Hayek, Friedrich August von

Hayek, Friedrich August von (frē'drikh ougoost' fôn hī'uk) [key], 1899–1992, British economist, b. Vienna. He was raised and educated in Austria and taught at the London School of Economics in the 1930s, where he gained attention for his criticism of Keynes. He expressed his commitment to free markets and his aversion to government intervention in The Road to Serfdom (1944). The economic policies of former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher were significantly influenced by his ideas. Hayek branched out into the fields of philosophy, psychology, and epistemology. He was awarded the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences in 1974.

The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th ed. Copyright © 2007, Columbia University Press. All rights reserved.

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