Joseph Alois Schumpeter (1883-1950) was an economist, economic historian and writer who studied in Austria. He is regarded as one of the greatest intellectuals of the 20th century. He is especially known for his theories on business cycles and the development of capitalist economies and for introducing the concept of entrepreneurship.
For him, “entrepreneur” was the cornerstone of capitalism. According to him, entrepreneurs created the vital force that drove a capitalist economy, namely innovation. If you want to learn more about Joseph Schumpeter, you can check out the subheadings in this Zatrun.com article. Enjoy reading.
Who is Joseph Alois Schumpeter?
Joseph Alois Schumpeter was born in 1883 in Moravia, which is now part of the Czech Republic, to a family of German origin. He received his economic education from pioneers of the Austrian School tradition such as Friedrich von Wieser and Eugen von Bohm-Bawerk. Schumpeter served as a finance minister in the Austrian government, a president of a private bank and a university professor in his life. He had a chair at Bonn University from 1925 to 1932.
Joseph Schumpeter was disturbed by the rise of the Nazi Party in Germany and moved to the United States in 1932. There, he started teaching at Harvard University. Fifteen years after his move, he made history as the first immigrant to be elected president of the American Economic Association in 1947.
In the early 20th century, the economic discipline in the US and Britain was developing with static and mathematical general equilibrium models. Schumpeter’s work sometimes differed from that in the US. His work was more suitable for the continental European approach, which was more nuanced and less assumptive. However, some of his theories were also highly compatible with Walrasian general equilibrium theory.
His Contributions to the Economics
Joseph Alois Schumpeter was a renowned economist and political theorist who contributed to many aspects of economic science and political theory. He is best known for his 1942 book “Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy”, where he explained his theory of dynamic economic growth, which he called “creative destruction”. He was also a pioneer of methodological individualism in economics, as he was the first to cite it in German and English.
Creative destruction refers to the process that leads to economic growth and development by replacing old innovations with new ones. Schumpeter argued that capitalism was inherently dynamic and unstable because entrepreneurs were constantly seeking new opportunities and markets.
Schumpeter viewed capitalism as a kind of perpetual revolution that disrupted the existing social and economic hierarchy. He saw the entrepreneur as a revolutionary agent within this system, who created dynamic change by overthrowing the established order. The economist also studied socialism and believed that it would fail in the end, because it would suppress innovation and creativity.
