ABSTRACT
Friederich Von Wieser's theory of the "productive contribution" is much more closely allied to the writings of Leon Walras than to those of Carl Menger and Bohm-Bawerk. He was the first of the Austrian economists to devote attention to the problem of the allocation of resources and the organization of a free enterprise economy. The principle of valuation of individual productive services was merely a restatement of Menger's loss-principle. While in general outline Wieser's statement of the alternative cost theory is satisfactory, in certain respects it contained important weaknesses. He was one of the first of the well-known writers to suggest that conventional rent theory could also be used to explain the return to productive agents other than land. An interesting aspect of his theory is the refutation of the rigid form of the subsistence theory of wages. Returning to Wieser's capital theory, with the conditions given, the determination of the interest rate is relatively simple.
