2007 Nobel Prize winner Leonid Hurwicz was a participant in the Ludwig Mises’ seminar at the Graduate Institute of International Studies in Geneva, Hurwicz tells us in his remarks commenting on a paper by Israel Kirzner published in the CATO Journal (pdf file). Hurwicz says he participated in the Mises seminar in the period 1938-1939. Curiously, Hurwicz also says he attended Hayek’s classes at the L.S.E. during the academic year 1938-1939. So it’s not fully clear just where Hurwicz was at any particular time during these years. Perhaps when Hurwicz has a bit more free time someone could contact him and get more information about this period and his experiences at this time. In his comments on Kirzner Hurwicz says:
The ideas of Hayek (whose classes at the London School of Economics I attended during the academic year 1938–39) have played a major role In Influencing my thinking and have been so acknowledged. But my ideas have also been influenced by Oskar Lange (University of Chicago, 1940–42), as well as by Ludwig von Mises in whose Geneva seminar I took part during 1938–49 (sic).
This “49” is certainly a typo and Hurwicz undoubtedly said “1938–1939” — by the summer of 1940 Mises was fleeing for his life, and Hurwicz was in the United States.
