Karl Knies

German economist

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Knies, Karl Karl Knies, one of the founders of the historical school of economics.

Karl Knies was a German economist and a founder of the historical school of economics in the latter half of the 19th century. This school of thought emphasized understanding economic situations within the context of a nation's total historical experience, favoring an inductive method over the deductive "laws" of classical economics.1

Knies, along with Wilhelm Roscher and Bruno Hildebrand, believed that economic policies' effectiveness depended on specific times and places. However, they also posited that studying various societies could reveal general developmental stages common to all nations. While the historical school's influence was strongest in Germany, it also impacted economic thought in Europe and the United States.1

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social science
Economics
…figures as Wilhelm Roscher and Karl Knies in Germany tended to dismiss the assumptions of timelessness and universality regarding economic behaviour that were axiomatic among the German followers of Smith, and they strongly insisted upon the developmental character of capitalism, evolving in a long series of stages from other types…
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…figures as Wilhelm Roscher and Karl Knies in Germany tended to dismiss the assumptions of timelessness and universality regarding economic behaviour that were axiomatic among the German followers of Smith, and they strongly insisted upon the developmental character of capitalism, evolving in a long series of stages from other types…
Read More

historical school of economics
Wilhelm Roscher, Bruno Hildebrand, and Karl Knies, whose works developed the idea of a historical method. They held that the merits of economic policies depended on place and time but that by studying various societies it would be possible to specify certain general stages of development through which all countries…
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Wilhelm Roscher, Bruno Hildebrand, and Karl Knies, whose works developed the idea of a historical method. They held that the merits of economic policies depended on place and time but that by studying various societies it would be possible to specify certain general stages of development through which all countries…
Read More