Böhm-Bawerk, Eugen Von (1851–1914)

Eugen von Böhm-Bawerk was a professor of economics at the Universities of Innsbruck and Vienna, a finance minister of Austria for many years, a major contributor to the “Austrian School” of economic thought, and an important critic of Marxism. Building on the work of Carl Menger, he developed a theory of capital and interest centered on “the relation between present and future in economic life.” His analysis, in turn, provided the starting point for the theory of business cycles developed by his student Ludwig von Mises and by Friedrich A. Hayek. Böhm-Bawerk also pointed out internal contradictions in the value theory of Karl Marx's Das Kapital, a critique with which Marxists continue to struggle today.

Böhm-Bawerk is best known for his three-volume work, Capital and Interest, ...