Joseph Alois Schumpeter (; 8 February 1883 – 8 January 1950) was an Austrian-born American economist and political scientist. He briefly served as Finance Minister of Austria in 1919. In 1932 he became a professor at Harvard University where he remained until the end of his career. One of the most influential economists of the 20th century, Schumpeter popularized the term "
creative destruction" in economics.