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Gottfried Haberler (Austrian German:[ˈhaːbɐlɐ];^[1] July 20, 1900 – May 6, 1995; until 1919^[2] Gottfried von Haberler) was an Austrian-American economist.^[3][4][5] He worked in particular oninternational trade.^[6] One of his major contributions was reformulating theRicardian idea ofcomparative advantage in aneoclassical framework, abandoning thelabor theory of value for anopportunity cost concept.^[7]

Haberler was born inAustria-Hungary in 1900.

After graduating from secondary school in Vienna, Haberler began studying political science at theUniversity of Vienna and obtained his doctorate in March 1923 with the dissertation “Dogmengeschichte der Wechselkurstheorien”. He was educated in theAustrian 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, he served at theEconomic and Financial Organization of theLeague of Nations^[8]: 476 in Geneva.

In 1936 he moved to the United States, joining the economics department atHarvard University. There he worked alongsideJoseph Schumpeter.

Haberler's two major works wereTheory of International Trade (1936) andProsperity and Depression (1937).

He was President of theInternational Economic Association (1950–1953).

In 1957 theGeneral Agreement on Tariffs and Trade commissioned a report on theterms 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 byRaúl Prebisch in 1949 as well asHans Singer in 1950. However, when a second report by Prebisch or theUnited 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 theAmerican Enterprise Institute.

Among other things, Haberler is credited with developing the theory of opportunity cost, which was pioneered by the EnglishmanJohn Stuart Mill (1806–1873) and the AustrianFriedrich von Wieser (1851–1926) further developed it.^[9][10]

Haberler died fromParkinson's disease in 1995.^[11]

• Der Sinn der Indexzahlen, 192 (habilitation).^[12]
• "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.
• The Theory of International Trade, 1936.
• "Mr Keynes' Theory of the Multiplier", 1936,ZfNdoi:10.1007/BF01316189
• 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.
• 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.

• Blair, Jennifer (2009). "Taking Aim at the New International Economic Order". In Mirowski, P.; Plehwe, D. (eds.).The Road from Mont Pèlerin: The Making of the Neoliberal Thought Collective. Cambridge/London: Harvard University Press. pp. 347–385.ISBN 978-0-674-03318-4.
• Kemp, Murray C. (2008). "Gottfried Haberler's Principle of Comparative Advantage".International Trade Theory: A Critical Review. London: Routledge. pp. 16–24.ISBN 978-1-134-07319-1.

• Bradsher, Keith (9 May 1995)."Gottfried Haberler, Resolute Free Market Economist, Dies at 94".The New York Times. Retrieved8 September 2023.
• (in English)Biography of Haberler from mises.org
• Appearances onC-SPAN
• Works by or about Gottfried Haberler at theInternet Archive
• Gottfried Haberler (in German) from the online-archive of theÖsterreichischen Mediathek
• univie.ac.at:CV

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

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