View source for Gottfried Haberler

{{Short description|Austrian-American economist (1900–1995)}}
{{more citations needed|date=April 2014}}
{{Infobox economist
| name             = Gottfried Haberler
| school_tradition = [[Austrian School]]
| image            =
| image_size       =
| caption          =
| birth_date       = {{birth date|1900|7|20|mf=y}}
| birth_place      = [[Purkersdorf]], [[Austria-Hungary]]
| death_date       = {{death date and age|1995|5|6|1900|7|20|mf=y}}
| death_place      = [[Washington, D.C.]], U.S.
| nationality      =
| institution      = [[Harvard University]]
| field            = [[International economics]]
| alma_mater       = [[University of Vienna]]
| opposed          =
| doctoral_advisor = [[Othmar Spann]]<br>[[Ludwig von Mises]]
| academic_advisors =
| doctoral_students = [[Richard E. Caves]]
| notable_students =
| influences       = [[Friedrich von Wieser]]
| influenced       =
| contributions    =
| awards           =
| spouse           =
| signature        = <!-- file name only -->
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}}

'''Gottfried Haberler''' ({{IPA|de-AT|ˈhaːbɐlɐ|lang}};<ref>{{YouTube|id=Wc9SwHF7xZA|Gottfried von Haberler Konferenz|time=0m02s}}</ref> July 20, 1900 – May 6, 1995; until 1919<ref>[[:de:Adelsaufhebungsgesetz]]</ref> Gottfried von Haberler) was an Austrian-American economist.<ref>{{cite book |title= Who's Who in Economics: A Biographical Dictionary of Major Economists 1700-1986 |chapter= HABERLER, Gottfried |editor= Blaug, Mark |editor-link= Mark Blaug |edition= 2nd |place= |year= 1986 |publisher= Wheatsheaf Books Limited |url=https://archive.org/details/whoswhoineconomi0000unse_e8w6/page/n5/mode/2up  |url-access= registration |page= [https://archive.org/details/whoswhoineconomi0000unse_e8w6/page/351/mode/2up?view=theater 351]-352 |isbn= 978-0-7450-0230-9 |via= [[Internet Archive]]}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |author= Chipman, J.S. |chapter= Haberler, Gottfried (1900–1995) |title= The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics |editor1=Durlauf, S.N. |editor2= Blume, L.E. |year= 2008 |chapter-url= https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-58802-2_693 |place= London |publisher= Macmillan Palgrave |pages= 812–813|doi= 10.1007/978-1-349-58802-2_693 |doi-broken-date= 1 November 2024 }}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Boianovsky |first1=Mauro |last2=Trautwein |first2=Hans-Michael |date=2006 |title=Haberler, the League of Nations, and the Quest for Consensus in Business Cycle Theory in the 1930s |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1215/00182702-38-1-45 |journal=History of Political Economy |volume=38 |issue=1 |pages=45–89 |doi=10.1215/00182702-38-1-45 |issn=0018-2702|url-access=subscription }}</ref> 
He worked in particular on [[international trade]].<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Hawtrey |first=R. G. |date=1938 |title=Professor Haberler on the Trade Cycle |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/2548840 |journal=Economica |volume=5 |issue=17 |pages=93–97 |doi=10.2307/2548840 |jstor=2548840 |issn=0013-0427|url-access=subscription }}</ref> One of his major contributions was reformulating the [[David Ricardo|Ricardian]] idea of [[comparative advantage]] in a [[Neoclassical economics|neoclassical framework]], abandoning the [[labor theory of value]] for an [[opportunity cost]] concept.<ref>{{cite journal |title=Gottfried Haberler's Contributions to International Trade Theory and Policy |first=Robert E. |last=Baldwin |journal=[[Quarterly Journal of Economics]] |volume=97 |issue=1 |year=1982 |pages=141–48 |jstor=1882631 | doi = 10.2307/1882631 }}</ref>

==Early life==

Haberler was born in [[Austria-Hungary]] in 1900.

After graduating from secondary school in Vienna, Haberler began studying political science at the [[University of Vienna]] and obtained his doctorate in March 1923 with the dissertation “Dogmengeschichte der Wechselkurstheorien”. He was educated in the [[Austrian School]] of economics. 
He continued his studies in 1923 and began working as a librarian at the chamber for commerce, trade and industry in Vienna in the summer of 1924. In November 1925 he also obtained his doctor of jurisprudence. As a post-doctoral student he studied at the Universities of London and Harvard from 1927 until 1929 and habilitated for political economy and statistics at the University of Vienna in 1928 with the paper “Der Sinn der Indexzahlen”. In 1929, he began acting as a legal counsel at the Chamber of Commerce in Vienna (until 1934), while meanwhile also holding lectures as a visiting lecturer at Harvard University (1931/32). 1934–1936,<!--- CV ---> 
he served at the [[Economic and Financial Organization of the League of Nations|Economic and Financial Organization]] of the [[League of Nations]]<ref name="ClavinWessels">{{citation |author=Patricia Clavin and Jens-Wilhelm Wessels |title=Transnationalism and the League of Nations: Understanding the Work of Its Economic and Financial Organisation |date=November 2005 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/20081280 |journal=Contemporary European History |volume=14 |issue=4 |pages=465–492 |access-date=2023-12-20 |publisher=Cambridge University Press|doi=10.1017/S0960777305002729 |jstor=20081280 }}</ref>{{rp|476}} in Geneva.<!--- CV --->

In 1936 he moved to the United States, joining the economics department at [[Harvard University]]. There he worked alongside [[Joseph Schumpeter]].

==Academic career and views==

Haberler's two major works were ''Theory of International Trade'' (1936) and ''Prosperity and Depression'' (1937).

He was President of the [[International Economic Association]] (1950–1953).

In 1957 the [[General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade]] commissioned a report on the [[terms of trade]] for primary commodities, and Haberler was appointed chairman. The report found that there was a decline in the terms of trade for primary producers, since 1955 commodity prices were said to have fallen by 5%, while industrial prices rose by 6%. Haberler's report seems to echo the report written by [[Raúl Prebisch]] in 1949 as well as [[Hans Singer]] in 1950. However, when a second report by Prebisch or the [[United Nations Conference on Trade and Development]] (UNCTAD) came out in 1964, Haberler denounced it. His particular disagreement was with the idea that there was a systematic long-term (secular) decline in the terms of trade.

In 1971, Haberler left Harvard to become a resident scholar at the [[American Enterprise Institute]].

Among other things, Haberler is credited with developing the theory of opportunity cost, which was pioneered by the Englishman [[John Stuart Mill]] (1806–1873) and the Austrian [[Friedrich von Wieser]] (1851–1926) further developed it.<ref>Quiggin, J. (2015, May 26). Opportunity Cost: A Fabian Idea?</ref><ref>Haberler, G. (1968). ''Theory of International Trade''.</ref>

Haberler died from [[Parkinson's disease]] in 1995.<ref>{{cite news |date=9 May 1995 |title=Economist Gottfried Haberler, A Defender of Free Trade, Dies |newspaper=The Washington Post |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/local/1995/05/09/economist-gottfried-haberler-a-defender-of-free-trade-dies/e84ba099-382e-4893-b79e-5b267bf42958/ |access-date=May 14, 2020}}</ref>

== Major works ==
* ''Der Sinn der Indexzahlen'', 192 (habilitation).<ref>[https://geschichte.univie.ac.at/en/persons/gottfried-haberler CV]</ref>
* "Irving Fisher's 'Theory of Interest'", 1931, ''QJE''. {{doi|10.2307/1883901}}
* "Money and the Business Cycle", in Wright (ed.), ''Gold and Monetary Stabilization'', 1932
* ''Der Internationale Handel'', 1933.
* [https://mises.org/books/Theory_Of_International_Trade_Haberler.pdf ''The Theory of International Trade''], 1936.
* "Mr Keynes' Theory of the Multiplier", 1936, ''ZfN'' {{doi|10.1007/BF01316189}}
* [https://mises.org/books/prosperity_and_depression_Haberler.pdf ''Prosperity and Depression: A theoretical analysis of cyclical movements''], 1937. (this is the 3rd edition pub. in 1946)
* "The General Theory After Ten Years", in Harris (ed.), ''The New Economics'', 1947.
* "The Market for Foreign Exchange and the Stability of the Balance of Payments", 1949, ''Kyklos''. {{doi|10.1111/j.1467-6435.1949.tb00692.x}}
* "Some Problems in the Pure Theory of International Trade", 1950, ''EJ''. {{JSTOR|2227052}}
* "The Pigou Effect Once More", 1952, ''JPE''. {{JSTOR|1826454}}
* "Sixteen Years Later", in Lekachman (ed.), ''Keynes's General Theory'', 1963.
* "Integration and Growth of the World Economy in perspective", 1964, ''AER''. {{JSTOR|1810895}}
* ''Money in the International Economy'', 1965.
* [https://mises.org/books/Inflation_its_cause_and_cure_haberler.pdf ''Inflation: Its causes and cures''], 1960.
* "Monetary and Fiscal Policy for Economic Stability and Growth", 1967, ''Il Politico''.
* "Theoretical Reflections on the Trade of Socialist Countries", 1968, in Brown and Neuberger (eds.), ''International Trade and Central Planning''.
* ''Incomes Policy and Inflation'', 1971.
* ''Economic Growth and Stability'', 1974.
* ''Two Essays on the Future of the International Monetary Order'', 1974.
* ''The World Economy and the Great Depression'', 1976.
* ''The Problem of Stagflation: Reflection on the Microfoundation of Macroeconomic Theory and Policy'', 1985.
* ''Essays of Gottfried Haberler'' (ed. A. Koo), 1985.
* ''The Liberal Economic Order'', (ed. A. Koo), 1993.

== References ==
{{Reflist}}

== Further reading ==
* {{cite book |first=Jennifer |last=Blair |chapter=Taking Aim at the New International Economic Order |editor1-first=P. |editor1-last=Mirowski |editor2-first=D. |editor2-last=Plehwe |title=The Road from Mont Pèlerin: The Making of the Neoliberal Thought Collective |publisher=Harvard University Press |location=Cambridge/London |year=2009 |pages=347–385 |isbn=978-0-674-03318-4 }}
* {{cite book |first=Murray C. |last=Kemp |chapter=Gottfried Haberler's Principle of Comparative Advantage |title=International Trade Theory: A Critical Review |location=London |publisher=Routledge |year=2008 |pages=16–24 |isbn=978-1-134-07319-1 }}

== External links ==
* {{cite journal |author= Bradsher, Keith |author-link= Keith Bradsher |title=Gottfried Haberler, Resolute Free Market Economist, Dies at 94 |journal= The New York Times |date= 9 May 1995 |url= https://www.nytimes.com/1995/05/09/obituaries/gottfried-haberler-resolute-free-market-economist-dies-at-94.html|accessdate= 8 September 2023}}
* {{in lang|en}} [https://mises.org/about/3232 Biography of Haberler from mises.org]
* {{C-SPAN|539}}
*{{Internet Archive author |sname= Gottfried Haberler}}
* [https://www.mediathek.at/atom/1FDF93A3-04C-0012E-00007729-1FDEFB9D// Gottfried Haberler] (in German) from the online-archive of the [[Österreichische Mediathek|Österreichischen Mediathek]]
* [[University of Vienna|univie.ac.at]]: [https://geschichte.univie.ac.at/en/persons/gottfried-haberler CV]

{{Austrian School economists}}
{{Presidents of the International Economic Association}}
{{Presidents of the American Economic Association}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Haberler, Gottfried}}
[[Category:1900 births]]
[[Category:1995 deaths]]
[[Category:20th-century American economists]]
[[Category:American libertarians]]
[[Category:Austrian School economists]]
[[Category:Neurological disease deaths in Washington, D.C.]]
[[Category:Deaths from Parkinson's disease in the United States]]
[[Category:Harvard University faculty]]
[[Category:Libertarian economists]]
[[Category:Fellows of the Econometric Society]]
[[Category:Presidents of the American Economic Association]]
[[Category:Austrian emigrants to the United States]]
[[Category:Member of the Mont Pelerin Society]]