Fritz Machlup

Life

Fritz Machlup (1902-1983) He received his doctorate at the University of Vienna in 1923 with a dissertation on the gold bullion stan­dard). Early in 1933, Machlup came to the United States on a Rockefeller scholarship and visited Columbia, Harvard, and the University of Chicago where he met many of the world's leading economists. In May 1935, he received his first appointment as pro­fessor, from the University of Buffalo. In 1947, after having served in the United States government for three-and-a-half years during World War II, Machlup accepted a position at the Johns Hopkins University. In i960, Machlup was called to Princeton University as professor of Economics and director of Princeton's International Finance Section. In 1971, the year be­fore his retirement from Princeton, Machlup began to teach regular courses at New York University. He received a professorship in economics from New York University in 1972 and continued teaching there until his death.

Contributions

Machlup divided information use into instrumental, intellectual, and pastime knowledge categories. "These categories suggest that there is more to information use than only that which is instrumental in nature. They suggest that there is a broad range of uses each of which is essentially important to human information movement and each of which, therefore, has a legitimate claim to the attention of our field" (Francis L. Miksa).

He recognized and treated knowledge as an information source. He was a major contributor to general and international economic theory. Leonard Silk of the NY Times said that "he was one of the first to see that knowledge was becoming a critical resource." He also worked on the major volume, The Study of Information: Interdisciplinary Messages, which he co-edited with Una Mansfield. He was concerned with the economics of knowledge. He began a 10 volume series Knowledge: Its Creation, Distribution, and Economic Significance--only 3 were completed. He worked at: Professor Economics, NYU; Professor Emeritus, Princeton. 

Extensive additional biographical information, and a reference to a biography may be found at: http://www.mises.org/aboutmachlup.asp

Publications

Machlup wrote primarily on economics. Publications relating to information include:

• The production and distribution of knowledge in the United States. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1962.
• Information through the printed word : the dissemination of scholarly, scientific, and intellectual knowledge. With Kenneth Leeson and associates. New York: Praeger, 1978-1980. 4 vols.
• Knowledge, its creation, distribution, and economic significance. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1980-1984. 3 vols. Vol. 1: Knowledge and knowledge production 1980;

Vol 3: The economics of information and human capital , 1984.

• The Study of information : interdisciplinary messages. Ed. by Fritz Machlup and Una Mansfield. New York: Wiley, 1983. Note his prologue "Cultural diversity in studies of information," pp 3-57 and his "Semantic quirks in studies of information," pp641-671.

Offices

• American Economic Association | Pres.
• International Economic Association | Pres.
• American Association of University Professors | Pres.

Further reading

• Malkiel, Burton G.. "Fritz Machlup". In: Luminaries: Princeton Faculty Remembered, ed. by Patricia H. Marks, Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1997, pp. 182-189.

Papers

LOCATION #1 Stanford University, Hoover Institute Archives; search under: Machlup, Fritz, 1902-. Papers, 1911-1983.

• Papers dates: 1911-1983
• Size: 313 ms. boxes, 11 oversize boxes, 6 card file boxes, 1 album box, 4 phonotape cassettes, and 4 phonotape reels.
• Includes:
  • Correspondence, writings, reports, memoranda, notes, questionnaires, data, financial records, grant proposals, instructional materials, and printed matter, relating to economic theory, to information systems, and to the creation and transmission of knowledge
  • In English and German
• Finding aid: Indexes: register available at: http://pdf.oac.cdlib.org/pdf/hoover/reg_098.pdf
• Source: RLIN; Hoover Institute online catalog