retirement in 1971.  Machlup remained active at NYU after that.

 

  


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Major works of Fritz Machlup

  • Der Goldkernwährung, 1925.
  • "Transfer and Price Effects", 1930, ZfN.
  • The Stock Market, Credit and Capital Formation, 1931. [mis]
  • "The Liquidity of Short-Term Capital", 1932, Economica. [mis]
  • "A Note on Fixed Costs", 1934, QJE.
  • "Professor Knight and the Period of Production", 1935, JPE. [mis]
  • "The Commonsense of the Elasticity of Substitution", 1935, RES.
  • "The Rate of Interest as Cost Factor and as a Capitalization Factor", 1935, AER.
  • "The Consumption of Capital in Austria", 1935, REStat [mis]
  • "Why Bother with Methodology?", 1936, Economica.
  • "On the Meaning of Marginal Product", 1937, Explorations in Economics.
  • "Monopoly and Competition: A clarification of market positions", 1937, AER.
  • "Can we control the boom?", 1937 [mis]
  • "Evaluation of Practical Significance of the Theory of Monopolistic Competition", 1939, AER.
  • "Period Analysis and Multiplier Theory", 1939, QJE.
  • "The Theory of Foreign Exchange", 1939-40, Economica.
  • "Eight Questions on Gold", 1941, AER.
  • "Forced or Induced Savings: An exploration into its synonyms and homonyms", 1943, REStat.
  • International Trade and the National Income Multiplier, 1943. [mis]
  • "Marginal Analysis and Empirical Research", 1946, AER.
  • "A Rejoinder to an Anti-Marginalist", 1947, AER.
  • "Monopolistic Wage Determination as a Part of the General Problem of Monopoly", 1947, in Wage Determination and the Economics of Liberalism.
  • "Elasticity Pessimism in International Trade", 1950, Economia Internazionale.
  • "Three Concepts of the Balance of Payments and the So-Called Dollar Shortage", 1950, EJ.
  • "Schumpeter's Economic Methodology", 1951, REStat.
  • The Political Economy of Monopoly, 1952. [mis]
  • "The Characteristics and Classification of Oligopoly", 1952, Kyklos.
  • The Economics of Sellers' Competition, 1952.[mis]
  • "Dollar Shortage and Disparities in the Growth of Productivity", 1954, Scottish JPE.
  • "The Problem of Verification in Economics", 1955, Southern EJ.
  • "Characteristics and Types of Price Discrimination", 1955, in Stigler, editor, Business Concentration and Price Policies.
  • "Relative Prices and Aggregate Spending in the Analysis of Devaluation", 1955, AER.
  • "The Inferiority Complex of the Social Sciences", 1956, in Sennholz, editor, On Freedom and Free Enterprise. [mis]
  • "The Terms-of-Trade Effects of Devaluation upon Real Income and the Balance of Trade", 1956, Kyklos.
  • "Professor Hicks' Revision of Demand Theory", 1957, AER.
  • "Disputes, Paradoxes and Dilemmas Concerning Economic Development", 1957, RISE>
  • "Equilibrium and Disequilibrium: Misplaced concreteness and disguised politics", 1958, EJ.
  • "Can There Be Too Much Research?", 1958, Science.
  • "Structure and Structural Change: Weaselwords and jargon", 1958, ZfN.
  • "The Optimum Lag of Imitation Behind Innovation", 1958, Festskrift til Frederik Zeuthen.
  • An Economic Review of the Patent System, 1958 [mis]
  • "Statics and Dynamics: Kaleidoscopic words", 1959, Southern EJ.
  • Micro and Macro-Economics: Contested boundaries and claims of superiority, 1960.
  • "Operational Concepts and Mental Constructs in Model and Theory Formation", 1960, GdE.
  • "The Supply of Inventors and Inventions", 1960, WWA.
  • "Another View of Cost-Push and Demand-Pull Inflation", 1960, REStat.
  • "Are the Social Sciences Really Inferior?", 1961, Southern EJ.
  • The Production and Distribution of Knowledge in the United States, 1962.
  • Essays in Economic Semantics, 1963.
  • "Why Economists Disagree", 1964, Proceedings of APS.
  • International Payments, Debts and Gold, 1964.
  • "The Cloakroom Rule of International Reserve Creation and Resources Transfer", 1965, QJE.
  • "Adjustment, Compensatory Correction and Financing of Imbalances in International Payments", 1965, in Baldwin et al., Trade, Growth and the Balance of Payments.
  • "The Need for Monetary Reserves", 1966, BNLQR.
  • "Operationalism and Pure Theory in Economics", in Krupp, editor, The Structure of Economics.
  • "Corporate Management, National Interest and Behavioral Theory", 1967, JPE.
  • "Theories of the Firm: Marginalist, behavioral and managerial", 1967, AER.
  • "If Matter Could Talk", 1969, in Morgenbesser et al., editors, Philosophy, Science and Methodology.
  • "Liberalism and Choice of Freedoms", 1969, in Streissler et al., editors, Roads to Freedom: Essays in honor of Friedrich A. von Hayek.
  • "Eurodollar Creation: A mystery story", 1970, BNLQR.
  • "Homo Oeconomicus and His Class Mates", 1970, in Natanson, editor, Phenomenology and Social Reality.
  • "The Universal Bogey", 1972, in Preston and Corry, editors, Essays in Honor of Lord Robbins.
  • "Friedrich von Hayek's Contributions to Economics", 1974, Swedish JE.
  • "Ludwig von Mises: A scholar who would not compromise" (date unclear) [mis]
  • "My early work on international monetary problems", 1980, BNLQR [psl]
  • "My work on international monetary problems, 1940-1964", 1982, BNLQR [psl]

 


HET

 

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Resources on Fritz Machlup

  • Fritz Machlup Papers at Hoover Institution
  • "Interview with Fritz Machlup", 1980, AEN at Mises Instiute online
  • "In Memoriam, Fritz Machlup" at Cato Institute [pdf]
  • "Fritz Machlup's Methodology and The Theory of the Firm" by Carol Connell, 2007, QJAE [mis]
  • The Knowledge Economy: Fritz Machlup's construction of a synthetic concept", by Benoit Grodin, 2008 [pdf]
  • Fritz Machlup profile page at the Mises Institue
  • Fritz Machlup entry at Concise Encycl of Economics at LibertyFund
  • Wikipedia

 

 
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