Nato a Wiener Neustadt in Austria, come figlio di un fabbricante d'imballaggi di cartone. Dal 1920 studiò economia all'Università di Vienna. I suoi insegnanti furono: Friedrich von Wieser e Ludwig von Mises. Nel 1923 espose una ricerca teorica sulla valuta aurea. Machlup ottenne nel 1933 la borsa di studio Rockefeller per gli USA e nel 1935 ebbe la cattedra all'Università di Buffalo. Nel 1933 lasciò il paese natale a causa dell'ascesa del nazismo per trasferirsi negli Stati Uniti, dove ottenne la cittadinanza nel 1940. Il lavoro fondamentale di Machlup fu The Production and Distribution of Knowledge in the United States (1962), dove troviamo le basi per il concetto di società dell'informazione, concetto che lo rese popolare. Prima di morire completò il terzo volume, di una serie che doveva essere composta da dieci volumi, e intitolata Knowledge: Its Creation, Distribution, and Economic Significance.

Ha insegnato presso: University of Buffalo (1935–47), alla Johns Hopkins University a Baltimora (1947–59) e alla Princeton University (1960–83). Tra i suoi maestri, conosciuti durante il periodo viennese, figurano due importanti economisti austriaci, quali Ludwig von Mises e Friedrich von Wieser, a sottolineare l'influenza che la scuola austriaca ha avuto sul pensiero machlupiano.

Opere

Die Goldkernwährung, 1925 The Stock Market, Credit and Capital Formation, 1931 The Liquidity of Short-Term Capital, 1932 A Note on Fixed Costs, 1934 Professor Knight and the Period of Production, 1935 The Commonsense of the Elasticity of Substitution, 1935 The Rate of Interest as Cost Factor and as a Capitalization Factor, 1935 Why Bother with Methodology?, 1936 On the Meaning of Marginal Product, 1937 Monopoly and Competition: A clarification of market positions, 1937 Evaluation of Practical Significance of the Theory of Monopolistic Competition, 1939 Period Analysis and Multiplier Theory, 1939 The Theory of Foreign Exchange, 1939-40 Eight Questions on Gold, 1941 Forced or Induced Savings: An exploration into its synonyms and homonyms, 1943 International Trade and the National Income Multiplier, 1943 Marginal Analysis and Empirical Research, 1946 A Rejoinder to an Anti-Marginalist, 1947 Monopolistic Wage Determination as a Part of the General Problem of Monopoly, 1947 Elasticity Pessimism in International Trade, 1950 Three Concepts of the Balance of Payments and the So-Called Dollar Shortage, 1950 Schumpeter's Economic Methodology, 1951 The Political Economy of Monopoly, 1952 The Characteristics and Classification of Oligopoly, 1952 The Economics of Sellers' Competition, 1952 Dollar Shortage and Disparities in the Growth of Productivity, 1954 The Problem of Verification in Economics, 1955 Characteristics and Types of Price Discrimination, 1955 Relative Prices and Aggregate Spending in the Analysis of Devaluation, 1955 The Inferiority Complex of the Social Sciences, 1956 The Terms-of-Trade Effects of Devaluation upon Real Income and the Balance of Trade, 1956 Professor Hicks' Revision of Demand Theory, 1957 Disputes, Paradoxes and Dilemmas Concerning Economic Development, 1957 Equilibrium and Disequilibrium: Misplaced concreteness and disguised politics, 1958 Can There Be Too Much Research?, 1958 Structure and Structural Change: Weaselwords and jargon, 1958 The Optimum Lag of Imitation Behind Innovation, 1958 Statics and Dynamics: Kaleidoscopic words, 1959 Micro and Macro-Economics: Contested boundaries and claims of superiority, 1960 Operational Concepts and Mental Constructs in Model and Theory Formation, 1960 The Supply of Inventors and Inventions, 1960 Another View of Cost-Push and Demand-Pull Inflation, 1960 Are the Social Sciences Really Inferior?, 1961 The Production and Distribution of Knowledge in the United States, 1962 Essays in Economic Semantics, 1963 Why Economists Disagree, 1964 International Payments, Debts and Gold, 1964 The Cloakroom Rule of International Reserve Creation and Resources Transfer, 1965 Adjustment, Compensatory Correction and Financing of Imbalances in International Payments, 1965 The Need for Monetary Reserves, 1966 Operationalism and Pure Theory in Economics Corporate Management, National Interest and Behavioral Theory, 1967 Theories of the Firm: Marginalist, behavioral and managerial, 1967 If Matter Could Talk, 1969 Liberalism and Choice of Freedoms, 1969 Eurodollar Creation: A mystery story, 1970 Homo Oeconomicus and His Class Mates, 1970 The Universal Bogey, 1972 Friedrich von Hayek's Contributions to Economics, 1974 A History of Thought on Economic Integration, 1977

Voci correlate Liberalismo Libertarismo Ludwig von Mises Scuola austriaca Società dell'informazione Tempo di dimezzamento della conoscenza

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Categoria:Scuola austriaca Categoria:Emigranti dall'Austria dopo l'Anschluss Categoria:Accademici dei Lincei