Who Is Friedrich Hayek?

Mises Institute

F.A. Hayek (1899–1992) was the most important representative of the “fourth generation” of the Austrian school of economics and the only one so far to receive the Nobel Prize. His many contributions are highlighted by Peter Klein. Hayek considered himself a socialist until he read Mises's ​Socialism, where Mises argued that prices and private property are a requirement of economic calculation. He attended Mises’s private seminar along with other top young economists and went on to build upon Mises’s monetary theory. He developed an explanation of business cycles brought on by bank credit expansion encouraging malinvestments in capital.