Oskar Morgenstern als wirtschaftspolitischer Berater in den 1930er-Jahren

The point of departure of this study is that in the 1930s Oskar Morgenstern, well-known as the co-founder of game theory, was preoccupied by his activities in Austrian economic policy, possibly even more so than with his project to revolutionize economic theory. The main questions to be examined in this regard are, first, to what extent Morgenstern's advice did conform to the teachings of the Austrian school and, second, if he really exerted an influence on economic policy-making in Austria during this period. In order to answer this question the paper draws to a large part on unpublished sources from the Oskar Morgenstern Papers and uses them as a basis for determining Morgenstern's role in a few critical episodes of Austrian economic policy-making.