Carl Menger

Carl Menger
Carl Menger, founder of the Austrian School
Born	(1840-02-23)February 23, 1840 Nowy Sącz in Austrian Galicia (Poland)
Died	February 26, 1921(1921-02-26) (aged 81) Vienna, Austria
Nationality	Austrian
Field	Economics
School or tradition	Austrian School
Alma mater	University of Prague University of Vienna Jagiellonian University
Influences	Étienne Bonnot de Condillac Adam Smith Franz Brentano
Influenced	Eugen von Böhm-Bawerk Friedrich von Wieser Ludwig von Mises Friedrich von Hayek Ayn Rand Murray Rothbard Ludwig Lachmann Henry Ludwell Moore Ron Paul Karl Polanyi
Contributions	Marginal utility

Carl Menger (German: [ˈmɛŋɐ]; February 23, 1840 – February 26, 1921) was an Austrian economist and the founder of the Austrian School of economics. Menger contributed to the development of the theory of marginalism, (marginal utility), which rejected the cost-of-production theories of value, such as were developed by the classical economists such as Adam Smith and David Ricardo. Menger used his “Subjective Theory of Value” to arrive at what he considered one of the most powerful insights in economics: both sides gain from exchange.

Menger was born in the city of Nowy Sącz in Austrian Galicia, which is now in Poland. He was the son of a wealthy family of minor nobility; his father, Anton, was a lawyer. His mother, Caroline, was the daughter of a wealthy Bohemian merchant. He had two brothers, Anton and Max, both prominent as lawyers. His son, Karl Menger, was a mathematician who taught for many years at Illinois Institute of Technology.

After attending Gymnasium he studied law at the Universities of Prague and Vienna and later received a doctorate in jurisprudence from the Jagiellonian University in Kraków. In the 1860s Menger left school and enjoyed a stint as a journalist reporting and analyzing market news, first at the Lemberger Zeitung in Lwów, Ukraine and later at the Wiener Zeitung in Vienna.