Hayek, << HY uhk, >> Friedrich August von (1899-1992), an Austrian-born economist, won the 1974 Nobel Prize in economic science. He shared the award with Gunnar Myrdal, a Swedish economist.
Hayek was the leading speaker for the so-called Austrian school of economics, which favored a free-market economy. He believed no one would ever be able to understand all the complexities of economics. Therefore, he opposed government attempts to manage a nation’s economic policies. For example, he opposed deficit spending–that is, a government’s spending more than it received in taxes–and unemployment compensation.
Hayek wrote several books on the role of money in a nation’s economy. They include Prices and Production (1931), The Pure Theory of Capital (1941), and The Road to Serfdom (1944).
Hayek was born in Vienna in 1899. He became a British citizen in 1938. Hayek taught at the University of London, the University of Chicago, The University of Freiburg in Germany and Salzburg University in Austria.
