Josef Steindl (April 14, 1912 – March 7, 1993) was an Austrian economist, following in the tradition of Michał Kalecki und John M. Keynes. He studied economics at the University of World Trade in Vienna (the institution that would later become WU). His main teacher was Richard Strigl, a representative of the Austrian School of economics. After earning his doctoral degree, Steindl worked at the Institut für Konjunkturforschung (today’s Austrian Institute for Economic Research). In 1938, he fled to England, where he taught at Oxford’s Balliol College and worked with Michał Kalecki at the Oxford Institute of Statistics. In 1950, Steindl returned to Austria and to the Austrian Institute for Economic Research, where he worked until his retirement in 1978 and served as a consultant until his death. He taught at the University of Vienna, in Italy, and in the US.

Josef Steindl’s main research interest was the classic question about secular development tendencies in capitalist economies.

Main works: Small and big business (1945), Maturity and stagnation in American capitalism (1952), Random processes and the growth of firms (1965), Economic papers 1941–1988 (1990)

Further information on the life and work: www.josef-steindl.at

(Text: Alois Guger, 2016)

Back