Abstract
Abraham Wald was the first who solved the existence problem in economics. After a couple of years, John von Neumann succeeded in the existence proof of the balanced growth of a multi-sectoral economy, The publication of these two papers should be regarded as a starting point of the axiomatization of economics. The movement towards an axiomatization in economics took place only in Vienna. We must not dismiss the intellectual backgrounds in Vienna, which could be classified under the following aspects; (a) the research in economics, (b) Hilbert's philosophy on the foundations of mathematics, (c) the Vienna Circle's Philosophy of science, and (d) the development of convex analysis, In this talk, we shall examine how the interplay of these factors stimulated Wald to the existence proof.
