»The Seasons of the Economy«.

Institutionalization and Methods of Observing Business Cycles in Austria up to 1945

Abstract

The article address to related themes: the establishment of business cycle research in interwar Austria and the general development of methods for studying business cycles in the 20th century. The author offers an account of the history of the business cycle research and the founding of the Austrian Institute for Business Cycle Research. Here the role played by Ludwig von Mises and Friedrich A. von Hayek is highlighted and the importance of Hayek who was the first director of the Institute of Business Cycle Research. After Hayek accepted an offer from the London School of Economics in 1931, Oskar Morgenstern became head of the institute. In 1938 he accepted an invitation to Princeton. After the annexation of Austria to Nazi Germany in 1938 the institute became a division of the German Institute for Business Research.