Institution Harvard University Role Economist Education University of Vienna | Alma mater University of Vienna Fields International Economics Name Gottfried Haberler | |
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Born July 20, 1900 ( 1900-07-20 ) Purkersdorf, Austria-Hungary Influences Friedrich von Wieser
Ludwig von Mises Died May 6, 1995, Washington, D.C., United States Influenced by Friedrich von Wieser, Ludwig von Mises Books Prosperity and Depression, Der internationale Handel, Inflation: its causes and cures, International Monetary Policies, The theory of internatio Similar People Jacob Viner, Michael Parkin, Quincy Wright | ||
School or tradition Austrian School | ||
Money and the business cycle gottfried haberler
Gottfried von Haberler ( [ˈhaːbɐlɐ]; July 20, 1900 – May 6, 1995) was an Austrian-American economist. He worked in particular on international trade. One of his major contributions was reformulating the Ricardian idea of comparative advantage in a neoclassical framework, abandoning the labor theory of value for an opportunity cost concept.
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Haberler was born in Austria-Hungary in 1900, and was educated in the Austrian School of economics. In 1936 he moved to the United States, joining the economics department at Harvard University. There he worked alongside Joseph Schumpeter.
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 prefigure the report written by Raúl Prebisch for the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) in 1964, but when Prebisch's report came out 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.