Austrian-school economist and finance minister whose Karl Marx and the Close of His System opened the transformation debate
Born in Brno, Moravia, Böhm-Bawerk read Carl Menger's Principles of Economics while studying law at the University of Vienna and became his enthusiastic disciple. As professor at Innsbruck he wrote Capital and Interest, explaining interest by roundabout production and time preference. He served three times as Austrian Minister of Finance between 1895 and 1904, defending the gold standard and a balanced budget. In Karl Marx and the Close of His System (1896) he argued that the prices of production of the third volume of Capital contradicted the theory of value of the first, a critique that became a classic. Returning to a chair at the University of Vienna in 1904, he taught Joseph Schumpeter, Ludwig von Mises and Henryk Grossman, and Rudolf Hilferding attended his seminar.
Also known as: Eugen von Bohm-Bawerk
Activities and affiliations
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1881–1889
Austria state institutionsProfessor, University of Innsbruck
Scholarship and theory -
1895–1904
Austria state institutionsAustrian Minister of FinanceMain
Economy, finance and planning -
1904–1914
Austria state institutionsProfessor, University of Vienna
Scholarship and theory
Career Timeline
- 1884Capital and Interest, vol. 1
- 1889Counsellor in the Ministry of Finance; drafts the direct-tax reform
- 1895–1904Austrian Minister of Finance (three terms)
- 1896Karl Marx and the Close of His System
- 1904–1914Professor, University of Vienna
- 1911–1914President of the Imperial Academy of Sciences