Educated at the University of Gottingen, Wagner received his doctorate in economics in 1857. He then taught at the Merchant's Superior School in Vienna and the Hamburg Higher Merchant's School. In 1865, he took the chair in Ethnography, Geography and Statistics at the University of Tartu in Estonia. He became an adherent to Bismarck's unification policies and returned to Germany in 1868. He was awarded the chair in State Management at the University of Freiburg. In 1870, he moved to the chair of State Sciences at the University of Berlin. Wagner became the main proponent of State Socialism in Germany. By all accounts, Wagner was an astute economist, but had an agressive and vindictive personality. He was responsible for the removal of Eugen Duhring from the University of Berlin. Wagner is remembered for his Law of Increasing State Spending and greatly influenced central bank policy and practice prior to World War I. His works include Statistik (1867), Die Russische Papierwahrung (1868), Foundations of Political Economy (1892), Academic National Economy and Socialism (1895) and The Agro- and Industrial State (1902). |
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