Oskar Morgenstern
Oskar Morgenstern was born on the 24th of January 1902 in Görlitz, a town in the Prussian Province of Silesia. According to a rumor, his mother was a daughter of Emperor Frederick III. Whatever the truth of that story, the child grew up far from any court. His name now sits on a medal, on a city square in Vienna, and on one of the founding books of a mathematical field. How does a German-born economist end up with that kind of reach? What did he read, and who put it in his hands? And what happened when events in Europe made it impossible to go home?
Morgenstern grew up in Vienna, Austria, and it was at the University of Vienna that he took his PhD in political science in 1925. The same year he began a three-year fellowship financed by the Rockefeller Foundation, which ran until 1928. When he returned, the University of Vienna made him a professor of economics, a post he held until 1938. During the late 1930s he also worked as an outside expert for the Economic and Financial Organization. Two other experts, Bertil Ohlin and Jacques Rueff, served alongside him, and together they supported the organization's work on economic depressions. In 1935 he published an article titled Perfect Foresight and Economic Equilibrium. A colleague, Eduard Čech, read it and pointed him toward a paper by John von Neumann called Zur Theorie der Gesellschaftsspiele, which had appeared in 1928. That single recommendation linked two men who had not yet met.
In 1938 Morgenstern travelled to Princeton University as a visitor. While he was there, Adolf Hitler took over Vienna in the event known as the Anschluss. Morgenstern chose to remain in the United States rather than go back. He joined the faculty at Princeton, but his interests pulled him toward the nearby Institute for Advanced Study. It was there that he met John von Neumann, whose paper his colleague had recommended years earlier. The two men soon began planning a book together.
Theory of Games and Economic Behavior appeared in 1944, with Morgenstern and von Neumann as its authors. It is recognized as the first book on game theory. The book treats strategy as mathematics, offering a framework for studying how rational people decide when their choices affect one another. Its examples range across economic, political, and military situations. The partnership opened new lines of investigation in both mathematics and economics. It drew attention from academics and from people with practical problems to solve. Morgenstern is credited, together with von Neumann, with founding game theory and applying it to the social sciences and to strategic decision-making. He also contributed to decision theory, and his name remains attached to the von Neumann-Morgenstern utility theorem. His ideas did not stay on the page, however, because he also carried them into business.
In 1958-59, Morgenstern and several Princeton colleagues started what they described as a "small research organization." It later became known as Mathematica Inc. That was one of several companies he helped create. He also founded, or co-founded, the Industrial Surveys Company, which was later renamed the Market Research Corporation of America. Mathematica Inc. eventually had a successor, Mathematica Policy Research, often abbreviated MPR. Morgenstern served as a consultant or co-founder for the Market Research Corporation of America and for the original Mathematica. Meanwhile his academic career continued at Princeton.
Morgenstern became a United States citizen in 1944, the same year his famous book was published. Four years later he married Dorothy Young. They had two children, Carl and Karin. In 1950 the American Statistical Association elected him a Fellow. He stayed on as a professor of economics at Princeton until he retired in 1970, and then joined the faculty of New York University. His writing was prolific. It included On the Accuracy of Economic Observations, and Predictability of Stock Market Prices, which he wrote with Clive Granger, who later became a Nobel laureate. Morgenstern died in Princeton, New Jersey, on the 26th of July 1977. His published and unpublished works are held today in an archive at Duke University.
In November 2012, the city of Vienna named a square in the district of Alsergrund Oskar-Morgenstern-Platz. The square is home to the Faculties of Economics and Mathematics of the University of Vienna, the university where he once earned his doctorate and taught. The following year, 2013, the university awarded the Oskar Morgenstern Medal for the first time. The inaugural recipient was Nobel laureate Roger B. Myerson. Robert F. Engle received it in 2015, followed by Ernst Fehr in 2017 and Christopher Pissarides in 2019. Muriel Niederle was honored in 2021 and Thomas Piketty in 2023. The most recent recipient on record is Phanish Puranam, in 2025.
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Who was Oskar Morgenstern?
Oskar Morgenstern was a German-born economist, born on the 24th of January 1902 and died on the 26th of July 1977. With mathematician John von Neumann, he is credited with founding game theory and applying it to the social sciences and strategic decision-making.
What book did Oskar Morgenstern write with John von Neumann?
Oskar Morgenstern and John von Neumann wrote Theory of Games and Economic Behavior, published in 1944. It is recognized as the first book on game theory, a mathematical framework for studying rational decision-making in economic, political, and military situations.
Where was Oskar Morgenstern born and educated?
Oskar Morgenstern was born in Görlitz, in the Prussian Province of Silesia, and grew up in Vienna, Austria. He graduated from the University of Vienna in 1925 with a PhD in political science.
Why did Oskar Morgenstern stay in the United States?
Oskar Morgenstern was visiting Princeton University in 1938 when Adolf Hitler took over Vienna in the Anschluss. He chose to remain in the United States and became a US citizen in 1944.
What companies did Oskar Morgenstern help found?
Oskar Morgenstern was a founder or co-founder of the Industrial Surveys Company, later the Market Research Corporation of America, and of Mathematica Inc. Mathematica Inc. had a successor, Mathematica Policy Research.
What is the Oskar Morgenstern Medal?
The Oskar Morgenstern Medal is an award given by the University of Vienna, first presented in 2013. The inaugural recipient was Nobel laureate Roger B. Myerson, and Phanish Puranam received it in 2025.
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23 references cited across the entry
- 1BookToward a History of Game TheoryAndrew Schotter — Duke University Press — 1992
- 2BookVon Neumann, Morgenstern and the Creation of Game TheoryRobert Leonard — Cambridge University Press — 2010
- 3JournalJohn von Neumann's work in the theory of games and mathematical economicsH.W. Kuhn et al. — 1958
- 4JournalZur Theorie der GesellschaftsspieleJ von Neumann — 1928
- 5Weintraub, E. Roy; Forget, Evelyn L. Economists' lives: biography and autobiography in the history of economics p. 234, Duke University Press Books (December 6, 2007)
- 6The New York Times biographical service, vol. 8, p. 276, New York Times & Arno Press, 1977
- 7Niehans, Jürg. A history of economic theory: classic contributions, 1720–1980, p. 394, Johns Hopkins University Press, 1990
- 8Bewersdorff, Jörg. Luck, logic, and white lies: the mathematics of games, p. 368, A.K Peters/CRC Press (November 23, 2004)
- 9Fleck, Christian (2007). Transatlantische Bereicherungen: zur Erfindung der empirischen Sozialforschung. Berlin: Suhrkamp
- 10The League of Nations and the Foreshadowing of the International Monetary FundLouis W. Pauly — Princeton University — December 1996
- 131983 article, "25 years ago" would be 1958
- 14NewsMathematica's Shift Into Software FieldKaren W. Arenson — February 22, 1983
- 15Samuel D. Barton, 68, A Marketing SpecialistJanuary 29, 1982
- 16While the Atomic Clock Ticks On – The Question Of National DefenseS.L.A. Marshall — November 22, 1959
- 17BookOn the accuracy of economic observationsOskar Morgenstern — Princeton University Press — 1966
- 18BookTheory of games and economic behaviourJohn von Neumann et al. — Princeton University Press — 1955
- 19JournalA generalization of the von Neumann model of an expanding economyJohn G. Kemeny et al. — 1956
- 20BookWhile the Atomic Clock Ticks On – The Question Of National DefenseMorgenstern, Oskar — 1959
- 21BookPredictability of stock market pricesOskar Morgenstern et al. — Lexington Books (D.C. Heath and Company) — 1970
- 22BookMathematical theory of expanding and contracting economiesOskar Morgenstern et al. — D. C. Heath and Company — 1976
- 23JournalGame theorist Morgenstern diesD. Shapley — August 12, 1977