Monday, 12 December 2011

Biography: Hermann Heinrich Gossen

Hermann Heinrich Gossen (7 September 1810 in Düren - 13 February 1858 in Cologne) was a Prussian economist who is often regarded as the first to elaborate a general theory of marginal utility. Gossen studied in Bonn, then worked in the Prussian administration until retiring in 1847, after which he sold insurance until his death.
Gossen's book Die Entwicklung der Gesetze des menschlichen Verkehrs und der daraus flieβenden Regeln für menschliches Handeln (The Development of the Laws of Human Intercourse and The Consequent Rules of Human Action), published in Braunschweig in 1854, very explicitly developed general theoretical implications from a theory of marginal utility, to the extent that Willian Stanley Jevons (one of the preceptors of the Marginal Revolution) was later to remark that is quite apparent that Gossen has completely anticipated me as regards the general principles and method of the theory of Economics. So far as I can gather, his treatment of the fundamental theory is even more general and thorough than what I was able to scheme out.




Source: en.wikipedia.org