Morgenstern, Oskar

Morgenstern, Oskar

 

Born Jan. 24, 1902, in Goerlitz, Germany. American economist.

Morgenstern was educated in universities in Western Europe and the USA. From 1929 to 1938 he taught economic theory and statistics at the University of Vienna. From 1931 to 1938 he was director of the Austrian Institute of Business Cycle Research. Since 1938 he has taught political economy and directed a program in econometric research at Princeton University.

Accepting the basic hypotheses of bourgeois political economy, Morgenstern has devoted his greatest attention to the refinement and further development of modes and methods of statistical and mathematical analysis of economic problems. He is the author of a number of works on economic cycles, international trade, and the methodology of economic and statistical analysis. Morgenstern admits that bourgeois statistical science is far from perfect. He won renown as the creator, along with J. Von Neumann, of the theory of games. The basic flaw in Morgenstern’s thinking results from his attempt to use mathematics to resolve the contradictions of capitalism.

WORKS

On the Accuracy of Economic Observations, 2nd ed. Princeton, 1963.
Von Neumann, J., and O. Morgenstern. Teoriia igr i ekonomicheskoe povedenie. Moscow, 1970. (Translated from English.)