Josef Steindl


Josef Steindl was an Austrian-born Post-Keynesian economist.

Career

He was at the Austrian Institute of Economic Research but moved to the UK in 1938 to lecture at Oxford University. There he worked with a group of other European exiles from Fascism, including Michał Kalecki. Kalecki has been described as being Steindl's role-modelwith his work resembling part of Kalecki's not only in substance but also in style.
In 1950 he returned to WIFO until his retirement in 1978.

Work

concludes his review of Steindl's life in the Economic Journal with a quote illustrating his views about the tasks for economic research: What might be done to overcome the sterility of today's economics? The first condition is that we go back to the great 'traditions of the classics, Kalecki and Keynes, whose work was rooted in the economic policy problems of their time, and derived its relevance from them. They asked what should be done and how. Economic policy is the main inspiration of economic theory. The second condition is that a tremendous lot of new work is done in the no-man's land between the established disciplines which are entrenched in their organised fields, fearful of each other and speaking different languages. We must have close cooperation with other disciplines: engineering, science, history, sociology, biology, political science etc. I think the chances of a new start are not bad, because the dominant economics has largely run its course... The time for new fashions cannot be far away.. 'Reflections on the present state of economics.' Banca Nazionale del Lavoro Quarterly Review, vol. 148. and as ch. 18 in Steindl

Honorary positions

Two of Steindl's most notable works are perhaps: