Fritz Machlup (/ˈmɑːxluːp/; German: [ˈmaxlʊp]; December 15, 1902 – January 30, 1983) was an Austrian-American economist known for his work in information economics.

[2] He was one of the first economists to examine knowledge as an economic resource,[3] and is credited with popularising the concept of the information society.

[6] From 1947 to 1960, he was the Abram G. Hutzler Professor of Political Economy at Johns Hopkins University, during which time he served as a research fellow at the Ford Foundation in 1957-58.

[6] His key work was The Production and Distribution of Knowledge in the United States (1962), which is credited with popularizing the concept of the information society.

[2] Shortly before his death, he completed the third in a series of ten planned volumes collectively called Knowledge: Its Creation, Distribution, and Economic Significance.