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Friedrich Freiherr von Wieser (July 10, 1851 -
July 22, 1926) was an early member of the Austrian
School of economics.

Born in Vienna the son of a high official in the
War Ministry, he first trained in sociology and
law.  He was the brother-in-law of another
prominent Austrian school economist Eugen von
Böhm-Bawerk.  Wieser held posts at the
universities of Vienna and Prague until succeeding
Austrian school founder Carl Menger in Vienna in
1903 where with Bohm-Bawerk he shaped the next
generation of Austrian economists including Ludwig
von Mises, Friedrich Hayek and Joseph Schumpeter
in the late 1890s and early 1900s. He became
Austrian Finance Minister in 1917. 

Wieser's two main contributions are the theory of
"imputation (economics)|imputation", maintaining
that factor prices are determined by output prices
and the theory of "opportunity cost" as the
foundation of value theory - economic
subjectivism|subjectivist pillars in
Neoclassicism|Neoclassical theory. 

In developing these ideas, Wieser can be credited
with turning Neoclassical economics firmly towards
the study of scarcity and resource allocation - a
fixed quantity of resources and unlimited wants -
all based on the principle of marginal utility, a
phrase he coined.  Wieser's imputation theory
allowed that single principle to be applied
everywhere. Wieser's theory of alternative cost
(not yet known as opportunity cost), where costs
would be analysed in terms of the foregone use of
the product, and Alfred Marshall's "real cost"
theory soon came into conflict.

Wieser is renowned for two main works, Natural
Value (1889), which carefully details the
alternative cost doctrine and the theory of
imputation, and his Social Economics (1914), which
is an ambitious attempt to apply it to the real
world.

The economic calculation debate started with his
notion of the paramount importance of accurate
calculation to economic efficiency. Prices to him
represented, above all, information about market
conditions, and are thus necessary for any sort of
economic activity. A socialist economy, therefore,
would require a price system in order to operate.

He also stressed the importance of the
entrepreneur to economic change, which he saw as
being brought about by "the heroic intervention of
individual men who appear as leaders toward new
economic shores." This idea of leadership was
later taken up by Joseph Schumpeter in his
treatment of economic innovation.

Unlike almost all Austrian School economists he
rejected classical liberalism, writing that
"freedom has to be superseded by a system of
order."

==Notes==
German title Freiherr

==See also==
*List of Austrian scientists
*Austrian School|Austrian School of Economics

==External links==
*http://www.mises.org/hsofase/ch1sec4.asp Article
on Wieser's political career
*http://cepa.newschool.edu/het/profiles/wieser.htm
Biography in the History of Economic Thought
*http://dmoz.org/Science/Social_Sciences/Economics
/Schools_of_Thought/Austrian_School/People/Wieser,
_Friedrich_von/ Open Directory Project - Friedrich
von Wieser directory category