Editing Fritz Machlup

{{Short description|Austrian economist (1902–1983)}}
{{Infobox economist
| name             = Fritz Machlup
| school_tradition = [[Austrian School]]
| image            =
| caption          =
| birth_name       = Friedrich Eduard Machlup
| birth_date       = {{birth date|1902|12|15|mf=y}}
| birth_place      = [[Wiener-Neustadt]], [[Austria-Hungary]]
| death_date       = {{death date and age|1983|1|30|1902|12|15|mf=y}}
| death_place      = [[Princeton, New Jersey]], U.S.
| education=[[University of Vienna]]<br><small>([[Dr. rer. pol]], 1923)</small>
| institution      = [[New York University]] <br>(1971–83)<br />[[Princeton University]] <br>(1960–71)<br>[[Johns Hopkins University]]<br> (1947–59)<br>[[University at Buffalo]]<br> (1935–47)
| field            =
| doctoral_advisor  = [[Ludwig von Mises]]
| influences       = [[Friedrich von Wieser]]<br>[[Ludwig von Mises]]<br>[[Friedrich Hayek]]
| contributions    = [[Information society]]
| signature        = Fritz_Machlup_signature.gif
}}

'''Fritz Machlup''' ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|m|ɑː|k|l|ʌ|p}};<ref>{{YouTube|id=42wOuPBCFcI|Fritz Machlup on whether everybody should go to college|time=4m57s}}</ref> {{IPA|de|ˈmaxluːp|lang}}; born '''Friedrich Eduard Machlup'''; December 15, 1902 – January 30, 1983) was an Austrian-American [[economist]] known for his work in [[information economics]].<ref>{{cite book |author= Chipman, J.S. |chapter= Machlup, Fritz (1902–1983) |title= The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics |editor1=Durlauf, S.N. |editor2= Blume, L.E. |year= 2008 |doi= 10.1057/978-1-349-95121-5_925-2 |place= London |publisher= Macmillan Palgrave |pages= 1–3|isbn= 978-1-349-95121-5 }}</ref> He was President of the [[International Economic Association]] from 1971 to 1974.<ref name=":2" /> He was one of the first economists to examine [[knowledge]] as an economic resource,<ref>* {{cite journal |author= May, Clifford D. |author-link = Clifford May |title= Fritz Machlup, 80, An Economist, Dies |journal= The New York Times |date= 31 January 1983 |url= https://www.nytimes.com/1983/01/31/obituaries/fritz-machlup-80-an-economist-dies.html |accessdate= 8 September 2023}}</ref> and is credited with popularising the concept of the [[information society]].<ref name=":0">{{cite journal |last1=Crawford |first1=S |title=The origin and development of a concept: the information society. |journal=Bulletin of the Medical Library Association |date=October 1983 |volume=71 |issue=4 |pages=380–385 |pmid=6652297 |pmc=227258 }}</ref>

==Early life and career==
Machlup was born to [[Jewish]] parents in [[Wiener Neustadt|Wiener-Neustadt]], then in the [[Austria-Hungary|Austro-Hungarian Empire]]. His father was a businessman who owned two factories that manufactured cardboard.<ref name=Gottfried1983>{{cite journal |first1=Gottfried |last1=Haberler |title=Fritz Machlup In Memoriam |journal=Cato Journal |volume=3 |issue=1 |date=1983 |pages=11 |url=https://www.cato.org/sites/cato.org/files/serials/files/cato-journal/1983/5/cj3n1-2.pdf |access-date=2023-12-29 |archive-date=2024-08-14 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240814031906/https://www.cato.org/sites/cato.org/files/serials/files/cato-journal/1983/5/cj3n1-2.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref> In 1920, he began studying economics at the [[University of Vienna]], where he received his [[Doctorate#Germany|dr.rer.pol]] in 1923.<ref name=":1">{{cite web | url=https://oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/tf000000hs/admin/ | title=Machlup (Fritz) papers | access-date=2023-12-21 | archive-date=2023-12-21 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231221031731/https://oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/tf000000hs/admin/ | url-status=live }}</ref> At Vienna, he attended lectures by [[Friedrich von Wieser]], and participated in seminars organised by [[Ludwig von Mises]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Langlois |first1=Richard N |chapter=From the Knowledge of Economics to the Economics of Knowledge: Fritz Machlup on Methodology and on the 'Knowledge Society' |title=Research in the History of Economic Thought and Methodology |date=1985 |volume=3 |pages=225–235 |oclc=1192122453 |chapter-url=https://richard-langlois.uconn.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/1617/2019/09/Machlup-Knowledge-1985.pdf |isbn=978-0-89232-616-7 |editor1-last=Samuels |editor1-first=Warren J |s2cid=37979985 }}</ref>

In 1933, he moved to the [[United States]], where he was a research fellow at the [[Rockefeller Foundation]] from 1933 to 1935.<ref name=":1" /> After the [[Anschluss|Nazi seizure of Austria in 1938]], Machlup remained in the United States, and became a [[Citizenship of the United States|naturalised citizen of the US]] in 1940.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Klausinger |first1=Hansjoerg |title=Academic Anti-Semitism and the Austrian School: Vienna, 1918–1945 |journal=Atlantic Economic Journal |date=June 2014 |volume=42 |issue=2 |pages=191–204 |doi=10.1007/s11293-014-9410-x |s2cid=154581753 |url=http://epub.wu.ac.at/3983/1/wp155.pdf }}</ref> He was the [[Frank H. Goodyear]] Professor of Economics at the [[University at Buffalo]] from 1935 to 1947,<ref name=":1" /> and held visiting positions at various universities around the US, including [[Harvard University|Harvard]], [[Columbia University|Columbia]], and [[Stanford University|Stanford]].<ref name=":1" />

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.<ref name=":1" /> 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.<ref name=":1" /> He was a consultant to the [[United States Department of the Treasury|Treasury Department]] from 1965 to 1977.<ref name=":1" /> From 1971 till his death in 1983, he was a professor of economics at [[New York University]].<ref name=":1" /> 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]].<ref name=":0" />

Machlup was elected to the [[American Academy of Arts and Sciences]] in 1961, and the [[American Philosophical Society]] in 1963.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Fritz Machlup |url=https://www.amacad.org/person/fritz-machlup |access-date=2022-11-09 |website=American Academy of Arts & Sciences |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=APS Member History |url=https://search.amphilsoc.org/memhist/search?creator=Fritz+Machlup&title=&subject=&subdiv=&mem=&year=&year-max=&dead=&keyword=&smode=advanced |access-date=2022-11-09 |website=search.amphilsoc.org |archive-date=2022-11-09 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221109150459/https://search.amphilsoc.org/memhist/search?creator=Fritz+Machlup&title=&subject=&subdiv=&mem=&year=&year-max=&dead=&keyword=&smode=advanced |url-status=live }}</ref> He served as President of the [[American Economic Association]] in 1966,<ref>{{Cite web |title=American Economic Association |url=https://www.aeaweb.org/about-aea/leadership/officers/past-officers/presidents |access-date=2023-12-22 |website=www.aeaweb.org |archive-date=2019-03-27 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190327075141/https://www.aeaweb.org/about-aea/leadership/officers/past-officers/presidents |url-status=live }}</ref> and was President of the [[International Economic Association]] from 1971 to 1974.<ref name=":2">{{cite web | url=https://iea-world.org/about-the-iea/general-information/ | title=General Information &#124; IEA | access-date=2023-12-21 | archive-date=2023-12-21 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231221031732/https://iea-world.org/about-the-iea/general-information/ | url-status=live }}</ref>

Shortly before his death, he completed the third in a series of ten planned volumes collectively called ''Knowledge: Its Creation, Distribution, and Economic Significance''.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Machlup |first1=Fritz |title=Knowledge: Its Creation, Distribution and Economic Significance, Volume III: The Economics of Information and Human Capital |date=2016 |publisher=Princeton University Press |isbn=978-0-691-64049-5 }}{{page needed|date=December 2023}}</ref> Machlup also helped form the [[Bellagio Group]] in the early 1960s, and joined its direct successor, the [[Group of Thirty]], in 1979.<ref name=Gottfried1983/><ref>{{cite web |title=Bellagio Group |url=https://bellagio.mit.edu/ |publisher=MIT |access-date=3 August 2020 |archive-date=22 October 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201022104224/https://bellagio.mit.edu/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

==Major works==
* ''Die Goldkernwährung'', 1925. (dissertation under [[Ludwig von Mises]])
* "Transfer and Price Effects", 1930, ''ZfN''.
* ''The Stock Market, Credit and Capital Formation'', 1931. (online [https://mises.org/books/Machlup-Stock.pdf e-book])
* "The Liquidity of Short-Term Capital", 1932, ''[[Economica]]''.
* "A Note on Fixed Costs", 1934, ''[[Quarterly Journal of Economics]]'' (''QJE'').
* "Professor Knight and the Period of Production", 1935, ''[[Journal of Political Economy]]'' (''JPE'').
* "The Commonsense of the Elasticity of Substitution", 1935, ''[[Review of Economic Studies]]'' (''RES'').
* {{cite journal |title=The Consumption of Capital in Austria |journal=The Review of Economics and Statistics |date=15 January 1935 |volume=17 |issue=1 |pages=13–19 |doi=10.2307/1928519 |jstor=1928519 |last1=Machlup |first1=Fritz }}
* "The Rate of Interest as Cost Factor and as a Capitalization Factor", 1935, ''[[American Economic Review]]'' (''AER'').
* "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''.
* "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, ''[[Review of Economics and Statistics]]'' (''REStat'').
* ''International Trade and the National Income Multiplier'', 1943. (online [https://mises.org/books/international_trade_machlup.pdf e-book])
* "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, ''[[The Economic Journal]]'' (''EJ'').
* "Schumpeter's Economic Methodology", 1951, ''REStat''.
* ''The Political Economy of Monopoly'', 1952 (online [https://mises.org/books/political_economy_monopoly_machlup.pdf e-book]).
* "The Characteristics and Classification of Oligopoly", 1952, ''[[Kyklos (journal)|Kyklos]]''.
* ''The Economics of Sellers' Competition'', 1952 (online [https://mises.org/books/economics_of_sellers_competition_machlup.pdf e-book]).
* "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''.
* "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 (journal)|Science]]''.
* "Structure and Structural Change: Weaselwords and jargon", 1958, ''ZfN''.
* "The Optimum Lag of Imitation Behind Innovation", 1958, ''Festskrift til Frederik Zeuthen''.
* "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''.
* [https://books.google.com/books?id=kp6vswpmpjoC ''The Production and Distribution of Knowledge in the United States''], 1962.
* ''Essays in Economic Semantics'', 1963.
* "[https://revistas.uns.edu.ar/ee/article/view/991 Conceptos operativos y constructos mentales en la elaboración de los modelos y de la teoría]", 1963, Estudios económicos. Bahía Blanca, Argentina.
* "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, ''[[Banca Nazionale del Lavoro]]'', Quarterly Review (''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''.
* "A History of Thought on Economic Integration", 1977, ''[[Columbia University Press]]''.
* "Knowledge: Its Creation, Distribution and Economic Significance", ''Princeton University Press.''
** Vol. 1: Knowledge and Knowledge Production, 1981
** Vol. 2:The Branches of Learning, 1982
** Vol. 3: The Economics of Information and Human Capital, 1984
* {{cite journal |last1=Machlup |first1=Fritz |title=Por qué discrepan los economistas |journal=Estudios económicos |date=November 1984 |volume=3 |issue=5/6 |pages=69–82 |doi=10.52292/j.estudecon.1984.907 |doi-access=free }}

==See also==
* [[Half-life of knowledge]]

==References==
{{reflist}}

==External links==
* [http://www.oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/tf000000hs/ The Fritz Machlup papers] at the [http://www.hoover.org/library-and-archives Hoover Institution Archives].
* [http://www.oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/kt8z09q3kw/ The Mont Pelerin Society records] at the [http://www.hoover.org/library-and-archives Hoover Institution Archives].
* {{Internet Archive author |sname = Fritz Machlup}}

{{Austrian economists}}
{{Presidents of the American Economic Association}}
{{Presidents of the International Economic Association}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Machlup, Fritz}}
[[Category:1902 births]]
[[Category:1983 deaths]]
[[Category:Austrian Jews]]
[[Category:Austrian School economists]]
[[Category:Austrian emigrants to the United States]]
[[Category:American people of Austrian-Jewish descent]]
[[Category:20th-century Austrian economists]]
[[Category:20th-century American economists]]
[[Category:Distinguished fellows of the American Economic Association]]
[[Category:New York University faculty]]
[[Category:Members of the American Philosophical Society]]
[[Category:Member of the Mont Pelerin Society]]
[[Category:Presidents of the American Association of University Professors]]
[[Category:Presidents of the American Economic Association]]