Gottfried von Haberler was an Austrian-born American economist and the recipient of the 1971 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences. He is most famous for his works on international trade, capital transfers, and the economics of development. In particular, Haberlers contributions to the debates on international trade led to the development of the new trade theory and the generalized gravity model.
Haberler was born in April 1900 in Vienna, Austria-Hungary. After attending the local gymnasium and studying at the University of Vienna and the University of Munich, he earned his doctorate in economics in 1926. Following his studies in Vienna, he worked for a number of economic research institutions in Vienna and Berlin, before ultimately moving to the London School of Economics for two years in 1932.
Haberlers first major work, The Theory of International Trade (1936), focused on the “Heckscher-Ohlin” and “Haberler” theories of international trade, which suggested that the free flow of goods could increase a country’s wealth. This caused a significant stir in economic circles, and other economists began to take notice of Haberlers work.
It was during this period that Haberler joined the League of Nations as an economist in 1936, where he spent two years calculating the economic effects of war debts in Europe. He also began a three-year stint with the Harvard Economic Research Project, during which he wrote a number of essays and books on international trade, the economics of development, and public finance and taxation.
In 1940, Haberler accepted a position as Professor of Economics at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and lived in the United States ever after. In 1944, he wrote “Prospects for Foreign Trade” and “The Theory of Business Cycles,” which established the fundamentals of cyclical analysis. He subsequently began to write and lecture extensively on international finance, the theory of development, and the North Atlantic Alliance system.
During the later 1950’s, Haberler wrote extensively on the implications of balance of payments theory and the advantages of a multi-currency system. He also worked as an advisor to numerous government and international organizations on monetary policy implementation. In 1970, he became a professor emeritus at Harvard University and received the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences the following year. He died in 1995 at the age of 95.
Throughout his career, Gottfried von Haberler made significant contributions to the field of economics and in particular to the debates on international trade and economic development. His works were highly influential and remain relevant to this day; indeed, his work on the generalized gravity model is still used by economists today to explain and predict international trade. Though described as a “gentleman of the old school,” Haberler was an innovative thinker who combined analysis with empirical evidence to turn economic theory into reality.
