Gustav von Schmoller
Gustav Friedrich (after 1908: von) Schmoller (German: [ˈʃmɔlɐ] ⓘ; 24 June 1838 – 27 June 1917) was the leader of the "younger" German historical school of economics.
Gustav von Schmoller | |
|---|---|
Gustav von Schmoller by Nicola Perscheid c. 1908 | |
| Born | 24 June 1838 |
| Died | 27 June 1917 (aged 79) |
| Academic career | |
| Field | Economics |
| School or tradition | Historical school of economics |
| Influences | Karl Wolfgang Christoph Schüz |
| Contributions | Inductive approach to economics |
He was a leading Sozialpolitiker (more derisively, Kathedersozialist, "Socialist of the Chair"), and a founder and long-time chairman of the Verein für Socialpolitik, the German Economic Association, which continues to exist.
The appellation "Kathedersozialist" was given to Schmoller and other members of the Verein by their enemies. Schmoller disavowed the "socialist" label, instead tracing his thought to the heterodox liberalism represented by Jérôme-Adolphe Blanqui, Jean Charles Léonard de Sismondi, John Stuart Mill, Johann Heinrich von Thünen, Bruno Hildebrand, Thomas Edward Cliffe Leslie, Lorenz von Stein, and Émile de Laveleye and radicals such as Frederic Harrison and Edward Spencer Beesly. His goal was to reconcile the Prussian monarchy and bureaucracy "with the idea of the Liberal state and complemented by the best elements of parliamentarianism" to carry out social reform.