Gottfried Haberler
Gottfried von Haberler 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.
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 and Prosperity and Depression.
He was President of the International Economic Association.
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 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 decline in the terms of trade.
In 1971, Haberler left Harvard to become a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute.
He died from Parkinson's disease in 1995.Major works
- Der Sinn der Indexzahlen, 1927.
- "Irving Fisher's 'Theory of Interest'", 1931, QJE.
- "Money and the Business Cycle", in Wright, Gold and Monetary Stabilization, 1932
- Der Internationale Handel, 1933.
- , 1936.
- "Mr Keynes' Theory of the Multiplier", 1936, ZfN
- , 1937.
- "The General Theory After Ten Years", in Harris, The New Economics, 1947.
- "The Market for Foreign Exchange and the Stability of the Balance of Payments", 1949, Kyklos.
- "Some Problems in the Pure Theory of International Trade", 1950, EJ.
- "The Pigou Effect Once More", 1952, JPE.
- "Sixteen Years Later", in Lekachman, Keynes's General Theory, 1963.
- "Integration and Growth of the World Economy in perspective", 1964, AER.
- Money in the International Economy, 1965.
- , 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, 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, 1985.
- The Liberal Economic Order,, 1993.
