Although taught by Wieser and von Mises and later a professor at Vienna, Gottfried Haberler was a product of the Austrian School but not exactly a doctrinaire follower of Austrian theory. In 1936, Haberler moved to Harvard where, together with Schumpeter, he would be instrumental in the formation of the Harvard generation of economists.
Haberler's two major works - Theory of Internatinonal Trade (1936) and Prosperity and Depression (1937) - were hailed as masterly tomes which, for the first time in either field, drew together numerous scattered ideas into a single theoretical treatment which was both encyclopaedic and rigorous. His work on international trade theory was complemented by several articles which sought to place the theory of comparative advantage on both a positive and normative basis. His rewriting of the theory of comparative advantage in terms of opportunity cost, rather than real cost, led to a long debate with Jacob Viner.
His work on business cycles contains a sizzling critique of Keynes's General Theory, followed up by his equally unsympathetic 1946 and 1962 reviews of the same. He was an unreconstructed proponent of over-investment theories of the cycle, like that of Hayek.
Haberler was also addicted to policy. From the beginning, he was a constant advocate of
both free trade and flexible exchange rates as well as arguing the Monetarist line on internal government policy. In 1971,
Haberler left Harvard to become a resident scholar at the American
Enterprise Institute together with his old schoolmate Fritz Machlup.
His neo-liberal policy prescriptions becoming the hallmark of that institution.
Major works of Gottfried Haberler
Resources on Gottfried von Haberler