Portal:Austria/Selected biography/31

Friedrich von Hayek

Edler Friedrich August von Hayek CH (German pronunciation: [ˈfʁiːdʁɪç ˈaʊ̯ɡʊst ˈhaɪ̯ɛk]) (8 May 1899 – 23 March 1992), born in Austria-Hungary, was an economist and philosopher best known for his defense of classical liberalism and free-market capitalism against socialist and collectivist thought. In 1974, Hayek shared the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences for his "pioneering work in the theory of money and economic fluctuations and... penetrating analysis of the interdependence of economic, social and institutional phenomena."

Hayek is considered to be one of the most important economists and political philosophers of the twentieth century. Along with his mentor Ludwig von Mises, he was an important contributor to the Austrian school of economic thought. Hayek's account of how changing prices communicate information which enable individuals to coordinate their plans is widely regarded as an important achievement in economics. He also contributed to the fields of systems thinking, jurisprudence, neuroscience and the history of ideas.