Essential Joseph Schumpeter: Who was Joseph Schumpeter?
Welcome to the essential ideas of Joseph Schumpeter. Joseph Schumpeter is one of
the most accomplished economist of the 20th century. He popularized the phrase
"creative destruction", to describe the entrepreneurial process. Born in 1883 in
Triesch - a small town south of Prague - in what is now the Czech Republic, he lost
his father at a young age. In 1901, Schumpeter entered the University of Vienna,
and after graduating in 1906, began working as a lawyer in Cairo. However he
returned to the University of Vienna in 1908 to obtain his PhD in Economics.
While working at the University of Czernowitz he wrote The Theory of Economic Development
in which he introduced the entrepreneur and innovation in
explaining economic progress. The book catapulted him to prominence in
fundamentally challenging the status quo thinking about economic progress. His
path to academic prominence was not a traditional, straight line. He worked in
the government sector and in 1919 was appointed the Minister of Finance for
the Austrian government. After leaving government he entered the private sector,
becoming chairman and president of the Biedermann Bank, in Vienna in this role Schumpeter
had amassed a significant fortune, which was subsequently lost in the
Vienna stock market crash of 1924. These experiences influenced
his later academic work. Returning to research and teaching in the early 1930s,
he split his time between the University of Bonn in Germany and Harvard
University in Massachusetts. In 1942 his most popular book, Capitalism, Socialism,
and Democracy, was published. It encapsulated his major ideas about the
role of the entrepreneur and innovation in driving economic progress.
Three years before his death in 1950 Schumpeter received the honor of being
elected president of the American Economics Association. Based on his
experience working in government, the private sector and the academy, Joseph
Schumpeter fundamentally influenced the way economists think about
entrepreneurship innovation and economic progress. For more information on Joseph
Schumpeter, visit essentialschumpeter.org and to learn about more essential
scholars visit essentialscholars.org
