Friedrich von Hayek

Facts

Friedrich August von Hayek

Photo from the Nobel Foundation archive.

Friedrich August von Hayek
The Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel 1974

Born: 8 May 1899, Vienna, Austria

Died: 23 March 1992, Freiburg, Germany

Prize motivation: “for their pioneering work in the theory of money and economic fluctuations and for their penetrating analysis of the interdependence of economic, social and institutional phenomena”

Prize share: 1/2

Life

Friedrich von Hayek was born in Vienna, Austria. He earned doctorates in law and political science in 1921 and 1923 at the University of Vienna. He founded and served as director of the Austrian Institute for Business Cycle Research before joining the London School of Economics in 1931. From 1950-62 he lived in the United States and after that mostly in Germany.

Work

Economic issues affect almost every area of society and economic science also interplays with other social sciences. In the 1920s, Friedrich von Hayek conducted important work on business cycles, but later developed broader social analyses. From the 1930s, he highlighted the problems of central economic planning. His conclusion was that knowledge and information held by various actors can only be utilized fully in a decentralized market system with free competition and pricing.

To cite this section
MLA style: Friedrich August von Hayek – Facts. NobelPrize.org. Nobel Prize Outreach AB 2024. Wed. 11 Dec 2024. <https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/economic-sciences/1974/hayek/facts/>

Back to top Back To Top Takes users back to the top of the page

Streams during Nobel Week

Watch the 2024 Nobel Prize lectures, Nobel Week Dialogue, the prize award ceremonies in Oslo and Stockholm and Nobel Peace Prize Forum here at nobelprize.org.

Watch lectures and award ceremonies

Explore prizes and laureates

Look for popular awards and laureates in different fields, and discover the history of the Nobel Prize.