Revision as of 22:51, 22 April 2012 editByelf2007 (talk | contribs)Extended confirmed users14,281 edits 1st paragraph is definition, redundant← Previous edit | Latest revision as of 19:42, 30 December 2024 edit undoFlurrious (talk | contribs)Extended confirmed users7,743 edits Vienna in Austria-Hungary in 1871Tag: Visual edit: Switched | ||
Line 1: | Line 1: | ||
{{short description|School of economic thought}} | |||
{{pp-semi|small=yes}} | |||
{{distinguish|Economy of Austria}} | |||
{{Austrian School sidebar |expanded=all}} | |||
{{Redirect|Austrian school|the education system in Austria|Education in Austria}} | |||
{{austrian School sidebar|all}} | |||
{{Economics sidebar}} | |||
The '''Austrian school''' is a ]<ref name="Boettke and Leeson">{{Cite book |last1=Boettke |first1=Peter J. |title=A Companion to the History of Economic Thought |last2=Leeson |first2=Peter T. |publisher=Blackwell Publishing |year=2003 |isbn=978-0-631-22573-7 |editor=Samuels |editor-first=Warren |editor-link=Warren Samuels |pages=446–452 |chapter=28A: The Austrian School of Economics 1950–2000 |author2-link=Peter T. Leeson |editor2=Biddle |editor-first2=Jeff E. |editor3=Davis |editor-first3=John B. |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3H8gBQv5MysC&pg=PA445}}</ref><ref>{{cite news | url=https://www.economist.com/node/21542174 | title=Heterodox economics: Marginal revolutionaries | newspaper=The Economist | date=December 31, 2011 | access-date=February 22, 2012 | url-status=live | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120222004727/http://www.economist.com/node/21542174 | archive-date=February 22, 2012 }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Denis |first1=Andy |title=Dialectics and the Austrian School: A Surprising Commonality in the Methodology of Heterodox Economics? |journal=The Journal of Philosophical Economics |date=2008 |volume=1 |issue=2 |pages=151–173 |url=https://openaccess.city.ac.uk/id/eprint/3961/ |access-date=19 May 2022 |language=en}}</ref> ] that advocates strict adherence to ], the concept that social phenomena result primarily from the motivations and actions of individuals along with their ]. Austrian-school theorists hold that economic theory should be exclusively derived from basic principles of human action.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Menger |first1=Carl |url=https://cdn.mises.org/principles_of_economics.pdf |title=Principles of Economics |publisher=Ludwig von Mises Institute |year=2007 |location=Auburn, Alabama |language=en-us |translator-last1=Dingwall |translator-first1=James |orig-date=1871 |translator-last2=Hoselitz |translator-first2=Bert F.}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|url=https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/spr2015/entries/methodological-individualism/|title=The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy|first=Joseph|last=Heath|editor-first=Edward N.|editor-last=Zalta|date=1 May 2018|publisher=Metaphysics Research Lab, Stanford University|access-date=1 May 2018|via=Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy}}</ref><ref name="Mises_Action">Ludwig von Mises. ], p. 11, "Purposeful Action and Animal Reaction". Referenced 2011-11-23.</ref> | |||
The Austrian school originated in 1871<ref>{{Cite web |title=Austrian School of Economics |url=https://www.econlib.org/library/Enc/AustrianSchoolofEconomics.html#:~:text=By%20Peter%20J.,Boettke&text=The%20Austrian%20school%20of,marginalist%20revolution%20in%20economic%20analysis. |access-date=2024-12-19 |website=Econlib |language=en-US}}</ref> in ] with the work of ], ], ], and others.<ref>Joseph A. Schumpeter, History of economic analysis, Oxford University Press 1996, {{ISBN|978-0195105599}}.</ref> It was methodologically opposed to the ], in a dispute known as '']'', or methodology quarrel. Current-day economists working in this tradition are located in many countries, but their work is still referred to as Austrian economics. Among the theoretical contributions of the early years of the Austrian school are the ], ] in ] and the formulation of the ]<ref>{{cite book|last1=Birner|first1=Jack|first2=Rudy|last2=van Zijp|title=Hayek, Co-ordination and Evolution: His Legacy in Philosophy, Politics, Economics and the History of Ideas|location=London, New York|publisher=]|year=1994|page=|isbn=978-0-415-09397-2|url=https://archive.org/details/hayekcoordinatio0000unse}}</ref> | |||
The '''Austrian School of economics''' is the ] which advocates a ] approach to ] called ], the theory that ] is ], the theory that interest rates and profits are determined by the interaction of diminishing ] with diminishing ]ivity of time and ]s, the theory that the capital structure of economies consists of heterogeneous goods that have multispecific uses which must be aligned (''see ]''), and it emphasizes the ] of the ] (''see ]'').<ref></ref> | |||
In the 1970s, the Austrian school attracted some renewed interest after ] shared the 1974 ] with ].<ref name="GMeijer">{{cite book |last=Meijer |first=G. |title=New Perspectives on Austrian Economics |publisher=Routledge |location=New York |year=1995 |isbn=978-0-415-12283-2 }}</ref> | |||
Austrian views are ] and mainstream economists are generally critical of its methodology.<ref name="Austrian Economists: Boettke ">{{cite web|url=http://austrianeconomists.typepad.com/weblog/2008/05/is-austrian-eco.html|title=Is Austrian Economics Heterodox Economics?|last=Boettke |first=Peter|publisher=The Austrian Economists|accessdate=2009-02-13}}</ref><ref name="Boettke and Leeson">{{cite book|last=Boettke|first=Peter J.|coauthors=]|title=A Companion to the History of Economic Thought|editor=], Jeff E. Biddle, and John B. Davis|pages=446–452|chapter=28A: The Austrian School of Economics 1950-2000|url=http://books.google.com/?id=3H8gBQv5MysC&pg=PA445&dq=austrian+school+heterodox+economics |publisher=Blackwell Publishing |year=2003 |isbn=978-0-631-22573-7}}</ref><ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.economist.com/node/21542174 | title=Heterodox economics: Marginal revolutionaries | publisher=The Economist | date=December 31, 2011 | accessdate=February 22, 2012}}</ref><ref name="Caplan">{{cite web|url=http://www.gmu.edu/departments/economics/bcaplan/whyaust.htm|title=Why I Am Not an Austrian Economist |last=Caplan |first=Bryan |publisher=] |accessdate=2008-07-04 | quote=More than anything else, what prevents Austrians from getting more publications in mainstream journals is that their papers rarely use mathematics or econometrics, research tools that Austrians reject on principle...Mises and Rothbard however err when they say that economic history can only illustrate economic theory. In particular, empirical evidence is often necessary to determine whether a theoretical factor is quantitatively significant...Austrians reject econometrics on principle because economic theory is true a priori, so statistics or historical study cannot "test" theory.}}</ref> Whereas mainstream economists generally use ]s and ] to model economic behavior, Austrians argue that they are a flawed, unreliable, and insufficient means of analyzing economic behavior and evaluating economic theories. Instead, they advocate deriving economic theory logically from basic principles of human action, a study called praxeology. Furthermore, whereas ] and ]s are often used in mainstream economics, Austrians generally hold that ] and precise mathematical modeling of an economic market are virtually impossible. They argue that modeling a market relies on human actors who cannot be placed in a lab setting without altering their would-be actions. Supporters of using models of market behavior to analyze and test economic theory argue that economists have developed numerous experiments that elicit useful information about individual preferences.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.dictionaryofeconomics.com/article?id=pde2008_M000391 |title=Models |first=Mary S. |last=Morgan |work=The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics |year=2008 |accessdate=22 November 2011}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url= http://www.dictionaryofeconomics.com/article?id=pde2008_C000569 |title=Causality in economics and econometrics |first=Kevin D. |last=Hoover |work=The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics |year=2008 |accessdate=22 November 2011}}</ref> | |||
== History == | |||
Austrian contributions to mainstream economic thought include involvement in the development of the ], ], and contributions to the ].<ref>{{Cite book | |||
]. The ] of political economy is an intellectual ancestor of Austrian school of economics.]] | |||
| last1 = Birner | first1 = Jack | |||
| first2 = Rudy | last2 = van Zijp | |||
| first3 = | last3 = | |||
| title = Hayek, Co-ordination and Evolution: His Legacy in Philosophy, Politics, Economics and the History of Ideas | |||
| location = London, New York | |||
| publisher = ] | |||
| year= 1994 | |||
| page = 94 | |||
| month = January 25, | |||
| isbn = 978-0-415-09397-2 }}</ref> From the middle of the 20th century onwards, the Austrian school has been considered outside the mainstream of economic thought. Its reputation rose in the mid-1970s, after Austrian economist ] shared the 1974 ].<ref name="Meijer 1995">{{cite book |last=Meijer |first=G. |title=New Perspectives on Austrian Economics |publisher=Routledge |location=New York |year=1995 |isbn=978-0-415-12283-2 }}</ref> According to Austrian School economist ], the position of the Austrian School within the economics profession has changed several times from mainstream to heterodox.<ref name="Boettke and Leeson"/> | |||
=== Etymology === | |||
Austrians are generally advocates of '']'' policies.<ref name=raico>{{cite web |url= http://mises.org/etexts/austrianliberalism.asp |title=Austrian Economics and Classical Liberalism |first=Ralph |last=Raico |work=mises.org |publisher=Mises Institute |year=2011 |quote=despite the particular policy views of its founders ..., Austrianism was perceived as the economics of the free market |accessdate=27 July 2011}}</ref> | |||
The Austrian school owes its name to members of the German ], who argued against the Austrians during the late 19th-century '']'' ("methodology struggle"), in which the Austrians defended the role of theory in economics as distinct from the study or compilation of historical circumstance. In 1883, Menger published ''Investigations into the Method of the Social Sciences with Special Reference to Economics'', which attacked the methods of the historical school. ], a leader of the historical school, responded with an unfavorable review, coining the term "Austrian school" in an attempt to characterize the school as outcast and provincial.<ref>"Menger's approach – haughtily dismissed by the leader of the German Historical School, Gustav Schmoller, as merely 'Austrian', the origin of that label – led to a renaissance of theoretical economics in Europe and, later, in the United States." ], in "Forward" to {{cite book |last1=Menger |first1=Carl |url=https://cdn.mises.org/principles_of_economics.pdf |title=Principles of Economics |publisher=Ludwig von Mises Institute |year=2007 |isbn=978-1-933550-12-1 |location=Auburn, Alabama |language=en-us |translator-last1=Dingwall |translator-first1=James |orig-date=1871 |translator-last2=Hoselitz |translator-first2=Bert F.}}</ref> The label endured and was adopted by the adherents themselves.<ref>{{cite book|last=von Mises|first=Ludwig|title=The Historical Setting of the Austrian School of Economics|year=1984|orig-year=1969|publisher=Ludwig von Mises Institute.|url=https://mises.org/etexts/histsetting.pdf|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140624182138/http://www.mises.org/etexts/histsetting.pdf|archive-date=2014-06-24}}</ref> | |||
=== School of Salamanca === | |||
==Etymology== | |||
The ], emerging in 16th-century Spain, is often regarded as an early precursor to the Austrian School of Economics due to its development of the subjective theory of value and its advocacy for ] principles. Scholars from the ], such as ] and ], argued that the value of goods was determined by individual preferences rather than intrinsic factors, foreshadowing later Austrian ideas. They also emphasized the importance of ] in setting prices and maintaining ], laying the groundwork for modern economic concepts that the Austrian School would later refine and expand upon.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Grice-Hutchinson |first=Marjorie |url=https://cdn.mises.org/The%20School%20of%20Salamanca_3.pdf |title=The School of Salamanca |publisher=Oxford at the Clarendon Press |year=1952}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=2006-11-10 |title=New Light on the Prehistory of the Austrian School {{!}} Mises Institute |url=https://mises.org/mises-daily/new-light-prehistory-austrian-school |access-date=2024-09-02 |website=mises.org |language=en}}</ref> | |||
The Austrian School derives its name from the identity of its founders and early supporters, who were citizens of ], including ], ], ], and Friedrich Hayek.<ref>, ]</ref> In 1883, Menger published ''Investigations into the Method of the Social Sciences with Special Reference to Economics'', which attacked the methods of the Historical school. ], a leader of the Historical school, responded with an unfavorable review, coining the term "Austrian School".<ref>"Menger’s approach—haughtily dismissed by the leader of the German Historical School, Gustav Schmoller, as merely “Austrian,” the origin of that label—led to a renaissance of theoretical economics in Europe and, later, in the United States." ], 2007; in the Foreword to ''Principles of Economics'', Carl Menger; trns. James Dingwall and Bert F. Hoselitz, 1976; Ludwig von Mises Institute, Alabama; 2007; ISBN 978-1-933550-12-1</ref> Currently, adherents of the Austrian School can come from any part of the world, but they are often referred to as "Austrian economists" or "Austrians" and their work as "Austrian economics". | |||
== |
=== First wave === | ||
]]] | |||
===Precursors=== | |||
The school originated in ] in ]. ]'s 1871 book '']'' is generally considered the founding of the Austrian school. The book was one of the first modern treatises to advance the theory of ]. The Austrian school was one of three founding currents of the marginalist revolution of the 1870s, with its major contribution being the introduction of the subjectivist approach in economics.<ref name="keizer">{{cite book |last=Keizer |first=Willem |url=https://www.google.com/books/edition/Austrian_Economics_in_Debate/CJ5sFtfZy8AC?hl=en&gbpv=1&bsq=subjectivist |title=Austrian Economics in Debate |publisher=Routledge |year=1997 |isbn=978-0-415-14054-6 |location=New York |pages=1}}</ref> | |||
]]] | |||
Despite such claim, ] had used ''value in use'' in this sense in 1848 in '']'',<ref>Ahiakpor, J. C. W. (2003): ''Classical Macroeconomics. Some Modern Variations and Distortions'', Routledge, p. 21.</ref> where he wrote: "Value in use, or as ] calls it, '']'' value, is the extreme limit of value in exchange. The exchange value of a thing may fall short, to any amount, of its value in use; but that it can ever exceed the value in use, implies a contradiction; it supposes that persons will give, to possess a thing, more than the utmost value which they themselves put upon it as a means of gratifying their inclinations."<ref>Mill, J. S. (1848). ''Principles of Political Economy.''</ref> | |||
] focused on the ], which holds that the value of a commodity is equal to the amount of labour required to produce it. French classical economists ] and ] argued that value is subjective. In the late 19th century, attention then focused on the concepts of ]. The subjectivist and marginalist approaches are generally considered to be precursors to the Austrian School. Austrian economist ] has argued that the roots of the Austrian School came from the teachings of the ] in the 15th century and ] in the 18th century.<ref></ref> | |||
While marginalism was generally influential, there was also a more specific school that began to coalesce around Menger's work, which came to be known as the "psychological school", "Vienna school", or "Austrian school".<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Kirzner |first1=Israel M. |year=1987 |title=Austrian School of Economics |journal=] |volume=1 |pages=145–151}}</ref> Menger's contributions to economic theory were closely followed by those of ] and ]. These three economists became what is known as the "first wave" of the Austrian school. Böhm-Bawerk wrote extensive critiques of ] in the 1880s and 1890s and was part of the Austrians' participation in the late 19th-century {{lang|de|]}}, during which they attacked the ] doctrines of the ]. | |||
=== |
=== Early 20th century === | ||
] (1863–1949) was a leader in the United States of Austrian thought. He obtained his PhD in 1894 from the ] and then was made Professor of Political Economy and Finance at ] University in 1901. Several important Austrian economists trained at the University of Vienna in the 1920s and later participated in private seminars held by ]. These included ],<ref>{{cite web |url=https://mises.org/page/1452/Biography-of-Gottfried-Haberler-19011995 |title=Biography of Gottfried Haberler (1901–1995) |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140914003239/https://mises.org/page/1452/Biography-of-Gottfried-Haberler-19011995 |archive-date=2014-09-14 |work = Mises Institute|last = Salerno|first = Joseph T.|date = 1 August 2007}}</ref> ], ],<ref>{{cite web|title=Biography of Fritz Machlup|url=https://mises.org/page/1457/Biography-of-Fritz-Machlup-19021983|access-date=16 June 2013|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130705121450/http://mises.org/page/1457/Biography-of-Fritz-Machlup-19021983|archive-date=5 July 2013}}</ref> ] (son of Carl Menger),<ref>{{cite web|url= http://www.iit.edu/csl/am/about/menger/about.shtml|title=About Karl Menger – Department of Applied Mathematics – IIT College of Science – Illinois Institute of Technology|website=www.iit.edu|access-date=1 May 2018|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131029202644/http://www.iit.edu/csl/am/about/menger/about.shtml|archive-date=29 October 2013}}</ref> ],<ref>{{cite web |url=http://library.duke.edu/rubenstein/findingaids/morgenst/ |title=Guide to the Oskar Morgenstern Papers, 1866–1992 and undated |url-status=live |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20121017075648/http://library.duke.edu/rubenstein/findingaids/morgenst/ |archive-date=2012-10-17 |website = Rubenstein Library|publisher= Duke University }}</ref> Paul Rosenstein-Rodan,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://archives.lse.ac.uk/Record.aspx?src=CalmView.Catalog&id=COLL+MISC+0324 |title=Rodan; Paul Rosenstein (1902–1985); political economist|publisher= Archive at London School of Economics}}</ref> ],<ref>{{cite journal |author=Morgenstern |first=Oskar |date=October 1951 |title=Abraham Wald, 1902–1950 |journal=Econometrica |publisher=The Econometric Society |volume=19 |pages=361–367 |doi=10.2307/1907462 |jstor=1907462 |number=4}}</ref> and Michael A. Heilperin,<ref>{{Cite web | url=https://mises.org/library/studies-economic-nationalism | title=Studies in Economic Nationalism| date=18 August 2014}}</ref> among others, as well as the sociologist ].<ref>{{multiref | |||
]]] | |||
|1={{cite journal |author-link=Peter Kurrild-Klitgaard |last=Kurrild-Klitgaard |first=Peter |title=The Viennese Connection: Alfred Schutz and the Austrian School |journal=Quarterly Journal of Austrian Economics |volume=6 |issue=2 |date=Summer 2003 |pages=35–67 |doi=10.1007/s12113-003-1018-y |s2cid=154202208 |url=http://mises.org/journals/qjae/pdf/qjae6_2_2.pdf |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/http://mises.org/journals/qjae/pdf/qjae6_2_2.pdf |archive-date=2022-10-09 |url-status=live |access-date=2022-08-19}} | |||
The school originated in ], in the ]. However, later adherents of the school such as > The School owes its name to members of the German ], who argued against the Austrians during the '']'' ("methodology struggle"), in which the Austrians defended the reliance that classical economists placed upon deductive logic. | |||
|2={{cite journal |author-link=Peter Kurrild-Klitgaard |last=Kurrild-Klitgaard |first=Peter |doi=10.1023/A:1011199831428 |title=On Rationality, Ideal Types and Economics: Alfred Schütz and the Austrian School |journal=The Review of Austrian Economics |volume=14 |pages=119–143 |date=2001|issue=2/3 |s2cid=33060092 }} | |||
}}</ref> | |||
=== Later 20th century === | |||
] contributions to economic theory was closely followed by that of Böhm-Bawerk and ]. These three economists became what is known as the "first wave" of the Austrian School. Austrians developed a sense of themselves as a school distinct from neoclassical economics during the economic calculation debate with ]. Ludwig von Mises and his student Friedrich Hayek represented the Austrian position in contending that without monetary prices and private property, meaningful economic calculation is virtually impossible.<ref>{{cite book | authorlink=Tibor Machan |last = Machan | first = Tibor | title = The Morality of Business | publisher = Springer | location = Berlin | year = 2007 | isbn = 978-0-387-48906-3 |page=55}}</ref> Böhm-Bawerk wrote extensive critiques of ] in the 1880s and 1890s, as was part of the Austrians' participation in the late 19th Century ''Methodenstreit'', during which they attacked the ] doctrines of the ]. | |||
], in ]]] | |||
By the mid-1930s, most economists had embraced what they considered the important contributions of the early Austrians.<ref name="Boettke and Leeson" /> Fritz Machlup quoted Hayek's statement that "the greatest success of a school is that it stops existing because its fundamental teachings have become parts of the general body of commonly accepted thought".<ref>{{cite web |date=15 December 2004 |title=Ludwig von Mises: A Scholar Who Would Not Compromise |url=https://mises.org/daily/1700/Ludwig-von-Mises-A-Scholar-Who-Would-Not-Compromise |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140914002324/https://mises.org/daily/1700/Ludwig-von-Mises-A-Scholar-Who-Would-Not-Compromise |archive-date=2014-09-14 |access-date=2014-09-13}} Homage to Mises by Fritz Machlup 1981.</ref> Sometime during the middle of the 20th century, Austrian economics became disregarded or derided by mainstream economists because it rejected ] building and mathematical and statistical methods in the study of economics.<ref name="Backhouse">{{cite journal| last=Backhouse| first=Roger E| title=Austrian economics and the mainstream: View from the boundary| journal=The Quarterly Journal of Austrian Economics| volume=3| issue=2| pages=31–43| url=https://mises.org/library/austrian-economics-and-mainstream-view-boundary| date=January 2000| access-date=2017-01-24| quote="Hayek did not fall out of favor because he was not Keynesian (neither are Friedman or Lucas) but because he was perceived to be doing neither rigorous theory nor empirical work"| doi=10.1007/s12113-000-1002-8| s2cid=154604886| url-status=live| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170210110045/https://mises.org/library/austrian-economics-and-mainstream-view-boundary| archive-date=2017-02-10}}</ref> Mises' student ] recalled that in 1954, when Kirzner was pursuing his PhD, there was no separate Austrian school as such. When Kirzner was deciding which graduate school to attend, Mises had advised him to accept an offer of admission at Johns Hopkins because it was a prestigious university and ] taught there.<ref>{{cite web|last=Kirzner|first=Israel|title=Interview of Israel Kirzner|url=https://www.mises.org/journals/aen/aen17_1_1.asp|publisher=Ludwig von Mises Institute|access-date=17 June 2013|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130909160322/http://mises.org/journals/aen/aen17_1_1.asp|archive-date=9 September 2013}}</ref> | |||
After the 1940s, Austrian economics can be divided into two schools of economic thought and the school split to some degree in the late 20th century. One camp of Austrians, exemplified by Mises, regards ] methodology to be irredeemably flawed; the other camp, exemplified by ], accepts a large part of neoclassical methodology and is more accepting of government intervention in the economy.<ref>{{cite web |last=Kanopiadmin |date=30 July 2014 |title=The Hayek and Mises Controversy: Bridging Differences – Odd J. Stalebrink |url=https://mises.org/journals/qjae/pdf/qjae7_1_3.pdf |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121114044020/http://mises.org/journals/qjae/pdf/qjae7_1_3.pdf |archive-date=14 November 2012 |access-date=1 May 2018 |website=mises.org}}</ref> ] wrote economics columns and editorials for a number of publications and wrote many books on the topic of Austrian economics from the 1930s to the 1980s. Hazlitt's thinking was influenced by Mises.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.thefreemanonline.org/featured/remembering-henry-hazlitt/ |title=Remembering Henry Hazlitt |publisher=] |access-date=2013-03-11 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://archive.today/20130113132434/http://www.thefreemanonline.org/featured/remembering-henry-hazlitt/ |archive-date=2013-01-13 }}</ref> His book '']'' (1946) sold over a million copies and he is also known for '']'' (1959), a line-by-line critique of ]'s '']''.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://mises.org/about/3233 |title=Biography of Henry Hazlitt |publisher=Ludwig von Mises Institute |access-date=2013-03-11 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120128182613/https://www.mises.org/about/3233 |archive-date=2012-01-28 }}</ref> | |||
===Twentieth century=== | |||
]]] | |||
The reputation of the Austrian school rose in the late 20th century due in part to the work of Israel Kirzner and ] at ] and to renewed public awareness of the work of Hayek after he won the 1974 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences.<ref name="Meijer 1995">{{cite book |editor=Meijer, Gerrit |title=New Perspectives on Austrian Economics |publisher=Routledge |location=New York |year=1995 |isbn=978-0-415-12283-2 |oclc= 70769328 }}</ref> Hayek's work was influential in the revival of ''laissez-faire'' thought in the 20th century.<ref name="raico">{{cite web |url=https://mises.org/etexts/austrianliberalism.asp |title=Austrian Economics and Classical Liberalism |first=Ralph |last=Raico |work=mises.org |publisher=Ludwig von Mises Institute |year=2011 |quote=despite the particular policy views of its founders ... Austrianism was perceived as the economics of the free market |access-date=27 July 2011 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110519183648/http://mises.org/etexts/austrianliberalism.asp |archive-date=19 May 2011 }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Kasper |first=Sherryl Davis |title=The Revival of Laissez-faire in American Macroeconomic Theory |publisher=Edward Elgar Publishing |year=2002 |isbn=978-1-84064-606-1 |page=66}}</ref> | |||
By the mid-1930s, much of mainstream economics had absorbed what were seen as the important contributions of the Austrians.<ref name="Boettke and Leeson"/> After ], Austrian economics was ill-thought of by most economists because it rejected mathematical and statistical methods in the study of economics.<ref>"" by Roger E. Backhouse, $34 to view {{dead link|date=March 2011}}</ref> | |||
=== Split among contemporary Austrians === | |||
Austrian economics after 1940 can be divided into two schools of economic thought. One, exemplified by Ludwig von Mises, regards neoclassical methodology to be irredeemably flawed; the other, exemplified by Friedrich Hayek, accepts a large part of neoclassical methodology.<ref name="Caplan"/><ref>http://mises.org/journals/qjae/pdf/qjae7_1_3.pdf</ref> | |||
Economist ] discussed the late 20th-century rift and referred to a discussion written by ], ], ] and others in which they attack and disparage Hayek. Yeager stated: "To try to drive a wedge between Mises and Hayek on , especially to the disparagement of Hayek, is unfair to these two great men, unfaithful to the history of economic thought". He went on to call the rift subversive to economic analysis and the historical understanding of the fall of Eastern European communism.<ref>{{cite book|last=Yaeger|first=Leland|title=Is the Market a Test of Truth and Beauty?: Essays in Political Economy|pages=93 ff|year=2011|publisher=Ludwig von Mises Institute}}</ref> | |||
In a 1999 book published by the ],<ref>{{cite book|last=Hoppe|first=Hans-Hermann|title=15 Great Austrian Economists – Murray Rothbard|year=1999|publisher=Ludwig von Mises Institute|location=Alabama|pages=223 ff|url=https://mises.org/books/15great.pdf|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141007115806/http://mises.org/books/15great.pdf|archive-date=2014-10-07}}</ref> Hoppe asserted that Rothbard was the leader of the "mainstream within Austrian Economics" and contrasted Rothbard with Nobel Laureate Friedrich Hayek, whom he identified as a ] and an opponent of the thought of Mises and Rothbard. Hoppe acknowledged that Hayek was the most prominent Austrian economist within academia, but stated that Hayek was an opponent of the Austrian tradition which led from Carl Menger and Böhm-Bawerk through Mises to Rothbard. Austrian economist ] says that the Austrian school can be distinguished from other schools of economic thought through two categories—economic theory and political theory. According to Block, while Hayek can be considered an Austrian economist, his views on political theory clash with the ] political theory which Block sees as an integral part of the Austrian school.<ref>{{cite web|title=Dr. Walter Block: Austrian vs Chicago Schools|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LiX7dzyHkK4|publisher=Mises Canada: Rothbard School 2014|access-date=3 December 2014|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150518134054/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LiX7dzyHkK4|archive-date=18 May 2015}}</ref> | |||
The reputation of the Austrian School rose somewhat in the late-20th century due in part to the work of ] and ], and renewed interest in the work of Hayek after he won the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences.<ref name="Meijer 1995"/> Hayek's work was influential in the revival of ''laissez-faire'' thought in the 20th century.<ref name=raico/><ref>{{cite book |last=Kasper |first=Sherryl Davis |title=The Revival of Laissez-faire in American Macroeconomic Theory |publisher=Edward Elgar Publishing |year=2002 |isbn=978-1-84064-606-1 |page=66}}</ref> Following Hayek, one of Mises's students, Murray Rothbard, became prominent in both Austrian applied theory and libertarian philosophical thought.<ref></ref> | |||
Both criticism from Hoppe and Block to Hayek apply to Carl Menger, the founder of the Austrian school. Hoppe emphasizes that Hayek, which for him is from the English empirical tradition, is an opponent of the supposed rationalist tradition of the Austrian school; Menger made strong critiques to rationalism in his works in similar vein as Hayek's.<ref name=":0">{{cite book|url=https://mises.org/system/tdf/Investigations%20into%20the%20Method%20of%20the%20Social%20Sciences_5.pdf?file=1&type=document|title=Investigations into the Methods of the Social Sciences|last=Menger|first=Carl|pages=173–175|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170211155554/https://mises.org/system/tdf/Investigations%20into%20the%20Method%20of%20the%20Social%20Sciences_5.pdf?file=1&type=document|archive-date=2017-02-11}}</ref> He emphasized the idea that there are several institutions which were not deliberately created, have a kind of "superior wisdom" and serve important functions to society.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://mises.org/system/tdf/Investigations%20into%20the%20Method%20of%20the%20Social%20Sciences_5.pdf?file=1&type=document|title=Investigations into the Methods of the Social Sciences|last=Menger|first=Carl|pages=146–147|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170211155554/https://mises.org/system/tdf/Investigations%20into%20the%20Method%20of%20the%20Social%20Sciences_5.pdf?file=1&type=document|archive-date=2017-02-11}}</ref><ref name=":0" /><ref>{{cite book|url=https://mises.org/system/tdf/Investigations%20into%20the%20Method%20of%20the%20Social%20Sciences_5.pdf?file=1&type=document|title=Investigations into the Methods of the Social Sciences|last=Menger|first=Carl|pages=91|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170211155554/https://mises.org/system/tdf/Investigations%20into%20the%20Method%20of%20the%20Social%20Sciences_5.pdf?file=1&type=document|archive-date=2017-02-11}}</ref> He also talked about ] and the English tradition to sustain these positions.<ref name=":0" /> | |||
===Twenty-first century=== | |||
Several Austrian economists have made contributions to Austrian economics in the twenty-first century, including Anthony Carilli,<ref name="Austrian Economics 2008, pages 271-281">The Review of Austrian Economics, 2008, vol. 21, issue 4, pages 271-281</ref> Gregory Dempster,<ref name="Austrian Economics 2008, pages 271-281"/> ],<ref>http://www.auburn.edu/~garriro/strigl.htm</ref> ],<ref name="Horwitz, Steven 2000">Horwitz, Steven: Microfoundations and Macroeconomics: An Austrian Perspective (2000)|''Routledge''</ref> and ].<ref name="http://mises.org/daily/3466">http://mises.org/daily/3466</ref> Garrison and Horwitz have contributed to Austrian macroeconomics. Carlilli, Dempster, Garrison, and Murphy have contributed to the Austrian business cycle theory. | |||
When saying that the libertarian political theory is an integral part of the Austrian school and supposing Hayek is not a libertarian, Block excludes Menger from the Austrian school, too, since Menger seems to defend broader state activity than Hayek—for example, progressive taxation and extensive labour legislation.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://www.hetsa.org.au/hetsa2009/conference_papers/7.%20Yukihiro%20Ikeda%20Carl%20Menger's%20Liberalism%20Revisited.pdf|title=Carl Menger's Liberalism Revisited|last=Ikeda|first=Yukihiro|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170216010338/http://hetsa.org.au/hetsa2009/conference_papers/7.%20Yukihiro%20Ikeda%20Carl%20Menger's%20Liberalism%20Revisited.pdf|archive-date=2017-02-16}}</ref> | |||
==Methodology== | |||
]]] | |||
{{See also|Catallactics|Praxeology}} | |||
Economists of the Hayekian view are affiliated with the ], ] (GMU) and New York University, among other institutions. They include ], ], ], ] and ]. Economists of the Mises–Rothbard view include ], ], ] and ], each of whom is associated with the ]<ref name="faculty">{{cite web |url=https://mises.org/Faculty |title=Senior Fellows, Faculty Members, and Staff |publisher=Mises.org |access-date=July 21, 2013 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130728094916/http://mises.org/Faculty |archive-date=July 28, 2013 }}</ref> and some of them also with academic institutions.<ref name="faculty" /> According to Murphy, a "truce between (for lack of better terms) the GMU Austro-libertarians and the Auburn Austro-libertarians" was signed around 2011.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://consultingbyrpm.com/blog/2011/12/in-defense-of-the-mises-institute.html|title=In Defense of the Mises Institute|website=consultingbyrpm.com|access-date=1 May 2018|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170826112157/http://consultingbyrpm.com/blog/2011/12/in-defense-of-the-mises-institute.html|archive-date=26 August 2017}}</ref><ref name="Yaeger Truth and Beauty">{{cite book|last=Yeager|first=Leland|title=Is the Market a Test of Truth and Beauty?|year=2011|publisher=Ludwig von Mises Institute|page=103|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-z7Q4rsgdhAC|isbn=9781610164214}}</ref> | |||
Methodology is where Austrians differ most significantly from other schools of economic thought. Mainstream schools, such as ] and ], adopt ], mathematical, and statistical methods, and focus on ] to construct and test theories. Austrians reject empirical ], ]s, and ] as tools applicable to economics, arguing that while it is appropriate in the natural sciences where factors can be isolated in laboratory conditions, the actions of ] are too complex for such a treatment because humans are not passive and non-adaptive subjects. Austrian economist Jeffrey Herbener has argued that "there are no statistical characteristics to human behavior. It is purposeful rather than random, and changeable rather than | |||
constant".<ref name="mises_a"></ref> Austrians argue one should instead isolate the logical processes of human action. Mises called this discipline "]."<ref name="Ludwigvon">Ludwig von Mises, Nationalökonomie (Geneva: Union, 1940), p. 3; Human Action (Auburn, Ala.: Mises Institute, 1998), p. 3.</ref> The Austrian praxeological method is based on the heavy use of logical ] from what they argue to be undeniable, self-evident ] or irrefutable facts about human existence.<ref name="HansHermannHoppe">Hans-Hermann Hoppe, Economic Science and the Austrian Method (Auburn, Ala.: Mises Institute, 2007), p. 63.</ref> | |||
=== Influence === | |||
According to Austrians, deduction is preferred to induction in interpreting economic developments, since if performed correctly, it leads to certain conclusions and inferences that must be true if the underlying assumptions are accurate. Austrians hold that induction does not assure certainty like deduction, as real world economic data are inherently ambiguous and subject to a multitude of influences which cannot be separated or quantified, one cause or correlation from another. Austrians therefore argue that empirical statistical methods, natural experiments, and constructed experiments have no way of verifying cause and effect in real world economic events, since economic data can be correlated to multiple potential chains of causation.<ref>, Brian Caplan</ref> Mainstream economists generally argue that conclusions reached by pure logical deduction are limited and weak.<ref name="Samuelson">{{Cite book |last=Samuelson |first=Paul |title=Economics |publisher=New York: McGraw-Hill |year=1964 |edition=6th |page=736 |isbn=978-0-07-074741-8}}</ref> Economists ] and ] have argued that such rejections of empirical evidence in economics has led to the Austrian School being dismissed within mainstream economics.<ref name="tremble" /> | |||
Many theories developed by "first wave" Austrian economists have long been absorbed into ].<ref>It has also influenced related disciplines such as Law and Economics, see. K. Grechenig, M. Litschka, "Law by Human Intent or Evolution? Some Remarks on the Austrian School of Economics' Role in the Development of Law and Economics", ''European Journal of Law and Economics'' 2010, vol. 29, no. 1, pp. 57–79.</ref> These include Carl Menger's theories on marginal utility, Friedrich von Wieser's theories on ] and Eugen Böhm von Bawerk's theories on time preference, as well as Menger and Böhm-Bawerk's criticisms of ].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://mises.org/library/austrian-schools-critique-marxism|title=The Austrian School's Critique of Marxism|last=kanopiadmin|date=2011-03-14|website=Mises Institute|language=en|access-date=2019-02-02}}</ref> | |||
Former ] Chairman ] said that the founders of the Austrian school "reached far into the future from when most of them practiced and have had a profound and, in my judgment, probably an irreversible effect on how most mainstream economists think in this country".<ref>Greenspan, Alan. "Hearings before the U.S. House of Representatives' Committee on Financial Services". U.S. House of Representatives' Committee on Financial Services. Washington, D.C.. 25 July 2000.</ref> In 1987, Nobel Laureate ] told an interviewer: "I have no objections to being called an Austrian. Hayek and Mises might consider me an Austrian but, surely some of the others would not".<ref>{{cite journal |url=https://mises.org/journals/aen/aen9_1_1.asp |access-date=2022-08-19 |url-status=live |title=An Interview with Laureate James Buchanan |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140914022018/https://mises.org/journals/aen/aen9_1_1.asp |archive-date=2014-09-14 |journal=Austrian Economics Newsletter |volume=9 |issue=1 |date=Fall 1987}}</ref> | |||
The Austrian School view of the market system differs from that of neoclassical economics. Austrians reject the possibility of ] between choices{{spaced ndash}} neoclassical theory says it is possible, whereas Mises rejected it as being “impossible to observe in practice.” Mises argued that utility functions are ], and not ]. Therefore, one can only rank preferences and cannot measure their intensity. Austrians reject any conclusions based on ] and criticize mainstream economics for generally accepting cardinality, despite neoclassical economists commonly stating that their work holds only for ].<ref>http://mises.org/journals/qjae/pdf/qjae2_4_2.pdf</ref> Mises argued that numerically accurate "probabilities" could never be assigned to singular cases because the unique confluence of events in each moment of time in real markets makes the assignment of "objective" probabilities unrealistic, as these events are intrinsically unique and not capable of numerical probabilistic modeling. Mises argued that the application of probabilistic uncertainty would require the ability to exactly replicate objectively similar events to obtain an accurate understanding of the range of probabilistic outcomes of any event, and this is not possible in real markets, where past market events intimately affect the present and the future.{{citation needed|date=January 2012}} | |||
Currently, universities with a significant Austrian presence are ],<ref name="fee">{{Cite book|title=The Oxford handbook of Austrian economics|year=2015|isbn=9780199811762|publisher=]|pages=500|oclc=905518129|last1=Boettke|first1=Peter J.|last2=Coyne|first2=Christopher J.}}</ref> ], ], ], ], and ] in the United States; ] in Spain;<ref>{{cite journal |first=Cristóbal |last=Matarán López |title=The Austrian school of Madrid |journal=The Review of Austrian Economics |date=2021-01-26 |volume=36 |pages=61–79 |doi=10.1007/s11138-021-00541-0 |s2cid=234027221 |doi-access=free }}</ref> and ] in Guatemala.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://ecaef.org/austrian-school-of-economics/generations-of-the-austrian-school/ |title=Generations of the Austrian School |publisher=European Center of Austrian Economics Foundation}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://mises.org/library/gabriel-calzada-free-market-education-latin-america |title=Gabriel Calzada on Free-Market Education in Latin America |first=Jeff |last=Deist |date=2017-11-24 |publisher=]}}</ref> Austrian economic ideas are also promoted by privately funded organizations such as the ]<ref>{{cite web |url=https://mises.org/page/1448/About-The-Mises-Institute |title=About the Mises Institute |publisher=Mises.org |access-date=July 21, 2013 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130728042035/http://mises.org/page/1448/About-The-Mises-Institute |archive-date=July 28, 2013 }}</ref> and the ].<ref>{{cite web| url = https://www.cato.org/books/austrian-economics| title = Austrian Economics {{!}} Cato Institute}}</ref> | |||
Austrian economist ] argues that Austrian methodology is consistent with ] and that Austrian macroeconomics can be expressed in terms of ] foundations.<ref name="Horwitz, Steven 2000"/> Austrian economist Roger Garrison argues that Austrian macroeconomic theory can be correctly expressed in terms of ].<ref>http://library.mises.org/books/Roger%20W%20Garrison/Austrian%20Macroeconomics%20A%20Diagrammatical%20Exposition.pdf Garrison, Roger: Austrian Macroeconomics: A Diagrammatical Exposition (1978)|''Institute for Humane Studies''</ref> | |||
== |
== Theory == | ||
{{capitalism sidebar|theories}} | |||
===Business cycles=== | |||
The Austrian school theorizes that the subjective choices of individuals including individual knowledge, time, expectation and other subjective factors cause all economic phenomena. Austrians seek to understand the economy by examining the social ramifications of individual choice, an approach called ]. It differs from other schools of economic thought, which have focused on aggregate variables, equilibrium analysis, and societal groups rather than individuals.<ref name="White Methodology">{{cite book|last=White|first=Lawrence H.|title=The Methodology of the Austrian School Economists|year=2003|edition=revised|publisher=Ludwig von Mises Institute|url=https://mises.org/mofase.asp|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140223214514/https://mises.org/mofase.asp|archive-date=2014-02-23}}</ref> | |||
{{Main|Austrian business cycle theory}} | |||
]]] | |||
====Background==== | |||
In the 20th and 21st centuries, economists with a methodological lineage to the early Austrian school developed many diverse approaches and theoretical orientations. ] organized his version of the subjectivist approach, which he called "]", in a book published in English as '']'' in 1949.<ref name="Ludwigvon">Ludwig von Mises, Nationalökonomie (Geneva, Switzerland: Union, 1940); Human Action (Auburn, Alabama: Ludwig von Mises Institute, 1998).</ref>{{rp|3}} In it, Mises stated that praxeology could be used to deduce ''a priori'' theoretical economic truths and that deductive economic ]s could yield conclusions which follow irrefutably from the underlying assumptions. He wrote that conclusions could not be inferred from empirical observation or statistical analysis and argued against the use of probabilities in economic models.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://mises.org/books/ufofes/ |title=The Ultimate Foundation of Economic Science by Ludwig von Mises |date=20 July 1962 |publisher=Mises.org |access-date=2012-08-13 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121029234432/http://www.mises.org/books/ufofes/ |archive-date=2012-10-29 }}</ref> | |||
The Austrian theory of the ] (or "ABCT") varies significantly from mainstream theories. In contrast to most mainstream theories on business cycles, Austrians focus on the credit cycle as the primary cause of most business cycles. Economists such as ],<ref name="Tullock1988">{{cite journal |author=Gordon Tullock |title=Why the Austrians are wrong about depressions |journal=The Review of Austrian Economics |volume=2 |issue=1 |year=1988 |pages=73–78 |format=PDF |url=http://mises.org/journals/rae/pdf/RAE2_1_4.pdf |accessdate=2009-06-24 |doi=10.1007/BF01539299 |ref=harv}}</ref> Bryan Caplan,<ref name=autogenerated3>{{cite web |url=http://econlog.econlib.org/archives/2008/01/whats_wrong_wit_6.html |title=What's Wrong With Austrian Business Cycle Theory |last=Caplan |first=Bryan |date=2008-01-02 |publisher=Library of Economics and Liberty |accessdate=2008-07-28}}</ref> and Nobel laureate economists ]<ref name="Friedman1969">{{cite book |last=Friedman |first=Milton |title=The Optimal Quantity of Money and Other Essays |publisher=Aldine |location=Chicago |pages=261–284 |chapter=The Monetary Studies of the National Bureau, 44th Annual Report}}</ref><ref name="Friedman93">{{cite journal |last=Friedman |first=Milton |title=The 'Plucking Model' of Business Fluctuations Revisited |journal=Economic Inquiry |pages=171–177 |ref=harv}}</ref> and ]<ref name="Krugman">{{cite web |url=http://www.slate.com/id/9593 |title=The Hangover Theory |last=Krugman |first=Paul |date=1998-12-04 |publisher=Slate |accessdate=2008-06-20| archiveurl = http://www.webcitation.org/5u40jRL5e | archivedate = 2010-11-07| deadurl=no}}</ref> have said that they regard the theory as incorrect. The Austrian theory of the business cycle is now rarely discussed by mainstream economists, but was more actively debated in the mid-20th century.<ref name=OnLaidler>Block W, Barnett II W. (2007). . ''Review of Austrian Economics''.</ref> The theory was created by Hayek, by integrating Böhm-Bawerk's theory of capital and interest with Mises's arguments concerning how an expansion of the money supply or government manipulation of interest rates contributed to ]. | |||
Since Mises' time, some Austrian thinkers have accepted his praxeological approach while others have adopted alternative methodologies.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Caldwell |first1=Bruce J. |year=1984 |title=Praxeology and its Critics: an Appraisal |url=http://public.econ.duke.edu/~bjc18/docs/Praxeology%20and%20Its%20Critics.pdf |journal=History of Political Economy |volume=16 |issue=3 |pages=363–379 |doi=10.1215/00182702-16-3-363}}</ref> For example, ], ] and others did not take Mises' strong ''a priori'' approach to economics.<ref>{{cite journal |first= Richard N. |last= Langlois |title= From the Knowledge of Economics to the Economics of Knowledge: Fritz Machlup on Methodology and on the "Knowledge Society" |journal= Research in the History of Economic Thought and Methodology |volume= 3 |url= http://web.uconn.edu/ciom/Machlup%20Knowledge%20(1985).pdf |url-status= dead |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20131005013809/http://web.uconn.edu/ciom/Machlup%20Knowledge%20(1985).pdf |archive-date= 2013-10-05 |date= 1985 |pages= 225–235 |access-date= 2012-12-06 }}</ref> ], a radical subjectivist, also largely rejected Mises' formulation of Praxeology in favor of the ''verstehende Methode'' ("interpretive method") articulated by ].<ref name="White Methodology"/><ref name=Ludwig>{{cite book|last=Lachmann|first=Ludwig|title=Macroeconomic Thinking and the Market Economy|year=1973|publisher=Institute of Economic Affairs|url=http://library.freecapitalists.org/books/Ludwig%20M%20Lachmann/Macro-economic%20thinking%20and%20the%20Market%20Economy.pdf|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141216191641/http://library.freecapitalists.org/books/Ludwig%20M%20Lachmann/Macro-economic%20thinking%20and%20the%20Market%20Economy.pdf|archive-date=2014-12-16|access-date=2014-12-16}}</ref> | |||
Empirical research by economists regarding the accuracy of the Austrian business cycle theory has generated disparate conclusions, though mainstream research regarding the theory views the concept as inaccurate. In 1969, Milton Friedman argued that the theory is not consistent with empirical evidence.<ref>Friedman, Milton. "The Monetary Studies of the National Bureau, 44th Annual Report". The Optimal Quantity of Money and Other Essays. Chicago: Aldine. pp. 261–284.</ref> He analyzed the issue using newer data in 1993, and reached the same conclusion.<ref>Friedman, Milton. "The 'Plucking Model' of Business Fluctuations Revisited". Economic Inquiry: 171–177.</ref> Friedman's work has been published in widely reviewed publications and subject to the peer review of the academic community of economists. In 2001, Austrian economist James P. Keeler argued that the theory is consistent with empirical evidence.<ref name="springerlink.com">Keeler JP. (2001). . ''Review of Austrian Economics'' '''14''' (4).</ref> In 2006, Austrian economist Robert Mulligan argued that the theory is consistent with empirical evidence.<ref>https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&q=cache:Pu33JCHbURIJ:mises.org/journals/qjae/pdf/qjae9_2_4.pdf+austrian+business+cycle+theory+empirical+evidence+mulligan+pdf&hl=en&gl=us&pid=bl&srcid=ADGEESgSseKB9G5WJkN_4Q5ZY3LoTQhJ2hp14Js7bm60sB8sFXV5vjZQJiyhmOxE6soWOw4KlA4e6Ys8RAV18BN9x8Yq7Vlh1gQAOVed3Il7kJHdSoHcFM1J6tklyxusjUgOuCgA6Un1&sig=AHIEtbQpYFTa-TeOlHTrxRn_9DtBg3ASRw An Empirical Examination of Austrian Business Cycle Theory</ref> | |||
In the 20th century, various Austrians incorporated models and mathematics into their analysis. Austrian economist ] argued in 2000 that Austrian methodology is consistent with ] and that Austrian macroeconomics can be expressed in terms of ] foundations.<ref name="Horwitz, Steven 2000">Horwitz, Steven: ''Microfoundations and Macroeconomics: An Austrian Perspective'' (2000). Routledge.</ref> Austrian economist Roger Garrison writes that Austrian macroeconomic theory can be correctly expressed in terms of ].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://library.freecapitalists.org/books/Roger%20W%20Garrison/Austrian%20Macroeconomics%20A%20Diagrammatical%20Exposition.pdf|last=Garrison|first=Roger|title=Austrian Macroeconomics: A Diagrammatical Exposition|year=1978|publisher=Institute for Humane Studies|access-date=5 October 2015|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141216183224/http://library.freecapitalists.org/books/Roger%20W%20Garrison/Austrian%20Macroeconomics%20A%20Diagrammatical%20Exposition.pdf|archive-date=16 December 2014}}</ref> In 1944, Austrian economist Oskar Morgenstern presented a rigorous schematization of an ordinal utility function (the ]) in '']''.<ref>Von Neumann, John and Morgenstern, Oskar (1944). ''Theory of Games and Economic Behavior''. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press.</ref> | |||
According to most economic historians, economies have experienced less severe boom-bust cycles after World War II, because governments have addressed the problem of economic recessions.<ref name="Quiggin"/><ref name="Eckstein ">{{cite book|last=Eckstein |first=Otto |authorlink=Otto Eckstein|coauthors=Allen Sinai |title=The American Business Cycle: Continuity and Change|editor=Robert J. Gordon |publisher=University of Chicago Press|year=1990|chapter=1. The Mechanisms of the Business Cycle in the Postwar Period}}</ref><ref name="Chatterjee ">{{cite journal|last=Chatterjee |first=Satyajit |year=1999|title=Real business cycles: a legacy of countercyclical policies?|journal=Business Review.|publisher=Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia |issue=January 1999|pages=17–27|url=http://ideas.repec.org/cgi-bin/ref.cgi?handle=RePEc:fip:fedpbr:y:1999:i:jan:p:17-27&output=0|ref=harv}}</ref><ref name="Walsh ">{{cite web|url=http://www.frbsf.org/econrsrch/wklyltr/wklyltr99/el99-16.html|title=Changes in the Business Cycle|last=Walsh |first=Carl E. |date=May 14, 1999|work=FRBSF Economic Letter|publisher=Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco|accessdate=2008-09-16}}</ref> They argue that this has especially been true since the 1980s because central banks were granted more independence and started using ] to stabilize the business cycle, an event known as ].<ref>{{cite journal|last=Stock|first=James|coauthors=Mark Watson|title=Has the business cycle changed and why?|journal=NBER Macroeconomics Annual|year=2002|url=http://www.nber.org/chapters/c11075.pdf}}</ref> | |||
=== |
=== Fundamental tenets === | ||
In 1981, ] listed the typical views of Austrian economic thinking as such:<ref name="Machlup Mises">{{cite web |last=Machlup |first=Fritz |author-link=Fritz Machlup |title=Homage to Mises |url=https://www.mises.org/daily/1700 |publisher=Hillsdale College |access-date=8 August 2013 |pages=19–27 |year=1981 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131030222126/http://mises.org/daily/1700/ |archive-date=30 October 2013 }}</ref> | |||
According to the theory, a boom-bust cycle of malinvestment is generated by excessive and unsustainable credit expansion to businesses and individual borrowers by the ]s.<ref name="econlib.org">, Ludwig von Mises, Part III, Part IV</ref> This ] makes it appear as if the supply of "saved funds" ready for investment has increased, for the effect is the same: the supply of funds for investment purposes increases, and the ] is lowered.<ref name="The Mystery of Banking"/> Borrowers, in short, are misled by the bank ] into believing that the supply of saved funds (the pool of "deferred" funds ready to be invested) is greater than it really is. When the pool of "saved funds" increases, entrepreneurs invest in "longer process of production," i.e., the capital structure is lengthened, especially in the "higher orders", most remote from the consumer. Borrowers take their newly acquired funds and bid up the prices of capital and other producers' goods, which, in the theory, stimulates a shift of investment from consumer goods to capital goods industries. Austrians further contend that such a shift is unsustainable and must reverse itself in due course. Despite mainstream findings of evidence to the contrary,<ref name="Friedman93" /> proponents of the theory conclude that the longer the unsustainable shift in capital goods industries continues, the more violent and disruptive the necessary re-adjustment process. While agreeing with economist Tyler Cowen, Bryan Caplan has stated that he also denies "that the artificially stimulated investments have any tendency to become malinvestments."<ref name="caplan_abct"> | |||
* ''']''': in the explanation of economic phenomena, we have to go back to the actions (or inaction) of individuals; groups or "collectives" cannot act except through the actions of individual members. Groups do not think; people think. | |||
{{Cite web | |||
* '''Methodological subjectivism''': the judgments and choices made by individuals on the basis of whatever knowledge they have or believe to have, and whatever expectations they have regarding external developments and the consequences of their actions. | |||
| first = Bryan | |||
* '''Tastes and preferences''': subjective valuations of goods and services determine the demand for them so that their prices are influenced by consumers. | |||
| last = Caplan | |||
* ''']s''': the costs of the alternative opportunities that must be foregone; as productive services are employed for one purpose, all alternative uses have to be sacrificed. | |||
| title = What's Wrong With Austrian Business Cycle Theory | |||
* ''']''': in all economic designs, the values, costs, revenues, productivity and so on are determined by the significance of the last unit added to or subtracted from the total. | |||
| publisher = Liberty Fund, Inc. | |||
* '''Time structure of production and consumption''': decisions to save reflect "time preferences" regarding consumption in the immediate, distant, or indefinite future and investments are made in view of larger outputs expected to be obtained if more time-taking production processes are undertaken. | |||
| date = February 12, 2009 | |||
| url = http://econlog.econlib.org/archives/2008/01/whats_wrong_wit_6.html | |||
| format = news | |||
| accessdate = 2010-05-17}} | |||
</ref> | |||
He included two additional tenets held by the Mises branch of Austrian economics: | |||
The preference by entrepreneurs for longer term investments can be shown graphically by using any ] model. Lower interest rates increase the relative value of cash flows that come in the future. When modeling an investment opportunity, if interest rates are artificially low, entrepreneurs are led to believe the income they will receive in the future is sufficient to cover their near term investment costs. In simple terms, investments that would not make sense with a 10% cost of funds become feasible with a prevailing interest rate of 5% (and may become compelling for many entrepreneurs with a prevailing interest rate of 2%).{{Clarify|date=May 2010}}{{Dubious|date=May 2010}}<!-- This sentence implies that is discussing all investments --> | |||
* ''']''': the influence consumers have on the effective demand for goods and services and through the prices which result in free competitive markets, on the production plans of producers and investors, is not merely a hard fact but also an important objective, attainable only by complete avoidance of governmental interference with the markets and of restrictions on the freedom of sellers and buyers to follow their own judgment regarding quantities, qualities and prices of products and services. | |||
* ''']''': only when individuals are given full economic freedom will it be possible to secure political and moral freedom. Restrictions on economic freedom lead, sooner or later, to an extension of the coercive activities of the state into the political domain, undermining and eventually destroying the essential individual liberties which the capitalistic societies were able to attain in the 19th century. | |||
== Contributions to economic thought == | |||
The proportion of ] to saving or investment is determined by people's time preferences, which is the degree to which they prefer present to future satisfactions. Thus, the pure interest rate is determined by the time preferences of the individuals in society, and the final market rates of interest reflect the pure interest rate plus or minus the entrepreneurial risk and purchasing power components.<ref>, Ludwig von Mises, Part II</ref> | |||
=== Opportunity cost === | |||
{{main|Opportunity cost}} | |||
]]] | |||
The opportunity cost doctrine was first explicitly formulated by the Austrian economist ] in the late 19th century.<ref>{{Cite book |title=Subjectivism, intelligibility and economic understanding: essays in honor of Ludwig M. Lachmann on his eightieth birthday |last1=Kirzner |first1=Israel M. |last2=Lachman |first2=Ludwig M. |publisher=Macmillan |year=1986 |edition=Illustrated |isbn=978-0-333-41788-1}}</ref> Opportunity cost is the cost of any activity measured in terms of the value of the next best alternative foregone (that is not chosen). It is the sacrifice related to the second best choice available to someone, or group, who has picked among several ] choices.<ref name="investopedia">{{cite web |work=Investopedia |title=Opportunity Cost |url=http://www.investopedia.com/terms/o/opportunitycost.asp |access-date=2010-09-18| archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20100914214221/http://www.investopedia.com/terms/o/opportunitycost.asp| archive-date= 14 September 2010 | url-status= live}}</ref> Although a more ephemeral scarcity, expectations of the future must also be considered. Quantified as ], opportunity cost must also be valued with respect to one's preference for present versus future investments.<ref>{{Cite book |title=The Fiat Standard: The Debt Slavery Alternative to Human Civilization |last1=Ammous |first1=Saifedean |publisher=Saif House |year=2021 |edition=Printed |isbn=978-1544526478}}</ref> | |||
Opportunity cost is a key concept in mainstream ] and has been described as expressing "the basic relationship between ] and ]".<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |year=2008 |title=Opportunity cost |encyclopedia=The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics Online |url=http://www.dictionaryofeconomics.com/search_results?q=opportunity+cost&edition=current&button_search=GO |access-date=2010-09-18 |last=Buchanan |first=James M. |author-link=James M. Buchanan |edition=Second |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120118213136/http://www.dictionaryofeconomics.com/search_results?q=opportunity+cost&edition=current&button_search=GO |archive-date=2012-01-18 |url-status=live}}</ref> The notion of opportunity cost plays a crucial part in ensuring that resources are used efficiently.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.economist.com/research/Economics/alphabetic.cfm?letter=O#opportunitycost |title=Opportunity Cost |work=Economics A–Z |publisher=The Economist |access-date=2010-09-18 | archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20101009122334/http://www.economist.com/research/Economics/alphabetic.cfm?letter=O| archive-date= 9 October 2010 | url-status= live}}</ref> | |||
Many entrepreneurs can make the same mistake at the same time (i.e. many believe investment funds are really available for long term projects when in fact the pool of available funds has come from credit creation - not real savings out of the existing money supply) because the debasement of the ] is universal, . As they are all competing for the same pool of capital and market share, some entrepreneurs begin to borrow simply to avoid being "overrun" by other entrepreneurs who may take advantage of the lower interest rates to invest in more up-to-date capital infrastructure. A tendency towards over-investment and speculative borrowing in this "artificial" low interest rate environment is therefore almost inevitable.<ref name="econlib.org"/> | |||
=== Capital and interest === | |||
This new money then percolates downward from the business borrowers to the factors of production: to the landowners and capital owners who sold assets to the newly indebted ], and then to the other factors of production in wages, rent, and interest. Austrians conclude that, since time preferences have not changed, people will rush to reestablish the old proportions, and demand will shift back from the higher to the lower orders. In other words, depositors will tend to remove cash from the banking system and spend it (not save it), banks will then ask their borrowers for payment and interest rates and credit conditions will deteriorate.<ref name="econlib.org"/> | |||
{{see also|Capital and Interest|Marginalism|Neutrality of money|Time preference}} | |||
]]] | |||
The Austrian theory of capital and interest was first developed by ]. He stated that interest rates and profits are determined by two factors, namely ] in the market for final goods and time preference.<ref name="BohmBawerkEugen">Böhm-Bawerk, Eugen Ritter von; ''Kapital Und Kapitalizns. Zweite Abteilung: Positive Theorie des Kapitales'' (1889). Translated as ''Capital and Interest. II: Positive Theory of Capital'' with appendices rendered as ''Further Essays on Capital and Interest''.</ref> | |||
Böhm-Bawerk's theory equates ] with the degree of ] of production processes. Böhm-Bawerk also argued that the law of ] necessarily implies the classical law of costs. However, many Austrian economists such as ],<ref>Mises (1949)</ref> ],<ref>Kirzner (1996)</ref> ],<ref>Lachmann (1976)</ref> and ]<ref>Huerta De Soto (2006)</ref> entirely reject a productivity explanation for interest rates, viewing the average period of production as an unfortunate remnant of damaged classical economic thought on Böhm-Bawerk. | |||
Austrians argue that capital goods industries will find that their investments have been in error; that what they thought profitable really fails for lack of demand by their entrepreneurial customers. Higher orders of production will have turned out to be wasteful, and the malinvestment must be liquidated. In other words, the particular ''types'' of investments made during the monetary boom were inappropriate and "wrong" from the perspective of the long-term financial sustainability of the market because the price signals stimulating the investment were distorted by ]'s recursive lending "ballooning" the pricing structure in various capital markets. This concept is dependent on notion of the "heterogeneity of capital", where Austrians emphasize that the mere macroeconomic "total" of investment does not adequately capture whether this investment is genuinely sustainable or productive, due to the inability of the raw numbers to reveal the particular investment activities being undertaken and the inherent inability of the numbers to reveal whether these particular investment activities were appropriate and economically sustainable given people's real preferences.<ref name="Human Action">, Ludwig von Mises, p.572</ref> | |||
=== Inflation === | |||
Austrians argue that a boom taking place under these circumstances is actually a period of wasteful malinvestment, a "false boom" where the particular kinds of investments undertaken during the period of fiat money expansion are revealed to lead nowhere but to insolvency and unsustainability. It is the time when errors are made, when speculative borrowing has driven up prices for assets and capital to unsustainable levels, due to low interest rates "artificially" increasing the ] and triggering an unsustainable injection of ] "funds" available for investment into the system, thereby tampering with the complex pricing mechanism of the ]. "Real" savings would have required higher ] to encourage depositors to save their money in term deposits to invest in longer term projects under a stable money supply. According to Mises's work, the artificial stimulus caused by bank-created credit causes a generalized speculative investment bubble, not justified by the long-term structure of the market.<ref name="econlib.org"/> | |||
{{see also|Monetary inflation}} | |||
In Mises's definition, inflation is an increase in the supply of money:<ref>{{cite book |first=Ludwig |last=von Mises |chapter=Economic Freedom and Interventionism |editor1-first=Bettina B. |editor1-last=Greaves |title=Economics of Mobilization |publisher=The Commercial and Financial Chronicle |location=Sulphur Springs, West Virginia |year=1980 |chapter-url=https://mises.org/efandi/ch20.asp|quote="Inflation, as this term was always used everywhere and especially in this country, means increasing the quantity of money and bank notes in circulation and the quantity of bank deposits subject to check. But people today use the term "inflation" to refer to the phenomenon that is an inevitable consequence of inflation, that is the tendency of all prices and wage rates to rise. The result of this deplorable confusion is that there is no term left to signify the cause of this rise in prices and wages. There is no longer any word available to signify the phenomenon that has been, up to now, called inflation As you cannot talk about something that has no name, you cannot fight it. Those who pretend to fight inflation are in fact only fighting what is the inevitable consequence of inflation, rising prices. Their ventures are doomed to failure because they do not attack the root of the evil. They try to keep prices low while firmly committed to a policy of increasing the quantity of money that must necessarily make them soar. As long as this terminological confusion is not entirely wiped out, there cannot be any question of stopping inflation." |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140914001611/https://mises.org/efandi/ch20.asp |archive-date=2014-09-14 }}</ref> {{blockquote|In theoretical investigation there is only one meaning that can rationally be attached to the expression Inflation: an increase in the quantity of money (in the broader sense of the term, so as to include fiduciary media as well), that is not offset by a corresponding increase in the need for money (again in the broader sense of the term), so that a fall in the objective exchange-value of money must occur.<ref name="TheTheory">The Theory of Money and Credit, Mises (1912, , p. 272)</ref>}} | |||
Hayek claimed that inflationary stimulation exploits the lag between an increase in money supply and the consequent increase in the prices of goods and services: {{blockquote|And since any inflation, however modest at first, can help employment only so long as it accelerates, adopted as a means of reducing unemployment, it will do so for any length of time only while it accelerates. "Mild" steady inflation cannot help—it can lead only to outright inflation. That inflation at a constant rate soon ceases to have any stimulating effect, and in the end merely leaves us with a backlog of delayed adaptations, is the conclusive argument against the "mild" inflation represented as beneficial even in standard economics textbooks.<ref>{{cite book |last=Hayek |first=Friedrich August |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zZu3AAAAIAAJ&q=%22only+while+it+accelerates%22 |title=1980s Unemployment and the Unions: Essays on the Impotent Price Structure of Britain and Monopoly in the Labour Market |publisher=] |date=1984|isbn=9780255361736 }}</ref>}} | |||
Mises further argues that a "]" (or "]") arrives when the consumers come to reestablish their desired allocation of saving and consumption at prevailing interest rates.<ref name="Human Action"/><ref name="mises.org"/> Mises conjectured that the "recession" or "depression" is actually the process by which the economy adjusts to the wastes and errors of the monetary boom, and reestablishes efficient service of sustainable consumer desires.<ref name="Human Action"/><ref name="mises.org"/> | |||
Even prominent Austrian economists have been confused since Austrians define inflation as 'increase in money supply' while most people including most economists define inflation as 'rising prices'.<ref></ref> | |||
Austrians argue that continually expanding bank credit can keep the borrowers one step ahead of consumer retribution (with the help of successively lower interest rates from the ]). In the theory, this postpones the "day of reckoning" and defers the collapse of unsustainably inflated asset prices.<ref name="Human Action"/><ref name="goldensextant.com">, Robert K. Landis, 21 August 2004</ref> It can also be temporarily put off by deflation or ] such as the "cheap" or free acquisition of marketable resources by market participants and the banks funding the borrowing (such as the acquisition of land from local governments, or in extreme cases, the acquisition of foreign land through the waging of war).<ref>, Lew Rockwell</ref> | |||
=== Economic calculation problem === | |||
Austrians argue that the monetary boom ends when bank credit expansion finally stops - when no further investments can be found which provide adequate returns for speculative borrowers at prevailing interest rates. It is argued that the longer the "false" monetary boom goes on, the bigger and more speculative the borrowing, the more wasteful the errors committed and the longer and more severe will be the necessary bankruptcies, foreclosures and depression readjustment.<ref name="Human Action"/> | |||
{{main|Economic calculation problem}} | |||
]]] | |||
]]] | |||
The economic calculation problem refers to a criticism of ] which was first stated by ] in 1920. Mises subsequently discussed Weber's idea with his student Friedrich Hayek, who developed it in various works including '']''.<ref name=autogenerated5>{{cite book |title=Economic calculation in the Socialist Commonwealth |access-date=2008-09-08 |last=Von Mises |first=Ludwig |author-link=Ludwig von Mises |year=1990|publisher=] |url=https://mises.org/pdf/econcalc.pdf |isbn=0-945466-07-2 | archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20080923191714/https://mises.org/pdf/econcalc.pdf| archive-date= 23 September 2008 | url-status= live}}</ref><ref>F. A. Hayek (1935), "The Nature and History of the Problem" and "The Present State of the Debate," om in F. A. Hayek, ed. ''Collectivist Economic Planning'', pp. 1–40, 201–243.</ref> What the calculation problem essentially states is that without price signals, the ] cannot be allocated in the most efficient way possible, rendering planned economies inefficacious. | |||
Austrian theory emphasizes the ] of markets. Hayek stated that market prices reflect information, the totality of which is not known to any single individual, which determines the allocation of resources in an economy. Because socialist systems lack the individual incentives and ] processes by which individuals act on their personal information, Hayek argued that socialist economic planners lack all of the knowledge required to make optimal decisions. Those who agree with this criticism view it as a refutation of socialism, showing that socialism is not a viable or sustainable form of economic organization. The debate rose to prominence in the 1920s and 1930s and that specific period of the debate has come to be known by historians of economic thought as the ].<ref name="School">{{Cite web|url=http://cepa.newschool.edu/het/essays/paretian/social.htm|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090218142504/http://cepa.newschool.edu/het/essays/paretian/social.htm|url-status=dead|title=The socialist calculation debate|archive-date=February 18, 2009|access-date=May 20, 2020}}</ref> | |||
It is important to point out that Austrians do not argue that fiscal restraint or "austerity" will immediately bring about economic growth.<ref name="ReferenceA">'']'', ]</ref> Rather, they argue that all attempts by central governments to prop up asset prices or "stimulate" the economy with deficit spending will only make the misallocations and malinvestments worse, prolonging the depression and adjustment necessary to return to stable growth.<ref name="ReferenceA"/> It is also important to point out that Austrians do not argue that all recessions are caused by excessive and unsustainable credit expansion or that an excessive and unsustainable credit expansion is only possible with fractional reserve banking. | |||
Mises argued in a 1920 essay "]" that the pricing systems in socialist economies were necessarily deficient because if the government owned the ], then no prices could be obtained for ]s as they were merely internal transfers of goods in a socialist system and not "objects of exchange", unlike final goods. Therefore, they were unpriced and hence the system would be necessarily inefficient since the central planners would not know how to allocate the available resources efficiently.<ref name="School" /> This led him to write "that rational economic activity is impossible in a socialist commonwealth".<ref name="Mises">{{Cite web |author=von Mises |first=Ludwig |title=The Principle of Methodological Individualism |url=https://mises.org/humanaction/chap2sec4.asp |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090422004804/https://mises.org/humanaction/chap2sec4.asp |archive-date=22 April 2009 |access-date=2009-04-24 |work=Human Action |publisher=Ludwig von Mises Institute}}</ref> | |||
====The role of central banks==== | |||
Austrians generally argue that inherently damaging and ineffective central bank policies, including unsustainable expansion of bank credit through ], are the predominant cause of most business cycles, as they tend to set artificial interest rates too low for too long, resulting in excessive credit creation, speculative "]", and artificially low savings.<ref>Thorsten Polleit, , 13 December 2007</ref> Under ] systems, a ] creates new money when it lends to member banks, and this money is multiplied many times over through the ] process of the private ]s. This new bank-created money enters the loan market and provides a lower rate of interest than that which would prevail if the ] were stable.<ref name="econlib.org"/><ref name="The Mystery of Banking">, Murray Rothbard, 1983</ref> However, Murray Rothbard paid particular attention to the role of central banks in creating an environment of loose credit prior to the onset of the ], and the subsequent ineffectiveness of central bank policies, which simply delayed necessary price adjustments and prolonged market dysfunction.<ref name="ReferenceA"/> Rothbard begins with the premise that in a market with no centralized monetary authority, there would be no simultaneous cluster of malinvestments or entrepreneurial errors, since astute ]s would not all make errors at the same time and would quickly take advantage of any temporary, isolated mispricing. In addition, in an ], non-centralized (uninsured) capital market, astute bankers would shy away from speculative lending and uninsured depositors would carefully monitor the balance sheets of risky financial institutions, tempering any speculative excesses that arose sporadically in the finance markets. In Rothbard's view, the cycle of generalized malinvestment is greatly exacerbated by centralized monetary intervention in the money markets by the ]. Such propositions from Rothbard prompted criticism from Bryan Caplan, who questions "Why does Rothbard think businessmen are so incompetent at forecasting government policy? He credits them with entrepreneurial foresight about all market-generated conditions, but curiously finds them unable to forecast government policy, or even to avoid falling prey to simple accounting illusions generated by inflation and deflation... Particularly in interventionist economies, it would seem that natural selection would weed out businesspeople with such a gigantic blind spot."<ref name="caplan_abct" /> | |||
=== Business cycles === | |||
Rothbard argues that an over-encouragement to borrow and lend is initiated by the mispricing of credit via the ]'s centralized control over interest rates and its need to protect banks from periodic ] (which Austrians believe then causes interest rates to be set too low for too long when compared to the rates that would prevail in a genuine non-] dominated ]).<ref name="econlib.org"/><ref name="mises.org">, Thorsten Polleit, 13 December 2007</ref> | |||
{{Macroeconomics sidebar}} | |||
{{main|Austrian business cycle theory}} | |||
The Austrian theory of the ] (ABCT) focuses on banks' issuance of credit as the cause of economic fluctuations.<ref name="ReferenceA">], ''].''</ref> Although later elaborated by Hayek and others, the theory was first set forth by Mises, who posited that fractional reserve banks extend credit at artificially low interest rates, causing businesses to invest in relatively ] production processes which leads to an artificial "boom". Mises stated that this artificial "boom" then led to a misallocation of resources which he called "]" – which eventually must end in a "bust".<ref name="ReferenceA"/> | |||
Mises surmised that government manipulation of money and credit in the banking system throws savings and investment out of balance, resulting in misdirected investment projects that are eventually found to be unsustainable, at which point the economy has to rebalance itself through a period of corrective recession.<ref name=":1">{{Cite book |last=Ebeling |first=Richard |title=Austrian Economics and Public Policy: Restoring Freedom and Prosperity |publisher=The Future of Freedom Foundation |year=2016 |location=Fairfax, Virginia |pages=217}}</ref> Austrian economist Fritz Machlup summarized the Austrian view by stating, "monetary factors cause the cycle but real phenomena constitute it."<ref name=":2">{{Cite journal|last=Hughes|first=Arthur Middleton|date=March 1997|title=The recession of 1990: An Austrian explanation|journal=The Review of Austrian Economics|language=en|volume=10|issue=1|pages=107–123|doi=10.1007/BF02538145|s2cid=154412906|issn=0889-3047}}</ref> This may be unrealistic since successful entrepreneurs will realise that interest rates are artificially low and will adjust their investment decisions based on projected long term interest rates.<ref name="Caplan"></ref> | |||
===Capital and interest=== | |||
For Austrians, the only prudent strategy for government is to leave money and the financial system to the free market's competitive forces to eradicate the business cycle's inflationary booms and recessionary busts, allowing markets to keep people's saving and investment decisions in place for well-coordinated economic stability and growth.<ref name=":1" /> | |||
]]] | |||
A ] would suggest government intervention during a recession to inject spending into the economy when people will not. However, the heart of Austrian macroeconomic theory assumes the government "fine tuning" through expansions and contractions in the money supply orchestrated by the government are actually the cause of business cycles because of the differing impact of the resulting interest rate changes on different stages in the structure of production.<ref name=":2" /> Austrian economist Thomas Woods further supports this view by arguing it is not consumption, but rather production that should be emphasized. A country cannot become rich by consuming, and therefore, by using up all their resources. Instead, production is what enables consumption as a possibility in the first place, since a producer would be working for nothing, if not for the desire to consume.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Woods |first=Thomas |title=Meltdown: The Classic Free-Market Analysis of the 2008 Financial Crisis |publisher=Regnery Publishing, Incorporated |year=2018 |location=Washington, D.C.}}</ref> | |||
The Austrian theory of capital and interest was created by Böhm-Bawerk. He created the theory as a response to Marx's theories on capital. Böhm-Bawerk's theory centered on the untenability of the labor theory of value in the light of the ]. He also argued that capitalists do not exploit workers; they ''accommodate'' workers by providing them with income well in advance of the revenue from the output they helped to produce. Böhm-Bawerk's theory equates ] with the degree of ] of production processes. Böhm-Bawerk also argued that the law of ] necessarily implies the classical law of costs. He created a theory of interest and of profit in equilibrium based upon the interaction of diminishing marginal utility with diminishing ]ivity of time and time preferences.<ref>Böhm-Bawerk, Eugen Ritter von; ''Kapital Und Kapitalizns. Zweite Abteilung: Positive Theorie des Kapitales'' (1889). Translated as ''Capital and Interest. II: Positive Theory of Capital'' with appendices rendered as ''Further Essays on Capital and Interest''.</ref> | |||
====Central banks==== | |||
Austrians therefore reject the notion that interest rates are determined by ]. In his book '']'', Rothbard argued that interest rates are instead determined by ]. Says Rothbard, "Increased hoarding can either come from funds formerly consumed, from funds formerly invested, or from a mixture of both that leaves the old consumption-investment proportion unchanged. Unless time preferences change, the last alternative will be the one adopted. Thus, the rate of interest depends solely on time preference, and not at all on "liquidity preference." In fact, if the increased hoards come mainly out of consumption, an increased demand for money will cause interest rates to fall—because time preferences have fallen."<ref>http://mises.org/resources.aspx?Id=3f01a478-6773-41a6-8f32-feab9b46999f</ref> | |||
According to ], ]s enable the ]s to fund loans at artificially low interest rates, thereby inducing an unsustainable expansion of bank credit and impeding any subsequent contraction and argued for a ] to constrain growth in fiduciary media.<ref name="ReferenceA"/> ] took a different perspective not focusing on gold but focusing on regulation of the banking sector via strong ].<ref>{{cite journal|last=White|first=Lawrence H.|title=Why Didn't Hayek Favor Laissez Faire in Banking?|journal=History of Political Economy|year=1999|volume=31|issue=4|url=http://cameroneconomics.com/white-hayek-hope.pdf|access-date=11 April 2013|doi=10.1215/00182702-31-4-753|pages=753–769|url-status=live|archive-url=http://archive.wikiwix.com/cache/20130412141059/http://cameroneconomics.com/white-hayek-hope.pdf|archive-date=12 April 2013}}</ref> | |||
Some economists argue money is ], and argue that this refutes the ]. However, this would simply shift the brunt of the blame from central banks to private banks when it comes to credit expansion; the fundamental underlying issue would be the same, and a free-market full-reserve system would still be the fix. | |||
===Economic calculation problem=== | |||
]]] | |||
{{Main|Economic calculation problem}} | |||
The economic calculation problem is a criticism of ]. It was first proposed by ] in 1920. This led to Ludwig von Mises discussing Weber's idea with his student Friedrich Hayek, who expanded upon it to such an extent that it became a key reason cited for the awarding of his Nobel prize.<ref name=autogenerated5>{{cite book |title=Economic calculation in the Socialist Commonwealth |accessdate=2008-09-08 |last=Von Mises |first=Ludwig |authorlink=Ludwig von Mises |year=1990|format=PDF |publisher=] |url=http://mises.org/pdf/econcalc.pdf |isbn=0-945466-07-2 }}</ref><ref>F. A. Hayek, (1935), "The Nature and History of the Problem" and "The Present State of the Debate," om in F. A. Hayek, ed. ''Collectivist Economic Planning'', pp. 1–40, 201–243.</ref> The problem referred to is that of how to distribute resources rationally in an economy. The capitalist solution is the price mechanism; Mises and Hayek argued that this is the only viable solution, as the price mechanism co-ordinates supply and investment decisions most efficiently. Without the information efficiently and effectively provided by market prices, socialism lacks a method to efficiently allocate resources over an extended period of time in any market where the price mechanism is effective (an example where the price mechanism may not work is in the relatively confined area of ] and ]). Those who agree with this criticism argue it is a refutation of socialism and that it shows that a socialist ] could never work in the long term for the vast bulk of the economy and has very limited potential application. The debate raged in the 1920s and 1930s, and that specific period of the debate has come to be known by historians of economic thought as ''The Socialist Calculation Debate.''<ref name="School">{{Dead link|date=August 2011}}</ref> | |||
== See also == | |||
Ludwig von Mises argued in a famous 1920 article "]" that the pricing systems in socialist economies were necessarily deficient because if government owned the ], then no prices could be obtained for ] as they were merely internal transfers of goods in a socialist system and not "objects of exchange," unlike final goods. Therefore, they were unpriced and hence the system would be necessarily inefficient since the central planners would not know how to allocate the available resources efficiently.<ref name="School" /> This led him to declare "…that rational economic activity is impossible in a socialist commonwealth."<ref name="Mises">{{cite web|url=http://mises.org/humanaction/chap2sec4.asp|author=Ludwig von Mises|title=The Principle of Methodological Individualism|work=Human Action|publisher=Ludwig von Mises Institute|accessdate=2009-04-24}}</ref> Mises's declaration has been criticized as overstating the strength of his case, in describing socialism as impossible, rather than having to contend with a source of inefficiency.<ref name="Caplan" /><ref name="Caplan_soc">{{cite journal |last1=Caplan |first1=Bryan |title=Is socialism really "impossible"? |journal=Critical Review |volume=16 |pages=33–52 |year=2004 |doi=10.1080/08913810408443598 |ref=harv}}</ref> | |||
{{cols|colwidth=14em}} | |||
* ] | |||
===Inflation=== | |||
* ] | |||
]]] | |||
* ]<ref name="Paul2009">{{cite book|author=Ron Paul|title=End the Fed|url=https://archive.org/details/endfed00paul|url-access=registration|date=2009|publisher=Grand Central Publishing}}</ref> | |||
* ] | |||
Ludwig von Mises argues that inflation only results when the supply of money outpaces demand for money: | |||
* ] | |||
* ] | |||
:In theoretical investigation there is only one meaning that can rationally be attached to the expression Inflation: an increase in the quantity of money (in the broader sense of the term, so as to include fiduciary media as well), that is not offset by a corresponding increase in the need for money (again in the broader sense of the term), so that a fall in the objective exchange-value of money must occur.<ref>The Theory of Money and Credit, Mises (1912, , p. 272)</ref> | |||
* ] | |||
* ] | |||
While supporters of ] maintain the above definition, Murray Rothbard argued that inflation is by definition always and everywhere an increase in the money supply (i.e. units of currency or ]), which in turn leads to a nominal price level that is higher than it would have been without the inflation, for assets (such as housing) and other goods and services in demand, as the real value of each monetary unit is eroded, loses purchasing power and thus buys fewer goods and services. | |||
* ] | |||
Given that all major economies currently have a ] supporting the private banking system, money can be supplied into these economies by way of bank-created ] (or ]).<ref>, Jorg Guido Hulsmann (includes detailed commentary on central banking, inflation and ])</ref> Austrians therefore regard the ]-sponsored central bank as the main cause of inflation, because they regard the bank as the institution charged with the creation of new money.<ref>, Gary North</ref>{{Verify credibility|date=August 2011}}<!--while North is listed as a contributor on the lewrockwell.com site, nothing is provided about his background--> When newly created ] are injected into the ] system, private financial institutions generally choose to further expand the level of bank credit, which multiplies the inflationary effect many times over.<ref>Charles T. Hatch, ’’Inflationary Deception’’ http://mises.org/journals/scholar/hatch.pdf</ref> | |||
The Austrian School also views the "contemporary" definition of inflation as inherently misleading in that it draws attention only to the ''effect'' of inflation (rising prices) and does not address the "true" phenomenon of inflation, which they believe simply involves an increase in the money supply (or the debasement of the means of exchange). They argue that this semantic difference is important in defining inflation and finding a cure for inflation. Austrians maintain the most effective cure is the strict maintenance of a stable money supply.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://mises.org/story/908 |title=Defining Inflation |accessdate=2008-09-20 |last=Shostak, Ph.D |first=Frank |date=2002-03-02 |publisher=Mises Institute }}</ref> Ludwig von Mises, the seminal scholar of the Austrian School, argues that: | |||
<blockquote> | |||
Inflation, as this term was always used everywhere and especially in this country, means increasing the quantity of money and bank notes in circulation and the quantity of bank deposits subject to check. But people today use the term "inflation" to refer to the phenomenon that is an inevitable consequence of inflation, that is the tendency of all prices and wage rates to rise. The result of this deplorable confusion is that there is no term left to signify the cause of this rise in prices and wages. There is no longer any word available to signify the phenomenon that has been, up to now, called inflation. . . . As you cannot talk about something that has no name, you cannot fight it. Those who pretend to fight inflation are in fact only fighting what is the inevitable consequence of inflation, rising prices. Their ventures are doomed to failure because they do not attack the root of the evil. They try to keep prices low while firmly committed to a policy of increasing the quantity of money that must necessarily make them soar. As long as this terminological confusion is not entirely wiped out, there cannot be any question of stopping inflation.<ref>{{Cite book |first=Ludwig |last=von Mises |chapter=Economic Freedom and Interventionism |editor1-first=Bettina B. |editor1-last=Greaves |title=Economics of Mobilization |publisher=The Commercial and Financial Chronicle |location=Sulphur Springs, West Virginia |pages= |year=1980 |isbn= |chapterurl=http://mises.org/efandi/ch20.asp |ref=harv}}</ref> | |||
</blockquote> | |||
Following their definition, Austrians measure inflation by calculating the growth of what they call "the true money supply", i.e. how many new units of money which are available for immediate use in exchange have been created over a specified period of time.<ref>Ludwig von Mises Institute, ""</ref><ref>Joseph T. Salerno, (1987), Austrian Economic Newsletter, ""</ref><ref>Frank Shostak, (2000), ""</ref> | |||
This interpretation of inflation implies that, within a centralized banking system, inflation is usually the result of action taken by the central government or its central bank,<ref>, Frank Shostak</ref> which permits or allows an increase in the money supply.<ref>Ludwig von Mises, ", ISBN 978-0-913966-70-9 See also: Jesus Huerta de Soto, "", ISBN 978-1-933550-39-8</ref> Mises includes bank credit as a significant contributor to inflation; the value of bank credit generated by private financial institutions and held within checking accounts greatly exceeds the value of physical paper bills and metallic coins issued by the Federal government (see Figure 1). In addition to state-induced monetary expansion via printing of paper money, Austrians also maintain that the effects of increasing the money supply are exacerbated by the credit expansion performed by private financial institutions practising fractional-reserve banking system, legally permitted in most economic and financial systems in the world.<ref>Murray Rothbard, "{{dead link|date=November 2011}}", ISBN 978-0-945466-44-4</ref> | |||
Austrians hold that states use ] as one of the three means by which it can fund its activities, the other two being taxing and borrowing.<ref>], interview on "{{dead link|date=November 2011}}"</ref> Therefore, Austrians often seek to identify reasons why the state resorts to allowing the creation new money (whether ] or electronic money) and what the new money is used for. Various forms of spending are often cited as reasons for resorting to inflation and borrowing, as this can be a short term way of acquiring marketable resources and is often favored by desperate, indebted governments.<ref>Lew Rockwell, "", Ludwig von Mises Institute</ref> In other cases, the central bank may try avoid or defer the widespread bankruptcies and insolvencies which cause economic recessions by artificially trying to "stimulate" the economy through money supply growth and further borrowing via artificially low interest rates.<ref>Thorsten Polleit, "", 13 December 2007</ref> | |||
Accordingly, many Austrians support the abolition of the central banks and the fractional-reserve banking system, advocating either a ] or that the market should choose what is used as money.<ref>The Daily Bell, ''Lew Rockwell on von Mises, Ron Paul, Free-Markets and the Future of Freedom'', http://thedailybell.com/830/Lew-Rockwell-Ludwig-von-Mises-Ron-Paul-Free-Markets.html</ref><ref>The Daily Bell, ''Dr. Joseph Salerno Explains Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Money (But Were Afraid to Ask)''http://www.thedailybell.com/2602/Anthony-Wile-Dr-Joseph-Salerno-Explains-Everything-You-Ever-Wanted-to-Know-About-Money-But-Were-Afraid-to-Ask</ref> | |||
At the beginning of his career Alan Greenspan, former chairman of the ], was also a strong advocate of the gold standard as a protector of economic liberty: | |||
<blockquote> | |||
In the absence of the gold standard, there is no way to protect savings from confiscation through inflation. There is no safe store of value. If there were, the government would have to make its holding illegal, as was done in the case of gold. If everyone decided, for example, to convert all his bank deposits to silver or copper or any other good, and thereafter declined to accept checks as payment for goods, bank deposits would lose their purchasing power and government-created bank credit would be worthless as a claim on goods. The financial policy of the welfare state requires that there be no way for the owners of wealth to protect themselves. | |||
This is the shabby secret of the welfare statists' tirades against gold. Deficit spending is simply a scheme for the confiscation of wealth. Gold stands in the way of this insidious process. It stands as a protector of property rights. If one grasps this, one has no difficulty in understanding the statists' antagonism toward the gold standard.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.321gold.com/fed/greenspan/1966.html |title=Gold and Economic Freedom |accessdate=2008-09-20 |last=Greenspan |first=Alan |year=1966 |work=The Objectivist }}</ref> | |||
</blockquote> | |||
Advocates argued that the gold standard would constrain unsustainable and volatile fractional-reserve banking practices, ensuring that money supply growth ("inflation") would never spiral out of control.<ref>Murray Rothbard, ""</ref><ref>Ludwig von Mises Institute, ""</ref> Ludwig von Mises argues that civil liberties would be better protected: | |||
<blockquote> | |||
It is impossible to grasp the meaning of the idea of ] if one does not realize that it was devised as an instrument for the protection of civil liberties against despotic inroads on the part of governments. Ideologically it belongs in the same class with political constitutions and bills of rights. The demand for constitutional guarantees and for bills of rights was a reaction against arbitrary rule and the nonobservance of old customs by kings.<ref>{{cite book |last=von Mises |first=Ludwig |authorlink=Ludwig von Mises |coauthors= |title=The Theory of Money and Credit |publisher=Liberty Fund, Inc. |date=1981-07-01 |location= |pages=Chapter 21 |url=http://mises.org/story/2276 |doi= |id= |isbn=978-0-913966-71-6 |nopp=true }}</ref> | |||
</blockquote> | |||
===Opportunity cost=== | |||
]]] | |||
{{Main|Opportunity cost}} | |||
The opportunity cost doctrine was first explicitly formulated by the Austrian economist Friedrich von Wieser in the late 19th century.<ref>{{Cite book |title=Subjectivism, intelligibility and economic understanding: essays in honor of Ludwig M. Lachmann on his eightieth birthday |last1=Kirzner |first1=Israel M. |last2=Lachman |first2=Ludwig M. |publisher=McMillan |year=1986 |edition=Illustrated |isbn=978-0-333-41788-1}}</ref> Opportunity cost is the cost of any activity measured in terms of the value of the next best alternative foregone (that is not chosen). It is the sacrifice related to the second best choice available to someone, or group, who has picked among several ] choices.<ref>{{cite web |work=Investopedia |title=Opportunity Cost |url=http://www.investopedia.com/terms/o/opportunitycost.asp |accessdate=2010-09-18}}</ref> The opportunity cost is also the cost of the foregone products after making a choice. Opportunity cost is a key concept in ], and has been described as expressing "the basic relationship between ] and ]".<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |url=http://www.dictionaryofeconomics.com/search_results?q=opportunity+cost&edition=current&button_search=GO |title=Opportunity cost |encyclopedia=The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics Online |author=James M. Buchanan |authorlink=James M. Buchanan |year=2008 |edition=Second |accessdate=2010-09-18 }}</ref> The notion of opportunity cost plays a crucial part in ensuring that scarce resources are used efficiently.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.economist.com/research/Economics/alphabetic.cfm?letter=O#opportunitycost |title=Opportunity Cost |work=Economics A-Z |publisher=The Economist |accessdate=2010-09-18 }}</ref> Thus, opportunity costs are not restricted to monetary or financial costs: the ] of ], lost time, pleasure or any other benefit that provides ] should also be considered opportunity costs. | |||
==Influence== | |||
Many theories developed by "first wave" Austrian economists have been absorbed by mainstream economics. These include Carl Menger's work on marginal utility, Friedrich von Wieser's work on opportunity cost, and Eugen von Böhm-Bawerk's work on time preference, as well as Menger and Böhm-Bawerk's criticisms of ]. | |||
The former ] Chairman, ], speaking of the originators of the School, said in 2000, "the Austrian School have reached far into the future from when most of them practiced and have had a profound and, in my judgment, probably an irreversible effect on how most mainstream economists think in this country."<ref>Greenspan, Alan. "Hearings before the U.S. House of Representatives' Committee on Financial Services." U.S. House of Representatives' Committee on Financial Services. Washington D.C.. 25 July 2000.</ref> Nobel Laureate ] has stated that he would not object to being identified as an Austrian economist.<ref>{{cite news | url = http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/15/business/worldbusiness/15iht-15crichton.20189579.html?_r=3 | work=The New York Times | title=Economic lessons from Lenin's seer | first=Kyle | last=Crichton | date=2009-02-15}}</ref><ref></ref><ref> Austrian Economics Newsletter: Volume 9, Number 1; Fall 1987</ref> ] U.S. congressman ] is a firm believer in Austrian School economics and has authored six books on the subject.<ref></ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Paul |first=Ron |authorlink=Ron Paul |title=] |publisher=Grand Central Publishing |year=2008 |isbn=978-0-446-53751-3 |page=102}}</ref> Paul's former economic adviser, ],<ref>{{cite news | url = http://www.reuters.com/article/pressRelease/idUS255917+25-Jan-2008+BW20080125 | work=Reuters | title=Peter Schiff Named Economic Advisor to the Ron Paul 2008 Presidential Campaign | date=2008-01-25}}</ref> is an adherent of the Austrian School.<ref></ref> ], investor and financial commentator, also considers himself of the Austrian School of economics.<ref>''Inside the House of Money: Top Hedge Fund Traders on Profiting in the Global Markets''. 2006. Wiley. p. 230</ref> Chinese economist ], who is known in China for his advocacy of ], supports some Austrian theories such as the Austrian theory of the business cycle.<ref>Weiyin, Zhang, "Completely bury Keynesianism", http://finance.sina.com.cn/20090217/10345864499_3.shtml (February 17, 2009)</ref> Currently, universities with a significant Austrian presence are ], ], and ] in the United States and ] in Guatemala. Austrian economic ideas are also promoted by bodies such as the ] and the ]. | |||
==Criticisms== | |||
===General criticisms=== | |||
Some economists have argued that Austrians are often averse to the use of mathematics and statistics in economics.<ref name="white1"/> | |||
Economist Bryan Caplan argues that Austrians have often misunderstood modern economics, causing them to overstate their differences with it. For example, many Austrians object to the use of ] in microeconomic theory; however, microeconomic theorists go to great pains to show that their results hold for all strictly ] transformations of utility, and so are true for purely ].<ref name="Caplan_ord">{{cite web|url=http://www.gmu.edu/departments/economics/bcaplan/whyaust.htm|title=Why I Am Not an Austrian Economist |last=Caplan |first=Bryan |publisher=] |accessdate=2008-07-04 | quote=According to Rothbard, the mainstream approach credulously accepted the use of cardinal utility, when only the use of ordinal utility is defensible. As Rothbard insists, "Value scales of each individual are purely ordinal, and there is no way whatever of measuring the distance between the rankings; indeed, any concept of such distance is a fallacious one." ...As plausible as Rothbard sounds on this issue, he simply does not understand the position he is attacking. The utility function approach is based as squarely on ordinal utility as Rothbard's is. The modern neoclassical theorists - such as Arrow and Debreau - who developed the utility function approach went out of their way to avoid the use of cardinal utility. ...To sum up, Rothbard falsely accused neoclassical utility theory of assuming cardinality. It does not.}}</ref><ref name="Caplan_journal">{{cite journal |first=Bryan |last=Caplan |title=The Austrian Search for Realistic Foundations |publisher=Southern Economic Association |journal=Southern Economic Journal |month=Apr |year=1999 |pages=823–838 |volume=65 |issue=4 |ref=harv |doi=10.2307/1061278 |jstor=1061278 }}</ref> The result is that conclusions about utility preferences hold no matter what values are assigned to them. | |||
Paul Krugman has stated that because Austrians do not use "explicit models" they are unaware of holes in their own thinking.<ref name="Krugman 2">{{cite web|url=http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/04/07/martin-and-the-austrians |title=The Conscience of a Liberal: Martin And The Austrians |last=Krugman |first=Paul |date=4-7-2010 |publisher='']'' |accessdate=9-21-2011}}</ref> | |||
Economist Benjamin Klein has criticized the economic methodological work of Austrian economist ]. While praising Kirzner for highlighting shortcomings in traditional methodology, Klein argued that Kirzner did not provide a viable alternative for economic methodology.<ref>Klein, Benjamin. "Book review: ''Competition and Entrepreneurship''" (by ], University of Chicago Press, 1973) '']''. Vol. 83: No. 6, 1305–1306, December 1975.<!--JSTOR has the first page of Klein's review at http://www.jstor.org/pss/1830872. Can this be used as a reference instead please? --></ref> | |||
===Methodology=== | |||
Mainstream economists generally argue that Austrian economics lacks scientific rigor, rejects the scientific method, and rejects the use of empirical data.<ref name="Caplan"/><ref name="white1">{{Cite journal |title=The research program of Austrian economics |publisher=Emerald Group Publishing Limited |first=Lawrence H. |last=White |journal=Advances in Austrian Economics |year=2008 |page=20 |ref=harv }}</ref><ref name="Newton1999">"Rules for the study of ]", {{harvnb |Newton |1999 |pp=794–6 }}, from Book '''3''', ''The System of the World''.</ref> Some economists describe Austrian methodology as being '']'' or ].<ref name="Caplan" /><ref name="Mayer1998">{{cite journal | |||
|first=Thomas |last=Mayer |title=Boettke's Austrian critique of mainstream economics: An empiricist's response |publisher=Routledge | |||
|journal=Critical Review |month=Winter |year=1998 |pages=151–171 |ref=harv}}</ref><ref name="white1"> | |||
{{Cite journal |title=The research program of Austrian economics |publisher=Emerald Group Publishing Limited |first=Lawrence H. | |||
|last=White |journal=Advances in Austrian Economics |year=2008 |page=20 |ref=harv |postscript= }}</ref><ref name="tremble">{{cite journal |first=Paul A. |last=Samuelson |title=Theory and Realism: A Reply |publisher=] |journal=The ] |month=Sep |year=1964 |pages=736–739 |quote=Well, in connection with the exaggerated claims that used to be made in economics for the power of deduction and a priori reasoning ..... – I tremble for the reputation of my subject. Fortunately, we have left that behind us. |ref=harv}}</ref> | |||
] has argued that Austrians have advocated a rejection of ] which involve directly using empirical data in the development of (falsifiable) ]; application of empirical data is fundamental to the scientific method.<ref name="Mayer1998" /><ref name="Newton1999" /> | |||
] has criticized over-reliance on methodological individualism, arguing it would rule out all macroeconomic propositions that cannot be reduced to microeconomic ones, and hence reject almost the whole of received macroeconomics.<ref name=Blaug>{{cite book|last=Blaug|first=Mark|title=The Methodology of Economics: Or, How Economists Explain|year=1992|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=0-521-43678-8|pages=45–46}}</ref> | |||
===Business cycle theory=== | |||
According to most mainstream economists, the Austrian business cycle theory is incorrect.<ref name="Quiggin">{{cite web |url= http://johnquiggin.com/index.php/archives/2009/05/03/austrian-business-cycle-theory/ |title=John Quiggin " Austrian Business Cycle Theory |work=johnquiggin.com |accessdate=19 July 2010 }}</ref> | |||
Some mainstream economists argue that the Austrian business cycle theory requires bankers and investors to exhibit a kind of irrationality, because their theory requires bankers to be regularly fooled into making unprofitable investments by temporarily low interest rates.<ref name="Caplan"/><ref name="Tullock1988"/><ref></ref> In response, author ] has argued that few bankers and investors are familiar enough with the Austrian business cycle theory to consistently make sound investment decisions. Austrian economists Anthony Carilli and Gregory Dempster have also argued that a banker or firm loses market share if it does not borrow or loan at a magnitude consistent with current interest rates, regardless of whether rates are below their natural levels. Thus businesses are forced to operate as though rates were set appropriately, because the consequence of a single entity deviating would be a loss of business.<ref name="Austrian Economics 2008, pages 271-281"/> Austrian economist Robert Murphy has also argued that it is difficult for bankers and investors to make sound business choices because they cannot know what the interest rate would be if it were set by the market.<ref name="http://mises.org/daily/3466"/> | |||
Paul Krugman has argued that the theory cannot explain changes in unemployment over the business cycle. Austrian business cycle theory postulates that business cycles are caused by the misallocation of resources from consumption to investment during "booms", and out of investment during "busts". Krugman argues that because total spending is equal to total income in an economy, the theory implies that the reallocation of resources during "busts" would increase employment in consumption industries, whereas in reality, spending declines in all sectors of an economy during recessions. He also argues that according to the theory the initial "booms" would also cause resource reallocation, which implies an increase in unemployment during booms as well.<ref name="Krugman" /> In response, Austrian economist ] has argued that prices on consumption goods may go up as a result of the investment bust, which could mean that the amount spent on consumption could increase even though the quantity of goods consumed has not.<ref></ref> Furthermore, many Austrians argue that capital allocated to investment goods cannot be quickly augmented to create consumption goods.{{citation needed|date=January 2012}} | |||
Economist Jeffery Hummel is critical of Hayek's explanation of labor asymmetry in booms and busts. He argues that Hayek makes peculiar assumptions about demand curves for labor in his explanation of how a decrease in investment spending creates unemployment. He also argues that the labor asymmetry can be explained in terms of a change in real wages, but this explanation fails to explain the business cycle in terms of resource allocation.<ref name="Hummel">{{cite web|url=http://www.reasonpapers.com/pdf/05/rp_5_4.pdf ''Reason Papers'' |title=Problems with Austrian Business Cycle Theory |last=Hummel |first=Jeffery Rogers|date=Winter 1979|format=PDF |pages=41–53|accessdate=9-17-2011}}</ref> | |||
Hummel also argues that the Austrian explanation of the business cycle fails on empirical grounds. In particular, he notes that investment spending remained positive in all recessions where there are data, except for the ]. He argues that this casts doubt on the notion that recessions are caused by a reallocation of resources from industrial production to consumption, since he argues that the Austrian business cycle theory implies that net investment should be below zero during recessions.<ref name="Hummel"/> In response, Austrian economist ] argues that the misallocation during booms does not preclude the possibility of demand increasing overall.<ref>http://www.reasonpapers.com/pdf/30/rp_30_4.pdf</ref> | |||
Critics have also argued that, as the Austrian business cycle theory points to the actions of fractional-reserve banks and central banks to explain the business cycles, it fails to explain the severity of business cycles before the establishment of the ] in 1913.<ref name="Quiggin"/> Supporters of the Austrian business cycle theory respond that the theory applies to the expansion of the money supply, not necessarily an expansion done by a central bank.{{citation needed|date=February 2012}} Thomas Woods argues that the crashes were caused by various privately-owned banks with state charters that issued paper money, supposedly convertible to gold, in amounts greatly exceeding their gold reserves.<ref>Woods, Thomas E., Jr. (2009). Meltdown: A Free-Market Look at Why the Stock Market Collapsed, the Economy Tanked, and Government Bailouts Will Make Things Worse (1st ed.). Regnery Publishing, Inc.. pp. 88–94. ISBN 978-1-59698-587-2.</ref> | |||
In 1969, Milton Friedman, after examining the history of business cycles in the U.S., concluded that "The Hayek-Mises explanation of the business cycle is contradicted by the evidence. It is, I believe, false."<ref name=Friedman1969/> He analyzed the issue using newer data in 1993, and again reached the same conclusion.<ref name="Friedman93"/> | |||
===Government spending=== | |||
] observes that among developed countries, those with high rates of taxation and high social welfare spending perform better on most measures of economic performance compared to countries with low rates of taxation and low social outlays. He concludes that Friedrich Hayek was wrong to argue that high levels of government spending harms an economy, and "a generous social-welfare state is not a road to serfdom but rather to fairness, economic equality and international competitiveness."<ref>{{cite journal|title=The Social Welfare State, Beyond Ideology |last=Sachs|first=Jeffrey |date = October 2006|journal=Scientific American |url=http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=the-social-welfare-state |accessdate=2008-06-20|ref=harv }}</ref> Austrian economist ] countered by arguing that countries with large public sectors have grown more slowly.<ref>Sudha R. Shenoy, ''Are High Taxes the Basis of Freedom and Prosperity?'', http://www.thefreemanonline.org/featured/are-high-taxes-the-basis-of-freedom-and-prosperity/</ref> | |||
==Principal works== | |||
* '']'' by ] | |||
* '']'' by ] | |||
* '']'' by ] | |||
* '']'' by ] | |||
* '']'' by ] | |||
==See also== | |||
{{Portal|Economics}} | |||
* ] | |||
* ] | * ] | ||
* ] | |||
* ] | |||
* ] | |||
* '']'' | |||
* ] | |||
* ] | |||
* ] | |||
{{colend}} | |||
== Notes and references == | |||
==Footnotes== | |||
{{Reflist |
{{Reflist}} | ||
== Further reading == | |||
==References== | |||
* {{cite journal|last1=Agafonow|first1=Alejandro|year=2012|title=The Austrian Dehomogenization Debate, or the Possibility of a Hayekian Planner|url=https://ideas.repec.org/a/taf/revpoe/v24y2012i2p273-287.html|journal=Review of Political Economy|volume=24|issue=2|pages=273–287|doi=10.1080/09538259.2012.664337|s2cid=154692301|ref=none}} | |||
* Harald Hagemann, Tamotsu Nishizawa, and Yukihiro Ikeda, eds. ''Austrian Economics in Transition: From Carl Menger to Friedrich Hayek'' (Palgrave Macmillan; 2010) 339 pages | |||
* Boettke, Peter J.; Coyne, Christopher J. (2023). "". ''Annual Review of Economics'' '''15''' (1). | |||
* Stephen Littlechild, ed. (1990). ''Austrian economics'', 3 v. Edward Elgar. and scroll to chapter preview for v. 1. | |||
* {{cite journal |last1=Campagnolo |first1=Gilles |first2=Christel |last2=Vivel |title=The foundations of the theory of entrepreneurship in austrian economics – Menger and Böhm-Bawerk on the entrepreneur |journal=Revue de philosophie économique |volume=15 |issue=1 |date=2014 |pages=49–97 |isbn=9782711652105 |doi=10.3917/rpec.151.0049|doi-access=free }} {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210223041750/https://scholar.google.com/scholar?output=instlink&q=info%3A1jn_vDiNpwIJ%3Ascholar.google.com%2F&hl=en&as_sdt=5%2C27&sciodt=1%2C27&scillfp=7051946006347519767&oi=lle |date=2021-02-23 }} {{in lang|en}}. | |||
* {{cite book |editor-last1=Hagemann |editor-first1=Harald |editor-first2=Tamotsu |editor-last2=Nishizawa |editor-first3=Yukihiro |editor-last3=Ikeda |title=Austrian Economics in Transition: From Carl Menger to Friedrich Hayek |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan |date=2010}} <!--339 pp.--> <!-- https://www.jstor.org/stable/23723546 book review --> | |||
* {{cite book |last=Holcombe |first=Randall |title=The Great Austrian Economists |date=1999 |publisher=Ludwig von Mises Institute |isbn=0945466048}} <!--273pp.--> | |||
* {{cite book |editor-last1=Littlechild |editor-first1=Stephen |date=1990 |title=Austrian economics <!--in 3 volumes--> |publisher=Edward Elgar |isbn=978-1-85278-120-0}} <!----> <!-- Vol. 1 per earlier cite preview no longer available: https://books.google.com/books?id=XoZXUkYGj-oC&printsec=frontcover&cad=0#v=onepage --> | |||
* {{cite book |last=Papaioannou |first=Theo |title=Reading Hayek in the 21st Century: a critical inquiry into his political thought |publisher=Springer |date=2012}} | |||
* {{cite book|last1=Schulak|first1=Eugen-Maria|last2=Unterköfler|first2=Herbert|title=The Austrian School of Economics: A History of Its Ideas, Ambassadors, and Institutions|publisher=Ludwig von Mises Institute|year=2011|url=https://mises.org/library/austrian-school-economics-history-its-ideas-ambassadors-and-institutions|isbn=9781610161343|ref=none}} | |||
* {{cite book |last=Wasserman |first=Janek |title=The Marginal Revolutionaries: How Austrian Economists Fought the War of Ideas |date=2019}} . | |||
==External links== | == External links == | ||
{{Commons category}} | {{Commons category|Austrian School}} | ||
* by ] | |||
* {{dmoz|Science/Social_Sciences/Economics/Schools_of_Thought/Austrian_School/}} | |||
* '']'' on ] | |||
* from the History of Economic Thought website. | |||
* at Mises Wiki | |||
* , an online lecture series from the ] | |||
* by Jonathan M. Finegold Catalan, June 2010 | |||
{{Austrian School economists}} | {{Austrian School economists|state=expanded}} | ||
{{macroeconomics-footer}} | |||
{{Schools of economic thought}} | {{Schools of economic thought}} | ||
{{Portal bar|Business|Austria|Libertarianism}} | |||
{{Authority control}} | |||
] | ] | ||
] | ] | ||
] | |||
] | |||
] | ] | ||
] | |||
{{Link GA|de}} | |||
] | |||
] | |||
] | |||
] | |||
] | |||
] | |||
] | |||
] | |||
] | |||
] | |||
] | |||
] | |||
] | |||
] | |||
] | |||
] | |||
] | |||
] | |||
] | |||
] | |||
] | |||
] | |||
] | |||
] | |||
] | |||
] | |||
] | |||
] | |||
] | |||
] | |||
] | |||
] | |||
] |
Latest revision as of 19:42, 30 December 2024
School of economic thought Not to be confused with Economy of Austria. "Austrian school" redirects here. For the education system in Austria, see Education in Austria.Part of a series on the |
Austrian School |
---|
Principal works |
Origins |
Theories and ideologies |
Organizations, universities, and think tanks |
People |
Variants and related topics |
Business and economics portal |
The Austrian school is a heterodox school of economic thought that advocates strict adherence to methodological individualism, the concept that social phenomena result primarily from the motivations and actions of individuals along with their self interest. Austrian-school theorists hold that economic theory should be exclusively derived from basic principles of human action.
The Austrian school originated in 1871 in Vienna with the work of Carl Menger, Eugen von Böhm-Bawerk, Friedrich von Wieser, and others. It was methodologically opposed to the Historical school, in a dispute known as Methodenstreit, or methodology quarrel. Current-day economists working in this tradition are located in many countries, but their work is still referred to as Austrian economics. Among the theoretical contributions of the early years of the Austrian school are the subjective theory of value, marginalism in price theory and the formulation of the economic calculation problem
In the 1970s, the Austrian school attracted some renewed interest after Friedrich Hayek shared the 1974 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences with Gunnar Myrdal.
History
Etymology
The Austrian school owes its name to members of the German historical school of economics, who argued against the Austrians during the late 19th-century Methodenstreit ("methodology struggle"), in which the Austrians defended the role of theory in economics as distinct from the study or compilation of historical circumstance. In 1883, Menger published Investigations into the Method of the Social Sciences with Special Reference to Economics, which attacked the methods of the historical school. Gustav von Schmoller, a leader of the historical school, responded with an unfavorable review, coining the term "Austrian school" in an attempt to characterize the school as outcast and provincial. The label endured and was adopted by the adherents themselves.
School of Salamanca
The Salamanca School of economic thought, emerging in 16th-century Spain, is often regarded as an early precursor to the Austrian School of Economics due to its development of the subjective theory of value and its advocacy for free-market principles. Scholars from the University of Salamanca, such as Francisco de Vitoria and Luis de Molina, argued that the value of goods was determined by individual preferences rather than intrinsic factors, foreshadowing later Austrian ideas. They also emphasized the importance of supply and demand in setting prices and maintaining sound money, laying the groundwork for modern economic concepts that the Austrian School would later refine and expand upon.
First wave
The school originated in Vienna in Austria-Hungary. Carl Menger's 1871 book Principles of Economics is generally considered the founding of the Austrian school. The book was one of the first modern treatises to advance the theory of marginal utility. The Austrian school was one of three founding currents of the marginalist revolution of the 1870s, with its major contribution being the introduction of the subjectivist approach in economics.
Despite such claim, John Stuart Mill had used value in use in this sense in 1848 in Principles of Political Economy, where he wrote: "Value in use, or as Mr. De Quincey calls it, teleologic value, is the extreme limit of value in exchange. The exchange value of a thing may fall short, to any amount, of its value in use; but that it can ever exceed the value in use, implies a contradiction; it supposes that persons will give, to possess a thing, more than the utmost value which they themselves put upon it as a means of gratifying their inclinations."
While marginalism was generally influential, there was also a more specific school that began to coalesce around Menger's work, which came to be known as the "psychological school", "Vienna school", or "Austrian school". Menger's contributions to economic theory were closely followed by those of Eugen Böhm von Bawerk and Friedrich von Wieser. These three economists became what is known as the "first wave" of the Austrian school. Böhm-Bawerk wrote extensive critiques of Karl Marx in the 1880s and 1890s and was part of the Austrians' participation in the late 19th-century Methodenstreit, during which they attacked the Hegelian doctrines of the historical school.
Early 20th century
Frank Albert Fetter (1863–1949) was a leader in the United States of Austrian thought. He obtained his PhD in 1894 from the University of Halle and then was made Professor of Political Economy and Finance at Cornell University in 1901. Several important Austrian economists trained at the University of Vienna in the 1920s and later participated in private seminars held by Ludwig von Mises. These included Gottfried Haberler, Friedrich Hayek, Fritz Machlup, Karl Menger (son of Carl Menger), Oskar Morgenstern, Paul Rosenstein-Rodan, Abraham Wald, and Michael A. Heilperin, among others, as well as the sociologist Alfred Schütz.
Later 20th century
By the mid-1930s, most economists had embraced what they considered the important contributions of the early Austrians. Fritz Machlup quoted Hayek's statement that "the greatest success of a school is that it stops existing because its fundamental teachings have become parts of the general body of commonly accepted thought". Sometime during the middle of the 20th century, Austrian economics became disregarded or derided by mainstream economists because it rejected model building and mathematical and statistical methods in the study of economics. Mises' student Israel Kirzner recalled that in 1954, when Kirzner was pursuing his PhD, there was no separate Austrian school as such. When Kirzner was deciding which graduate school to attend, Mises had advised him to accept an offer of admission at Johns Hopkins because it was a prestigious university and Fritz Machlup taught there.
After the 1940s, Austrian economics can be divided into two schools of economic thought and the school split to some degree in the late 20th century. One camp of Austrians, exemplified by Mises, regards neoclassical methodology to be irredeemably flawed; the other camp, exemplified by Friedrich Hayek, accepts a large part of neoclassical methodology and is more accepting of government intervention in the economy. Henry Hazlitt wrote economics columns and editorials for a number of publications and wrote many books on the topic of Austrian economics from the 1930s to the 1980s. Hazlitt's thinking was influenced by Mises. His book Economics in One Lesson (1946) sold over a million copies and he is also known for The Failure of the "New Economics" (1959), a line-by-line critique of John Maynard Keynes's General Theory.
The reputation of the Austrian school rose in the late 20th century due in part to the work of Israel Kirzner and Ludwig Lachmann at New York University and to renewed public awareness of the work of Hayek after he won the 1974 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences. Hayek's work was influential in the revival of laissez-faire thought in the 20th century.
Split among contemporary Austrians
Economist Leland Yeager discussed the late 20th-century rift and referred to a discussion written by Murray Rothbard, Hans-Hermann Hoppe, Joseph Salerno and others in which they attack and disparage Hayek. Yeager stated: "To try to drive a wedge between Mises and Hayek on , especially to the disparagement of Hayek, is unfair to these two great men, unfaithful to the history of economic thought". He went on to call the rift subversive to economic analysis and the historical understanding of the fall of Eastern European communism.
In a 1999 book published by the Ludwig von Mises Institute, Hoppe asserted that Rothbard was the leader of the "mainstream within Austrian Economics" and contrasted Rothbard with Nobel Laureate Friedrich Hayek, whom he identified as a British empiricist and an opponent of the thought of Mises and Rothbard. Hoppe acknowledged that Hayek was the most prominent Austrian economist within academia, but stated that Hayek was an opponent of the Austrian tradition which led from Carl Menger and Böhm-Bawerk through Mises to Rothbard. Austrian economist Walter Block says that the Austrian school can be distinguished from other schools of economic thought through two categories—economic theory and political theory. According to Block, while Hayek can be considered an Austrian economist, his views on political theory clash with the libertarian political theory which Block sees as an integral part of the Austrian school.
Both criticism from Hoppe and Block to Hayek apply to Carl Menger, the founder of the Austrian school. Hoppe emphasizes that Hayek, which for him is from the English empirical tradition, is an opponent of the supposed rationalist tradition of the Austrian school; Menger made strong critiques to rationalism in his works in similar vein as Hayek's. He emphasized the idea that there are several institutions which were not deliberately created, have a kind of "superior wisdom" and serve important functions to society. He also talked about Edmund Burke and the English tradition to sustain these positions.
When saying that the libertarian political theory is an integral part of the Austrian school and supposing Hayek is not a libertarian, Block excludes Menger from the Austrian school, too, since Menger seems to defend broader state activity than Hayek—for example, progressive taxation and extensive labour legislation.
Economists of the Hayekian view are affiliated with the Cato Institute, George Mason University (GMU) and New York University, among other institutions. They include Peter Boettke, Roger Garrison, Steven Horwitz, Peter Leeson and George Reisman. Economists of the Mises–Rothbard view include Walter Block, Hans-Hermann Hoppe, Jesús Huerta de Soto and Robert P. Murphy, each of whom is associated with the Mises Institute and some of them also with academic institutions. According to Murphy, a "truce between (for lack of better terms) the GMU Austro-libertarians and the Auburn Austro-libertarians" was signed around 2011.
Influence
Many theories developed by "first wave" Austrian economists have long been absorbed into mainstream economics. These include Carl Menger's theories on marginal utility, Friedrich von Wieser's theories on opportunity cost and Eugen Böhm von Bawerk's theories on time preference, as well as Menger and Böhm-Bawerk's criticisms of Marxian economics.
Former American Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan said that the founders of the Austrian school "reached far into the future from when most of them practiced and have had a profound and, in my judgment, probably an irreversible effect on how most mainstream economists think in this country". In 1987, Nobel Laureate James M. Buchanan told an interviewer: "I have no objections to being called an Austrian. Hayek and Mises might consider me an Austrian but, surely some of the others would not".
Currently, universities with a significant Austrian presence are George Mason University, New York University, Grove City College, Loyola University New Orleans, Monmouth College, and Auburn University in the United States; King Juan Carlos University in Spain; and Universidad Francisco Marroquín in Guatemala. Austrian economic ideas are also promoted by privately funded organizations such as the Mises Institute and the Cato Institute.
Theory
The Austrian school theorizes that the subjective choices of individuals including individual knowledge, time, expectation and other subjective factors cause all economic phenomena. Austrians seek to understand the economy by examining the social ramifications of individual choice, an approach called methodological individualism. It differs from other schools of economic thought, which have focused on aggregate variables, equilibrium analysis, and societal groups rather than individuals.
In the 20th and 21st centuries, economists with a methodological lineage to the early Austrian school developed many diverse approaches and theoretical orientations. Ludwig von Mises organized his version of the subjectivist approach, which he called "praxeology", in a book published in English as Human Action in 1949. In it, Mises stated that praxeology could be used to deduce a priori theoretical economic truths and that deductive economic thought experiments could yield conclusions which follow irrefutably from the underlying assumptions. He wrote that conclusions could not be inferred from empirical observation or statistical analysis and argued against the use of probabilities in economic models.
Since Mises' time, some Austrian thinkers have accepted his praxeological approach while others have adopted alternative methodologies. For example, Fritz Machlup, Friedrich Hayek and others did not take Mises' strong a priori approach to economics. Ludwig Lachmann, a radical subjectivist, also largely rejected Mises' formulation of Praxeology in favor of the verstehende Methode ("interpretive method") articulated by Max Weber.
In the 20th century, various Austrians incorporated models and mathematics into their analysis. Austrian economist Steven Horwitz argued in 2000 that Austrian methodology is consistent with macroeconomics and that Austrian macroeconomics can be expressed in terms of microeconomic foundations. Austrian economist Roger Garrison writes that Austrian macroeconomic theory can be correctly expressed in terms of diagrammatic models. In 1944, Austrian economist Oskar Morgenstern presented a rigorous schematization of an ordinal utility function (the Von Neumann–Morgenstern utility theorem) in Theory of Games and Economic Behavior.
Fundamental tenets
In 1981, Fritz Machlup listed the typical views of Austrian economic thinking as such:
- Methodological individualism: in the explanation of economic phenomena, we have to go back to the actions (or inaction) of individuals; groups or "collectives" cannot act except through the actions of individual members. Groups do not think; people think.
- Methodological subjectivism: the judgments and choices made by individuals on the basis of whatever knowledge they have or believe to have, and whatever expectations they have regarding external developments and the consequences of their actions.
- Tastes and preferences: subjective valuations of goods and services determine the demand for them so that their prices are influenced by consumers.
- Opportunity costs: the costs of the alternative opportunities that must be foregone; as productive services are employed for one purpose, all alternative uses have to be sacrificed.
- Marginalism: in all economic designs, the values, costs, revenues, productivity and so on are determined by the significance of the last unit added to or subtracted from the total.
- Time structure of production and consumption: decisions to save reflect "time preferences" regarding consumption in the immediate, distant, or indefinite future and investments are made in view of larger outputs expected to be obtained if more time-taking production processes are undertaken.
He included two additional tenets held by the Mises branch of Austrian economics:
- Consumer sovereignty: the influence consumers have on the effective demand for goods and services and through the prices which result in free competitive markets, on the production plans of producers and investors, is not merely a hard fact but also an important objective, attainable only by complete avoidance of governmental interference with the markets and of restrictions on the freedom of sellers and buyers to follow their own judgment regarding quantities, qualities and prices of products and services.
- Political individualism: only when individuals are given full economic freedom will it be possible to secure political and moral freedom. Restrictions on economic freedom lead, sooner or later, to an extension of the coercive activities of the state into the political domain, undermining and eventually destroying the essential individual liberties which the capitalistic societies were able to attain in the 19th century.
Contributions to economic thought
Opportunity cost
Main article: Opportunity costThe opportunity cost doctrine was first explicitly formulated by the Austrian economist Friedrich von Wieser in the late 19th century. Opportunity cost is the cost of any activity measured in terms of the value of the next best alternative foregone (that is not chosen). It is the sacrifice related to the second best choice available to someone, or group, who has picked among several mutually exclusive choices. Although a more ephemeral scarcity, expectations of the future must also be considered. Quantified as time preference, opportunity cost must also be valued with respect to one's preference for present versus future investments.
Opportunity cost is a key concept in mainstream economics and has been described as expressing "the basic relationship between scarcity and choice". The notion of opportunity cost plays a crucial part in ensuring that resources are used efficiently.
Capital and interest
See also: Capital and Interest, Marginalism, Neutrality of money, and Time preferenceThe Austrian theory of capital and interest was first developed by Eugen Böhm von Bawerk. He stated that interest rates and profits are determined by two factors, namely supply and demand in the market for final goods and time preference.
Böhm-Bawerk's theory equates capital intensity with the degree of roundaboutness of production processes. Böhm-Bawerk also argued that the law of marginal utility necessarily implies the classical law of costs. However, many Austrian economists such as Ludwig von Mises, Israel Kirzner, Ludwig Lachmann, and Jesús Huerta de Soto entirely reject a productivity explanation for interest rates, viewing the average period of production as an unfortunate remnant of damaged classical economic thought on Böhm-Bawerk.
Inflation
See also: Monetary inflationIn Mises's definition, inflation is an increase in the supply of money:
In theoretical investigation there is only one meaning that can rationally be attached to the expression Inflation: an increase in the quantity of money (in the broader sense of the term, so as to include fiduciary media as well), that is not offset by a corresponding increase in the need for money (again in the broader sense of the term), so that a fall in the objective exchange-value of money must occur.
Hayek claimed that inflationary stimulation exploits the lag between an increase in money supply and the consequent increase in the prices of goods and services:
And since any inflation, however modest at first, can help employment only so long as it accelerates, adopted as a means of reducing unemployment, it will do so for any length of time only while it accelerates. "Mild" steady inflation cannot help—it can lead only to outright inflation. That inflation at a constant rate soon ceases to have any stimulating effect, and in the end merely leaves us with a backlog of delayed adaptations, is the conclusive argument against the "mild" inflation represented as beneficial even in standard economics textbooks.
Even prominent Austrian economists have been confused since Austrians define inflation as 'increase in money supply' while most people including most economists define inflation as 'rising prices'.
Economic calculation problem
Main article: Economic calculation problemThe economic calculation problem refers to a criticism of planned economies which was first stated by Max Weber in 1920. Mises subsequently discussed Weber's idea with his student Friedrich Hayek, who developed it in various works including The Road to Serfdom. What the calculation problem essentially states is that without price signals, the factors of production cannot be allocated in the most efficient way possible, rendering planned economies inefficacious.
Austrian theory emphasizes the organizing power of markets. Hayek stated that market prices reflect information, the totality of which is not known to any single individual, which determines the allocation of resources in an economy. Because socialist systems lack the individual incentives and price discovery processes by which individuals act on their personal information, Hayek argued that socialist economic planners lack all of the knowledge required to make optimal decisions. Those who agree with this criticism view it as a refutation of socialism, showing that socialism is not a viable or sustainable form of economic organization. The debate rose to prominence in the 1920s and 1930s and that specific period of the debate has come to be known by historians of economic thought as the socialist calculation debate.
Mises argued in a 1920 essay "Economic Calculation in the Socialist Commonwealth" that the pricing systems in socialist economies were necessarily deficient because if the government owned the means of production, then no prices could be obtained for capital goods as they were merely internal transfers of goods in a socialist system and not "objects of exchange", unlike final goods. Therefore, they were unpriced and hence the system would be necessarily inefficient since the central planners would not know how to allocate the available resources efficiently. This led him to write "that rational economic activity is impossible in a socialist commonwealth".
Business cycles
Austrian business cycle theoryThe Austrian theory of the business cycle (ABCT) focuses on banks' issuance of credit as the cause of economic fluctuations. Although later elaborated by Hayek and others, the theory was first set forth by Mises, who posited that fractional reserve banks extend credit at artificially low interest rates, causing businesses to invest in relatively roundabout production processes which leads to an artificial "boom". Mises stated that this artificial "boom" then led to a misallocation of resources which he called "malinvestment" – which eventually must end in a "bust".
Mises surmised that government manipulation of money and credit in the banking system throws savings and investment out of balance, resulting in misdirected investment projects that are eventually found to be unsustainable, at which point the economy has to rebalance itself through a period of corrective recession. Austrian economist Fritz Machlup summarized the Austrian view by stating, "monetary factors cause the cycle but real phenomena constitute it." This may be unrealistic since successful entrepreneurs will realise that interest rates are artificially low and will adjust their investment decisions based on projected long term interest rates. For Austrians, the only prudent strategy for government is to leave money and the financial system to the free market's competitive forces to eradicate the business cycle's inflationary booms and recessionary busts, allowing markets to keep people's saving and investment decisions in place for well-coordinated economic stability and growth.
A Keynesian would suggest government intervention during a recession to inject spending into the economy when people will not. However, the heart of Austrian macroeconomic theory assumes the government "fine tuning" through expansions and contractions in the money supply orchestrated by the government are actually the cause of business cycles because of the differing impact of the resulting interest rate changes on different stages in the structure of production. Austrian economist Thomas Woods further supports this view by arguing it is not consumption, but rather production that should be emphasized. A country cannot become rich by consuming, and therefore, by using up all their resources. Instead, production is what enables consumption as a possibility in the first place, since a producer would be working for nothing, if not for the desire to consume.
Central banks
According to Ludwig von Mises, central banks enable the commercial banks to fund loans at artificially low interest rates, thereby inducing an unsustainable expansion of bank credit and impeding any subsequent contraction and argued for a gold standard to constrain growth in fiduciary media. Friedrich Hayek took a different perspective not focusing on gold but focusing on regulation of the banking sector via strong central banking.
Some economists argue money is endogenous, and argue that this refutes the Austrian Business Cycle Theory. However, this would simply shift the brunt of the blame from central banks to private banks when it comes to credit expansion; the fundamental underlying issue would be the same, and a free-market full-reserve system would still be the fix.
See also
- Carl Menger
- Chicago school of economics
- Criticism of the Federal Reserve
- Eugen von Böhm-Bawerk
- Friedrich Hayek
- Hans-Hermann Hoppe
- Hard money (policy)
- Henry Hazlitt
- Israel Kirzner
- List of Austrian intellectual traditions
- List of Austrian school economists
- Ludwig von Mises
- New institutional economics
- Perspectives on capitalism by school of thought
- School of Salamanca
Notes and references
- ^ Boettke, Peter J.; Leeson, Peter T. (2003). "28A: The Austrian School of Economics 1950–2000". In Samuels, Warren; Biddle, Jeff E.; Davis, John B. (eds.). A Companion to the History of Economic Thought. Blackwell Publishing. pp. 446–452. ISBN 978-0-631-22573-7.
- "Heterodox economics: Marginal revolutionaries". The Economist. December 31, 2011. Archived from the original on February 22, 2012. Retrieved February 22, 2012.
- Denis, Andy (2008). "Dialectics and the Austrian School: A Surprising Commonality in the Methodology of Heterodox Economics?". The Journal of Philosophical Economics. 1 (2): 151–173. Retrieved 19 May 2022.
- Menger, Carl (2007) . Principles of Economics (PDF). Translated by Dingwall, James; Hoselitz, Bert F. Auburn, Alabama: Ludwig von Mises Institute.
- Heath, Joseph (1 May 2018). Zalta, Edward N. (ed.). The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Metaphysics Research Lab, Stanford University. Retrieved 1 May 2018 – via Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
- Ludwig von Mises. Human Action, p. 11, "Purposeful Action and Animal Reaction". Referenced 2011-11-23.
- "Austrian School of Economics". Econlib. Retrieved 2024-12-19.
- Joseph A. Schumpeter, History of economic analysis, Oxford University Press 1996, ISBN 978-0195105599.
- Birner, Jack; van Zijp, Rudy (1994). Hayek, Co-ordination and Evolution: His Legacy in Philosophy, Politics, Economics and the History of Ideas. London, New York: Routledge. p. 94. ISBN 978-0-415-09397-2.
- Meijer, G. (1995). New Perspectives on Austrian Economics. New York: Routledge. ISBN 978-0-415-12283-2.
- "Menger's approach – haughtily dismissed by the leader of the German Historical School, Gustav Schmoller, as merely 'Austrian', the origin of that label – led to a renaissance of theoretical economics in Europe and, later, in the United States." Peter G. Klein, in "Forward" to Menger, Carl (2007) . Principles of Economics (PDF). Translated by Dingwall, James; Hoselitz, Bert F. Auburn, Alabama: Ludwig von Mises Institute. ISBN 978-1-933550-12-1.
- von Mises, Ludwig (1984) . The Historical Setting of the Austrian School of Economics (PDF). Ludwig von Mises Institute. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2014-06-24.
- Grice-Hutchinson, Marjorie (1952). The School of Salamanca (PDF). Oxford at the Clarendon Press.
- "New Light on the Prehistory of the Austrian School | Mises Institute". mises.org. 2006-11-10. Retrieved 2024-09-02.
- Keizer, Willem (1997). Austrian Economics in Debate. New York: Routledge. p. 1. ISBN 978-0-415-14054-6.
- Ahiakpor, J. C. W. (2003): Classical Macroeconomics. Some Modern Variations and Distortions, Routledge, p. 21.
- Mill, J. S. (1848). Principles of Political Economy.
- Kirzner, Israel M. (1987). "Austrian School of Economics". The New Palgrave: A Dictionary of Economics. 1: 145–151.
- Salerno, Joseph T. (1 August 2007). "Biography of Gottfried Haberler (1901–1995)". Mises Institute. Archived from the original on 2014-09-14.
- "Biography of Fritz Machlup". Archived from the original on 5 July 2013. Retrieved 16 June 2013.
- "About Karl Menger – Department of Applied Mathematics – IIT College of Science – Illinois Institute of Technology". www.iit.edu. Archived from the original on 29 October 2013. Retrieved 1 May 2018.
- "Guide to the Oskar Morgenstern Papers, 1866–1992 and undated". Rubenstein Library. Duke University. Archived from the original on 2012-10-17.
- "Rodan; Paul Rosenstein (1902–1985); political economist". Archive at London School of Economics.
- Morgenstern, Oskar (October 1951). "Abraham Wald, 1902–1950". Econometrica. 19 (4). The Econometric Society: 361–367. doi:10.2307/1907462. JSTOR 1907462.
- "Studies in Economic Nationalism". 18 August 2014.
-
- Kurrild-Klitgaard, Peter (Summer 2003). "The Viennese Connection: Alfred Schutz and the Austrian School" (PDF). Quarterly Journal of Austrian Economics. 6 (2): 35–67. doi:10.1007/s12113-003-1018-y. S2CID 154202208. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2022-10-09. Retrieved 2022-08-19.
- Kurrild-Klitgaard, Peter (2001). "On Rationality, Ideal Types and Economics: Alfred Schütz and the Austrian School". The Review of Austrian Economics. 14 (2/3): 119–143. doi:10.1023/A:1011199831428. S2CID 33060092.
- "Ludwig von Mises: A Scholar Who Would Not Compromise". 15 December 2004. Archived from the original on 2014-09-14. Retrieved 2014-09-13. Homage to Mises by Fritz Machlup 1981.
- Backhouse, Roger E (January 2000). "Austrian economics and the mainstream: View from the boundary". The Quarterly Journal of Austrian Economics. 3 (2): 31–43. doi:10.1007/s12113-000-1002-8. S2CID 154604886. Archived from the original on 2017-02-10. Retrieved 2017-01-24.
Hayek did not fall out of favor because he was not Keynesian (neither are Friedman or Lucas) but because he was perceived to be doing neither rigorous theory nor empirical work
- Kirzner, Israel. "Interview of Israel Kirzner". Ludwig von Mises Institute. Archived from the original on 9 September 2013. Retrieved 17 June 2013.
- Kanopiadmin (30 July 2014). "The Hayek and Mises Controversy: Bridging Differences – Odd J. Stalebrink" (PDF). mises.org. Archived (PDF) from the original on 14 November 2012. Retrieved 1 May 2018.
- "Remembering Henry Hazlitt". The Freeman. Archived from the original on 2013-01-13. Retrieved 2013-03-11.
- "Biography of Henry Hazlitt". Ludwig von Mises Institute. Archived from the original on 2012-01-28. Retrieved 2013-03-11.
- Meijer, Gerrit, ed. (1995). New Perspectives on Austrian Economics. New York: Routledge. ISBN 978-0-415-12283-2. OCLC 70769328.
- Raico, Ralph (2011). "Austrian Economics and Classical Liberalism". mises.org. Ludwig von Mises Institute. Archived from the original on 19 May 2011. Retrieved 27 July 2011.
despite the particular policy views of its founders ... Austrianism was perceived as the economics of the free market
- Kasper, Sherryl Davis (2002). The Revival of Laissez-faire in American Macroeconomic Theory. Edward Elgar Publishing. p. 66. ISBN 978-1-84064-606-1.
- Yaeger, Leland (2011). Is the Market a Test of Truth and Beauty?: Essays in Political Economy. Ludwig von Mises Institute. pp. 93 ff.
- Hoppe, Hans-Hermann (1999). 15 Great Austrian Economists – Murray Rothbard (PDF). Alabama: Ludwig von Mises Institute. pp. 223 ff. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2014-10-07.
- "Dr. Walter Block: Austrian vs Chicago Schools". Mises Canada: Rothbard School 2014. Archived from the original on 18 May 2015. Retrieved 3 December 2014.
- ^ Menger, Carl. Investigations into the Methods of the Social Sciences (PDF). pp. 173–175. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2017-02-11.
- Menger, Carl. Investigations into the Methods of the Social Sciences (PDF). pp. 146–147. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2017-02-11.
- Menger, Carl. Investigations into the Methods of the Social Sciences (PDF). p. 91. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2017-02-11.
- Ikeda, Yukihiro. Carl Menger's Liberalism Revisited (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on 2017-02-16.
- ^ "Senior Fellows, Faculty Members, and Staff". Mises.org. Archived from the original on July 28, 2013. Retrieved July 21, 2013.
- "In Defense of the Mises Institute". consultingbyrpm.com. Archived from the original on 26 August 2017. Retrieved 1 May 2018.
- Yeager, Leland (2011). Is the Market a Test of Truth and Beauty?. Ludwig von Mises Institute. p. 103. ISBN 9781610164214.
- It has also influenced related disciplines such as Law and Economics, see. K. Grechenig, M. Litschka, "Law by Human Intent or Evolution? Some Remarks on the Austrian School of Economics' Role in the Development of Law and Economics", European Journal of Law and Economics 2010, vol. 29, no. 1, pp. 57–79.
- kanopiadmin (2011-03-14). "The Austrian School's Critique of Marxism". Mises Institute. Retrieved 2019-02-02.
- Greenspan, Alan. "Hearings before the U.S. House of Representatives' Committee on Financial Services". U.S. House of Representatives' Committee on Financial Services. Washington, D.C.. 25 July 2000.
- "An Interview with Laureate James Buchanan". Austrian Economics Newsletter. 9 (1). Fall 1987. Archived from the original on 2014-09-14. Retrieved 2022-08-19.
- Boettke, Peter J.; Coyne, Christopher J. (2015). The Oxford handbook of Austrian economics. Oxford University Press. p. 500. ISBN 9780199811762. OCLC 905518129.
- Matarán López, Cristóbal (2021-01-26). "The Austrian school of Madrid". The Review of Austrian Economics. 36: 61–79. doi:10.1007/s11138-021-00541-0. S2CID 234027221.
- "Generations of the Austrian School". European Center of Austrian Economics Foundation.
- Deist, Jeff (2017-11-24). "Gabriel Calzada on Free-Market Education in Latin America". Mises Institute.
- "About the Mises Institute". Mises.org. Archived from the original on July 28, 2013. Retrieved July 21, 2013.
- "Austrian Economics | Cato Institute".
- ^ White, Lawrence H. (2003). The Methodology of the Austrian School Economists (revised ed.). Ludwig von Mises Institute. Archived from the original on 2014-02-23.
- Ludwig von Mises, Nationalökonomie (Geneva, Switzerland: Union, 1940); Human Action (Auburn, Alabama: Ludwig von Mises Institute, 1998).
- "The Ultimate Foundation of Economic Science by Ludwig von Mises". Mises.org. 20 July 1962. Archived from the original on 2012-10-29. Retrieved 2012-08-13.
- Caldwell, Bruce J. (1984). "Praxeology and its Critics: an Appraisal" (PDF). History of Political Economy. 16 (3): 363–379. doi:10.1215/00182702-16-3-363.
- Langlois, Richard N. (1985). "From the Knowledge of Economics to the Economics of Knowledge: Fritz Machlup on Methodology and on the "Knowledge Society"" (PDF). Research in the History of Economic Thought and Methodology. 3: 225–235. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2012-12-06.
- Lachmann, Ludwig (1973). Macroeconomic Thinking and the Market Economy (PDF). Institute of Economic Affairs. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2014-12-16. Retrieved 2014-12-16.
- Horwitz, Steven: Microfoundations and Macroeconomics: An Austrian Perspective (2000). Routledge.
- Garrison, Roger (1978). "Austrian Macroeconomics: A Diagrammatical Exposition" (PDF). Institute for Humane Studies. Archived from the original (PDF) on 16 December 2014. Retrieved 5 October 2015.
- Von Neumann, John and Morgenstern, Oskar (1944). Theory of Games and Economic Behavior. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press.
- Machlup, Fritz (1981). "Homage to Mises". Hillsdale College. pp. 19–27. Archived from the original on 30 October 2013. Retrieved 8 August 2013.
- Kirzner, Israel M.; Lachman, Ludwig M. (1986). Subjectivism, intelligibility and economic understanding: essays in honor of Ludwig M. Lachmann on his eightieth birthday (Illustrated ed.). Macmillan. ISBN 978-0-333-41788-1.
- "Opportunity Cost". Investopedia. Archived from the original on 14 September 2010. Retrieved 2010-09-18.
- Ammous, Saifedean (2021). The Fiat Standard: The Debt Slavery Alternative to Human Civilization (Printed ed.). Saif House. ISBN 978-1544526478.
- Buchanan, James M. (2008). "Opportunity cost". The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics Online (Second ed.). Archived from the original on 2012-01-18. Retrieved 2010-09-18.
- "Opportunity Cost". Economics A–Z. The Economist. Archived from the original on 9 October 2010. Retrieved 2010-09-18.
- Böhm-Bawerk, Eugen Ritter von; Kapital Und Kapitalizns. Zweite Abteilung: Positive Theorie des Kapitales (1889). Translated as Capital and Interest. II: Positive Theory of Capital with appendices rendered as Further Essays on Capital and Interest.
- Mises (1949)
- Kirzner (1996)
- Lachmann (1976)
- Huerta De Soto (2006)
- von Mises, Ludwig (1980). "Economic Freedom and Interventionism". In Greaves, Bettina B. (ed.). Economics of Mobilization. Sulphur Springs, West Virginia: The Commercial and Financial Chronicle. Archived from the original on 2014-09-14.
Inflation, as this term was always used everywhere and especially in this country, means increasing the quantity of money and bank notes in circulation and the quantity of bank deposits subject to check. But people today use the term "inflation" to refer to the phenomenon that is an inevitable consequence of inflation, that is the tendency of all prices and wage rates to rise. The result of this deplorable confusion is that there is no term left to signify the cause of this rise in prices and wages. There is no longer any word available to signify the phenomenon that has been, up to now, called inflation As you cannot talk about something that has no name, you cannot fight it. Those who pretend to fight inflation are in fact only fighting what is the inevitable consequence of inflation, rising prices. Their ventures are doomed to failure because they do not attack the root of the evil. They try to keep prices low while firmly committed to a policy of increasing the quantity of money that must necessarily make them soar. As long as this terminological confusion is not entirely wiped out, there cannot be any question of stopping inflation.
- The Theory of Money and Credit, Mises (1912, , p. 272)
- Hayek, Friedrich August (1984). 1980s Unemployment and the Unions: Essays on the Impotent Price Structure of Britain and Monopoly in the Labour Market. Institute of Economic Affairs. ISBN 9780255361736.
- Krugman Isn’t (Quite) Right About Austrian Economics
- Von Mises, Ludwig (1990). Economic calculation in the Socialist Commonwealth (PDF). Ludwig von Mises Institute. ISBN 0-945466-07-2. Archived (PDF) from the original on 23 September 2008. Retrieved 2008-09-08.
- F. A. Hayek (1935), "The Nature and History of the Problem" and "The Present State of the Debate," om in F. A. Hayek, ed. Collectivist Economic Planning, pp. 1–40, 201–243.
- ^ "The socialist calculation debate". Archived from the original on February 18, 2009. Retrieved May 20, 2020.
- von Mises, Ludwig. "The Principle of Methodological Individualism". Human Action. Ludwig von Mises Institute. Archived from the original on 22 April 2009. Retrieved 2009-04-24.
- ^ Murray Rothbard, America's Great Depression.
- ^ Ebeling, Richard (2016). Austrian Economics and Public Policy: Restoring Freedom and Prosperity. Fairfax, Virginia: The Future of Freedom Foundation. p. 217.
- ^ Hughes, Arthur Middleton (March 1997). "The recession of 1990: An Austrian explanation". The Review of Austrian Economics. 10 (1): 107–123. doi:10.1007/BF02538145. ISSN 0889-3047. S2CID 154412906.
- Why I Am Not an Austrian Economist
- Woods, Thomas (2018). Meltdown: The Classic Free-Market Analysis of the 2008 Financial Crisis. Washington, D.C.: Regnery Publishing, Incorporated.
- White, Lawrence H. (1999). "Why Didn't Hayek Favor Laissez Faire in Banking?" (PDF). History of Political Economy. 31 (4): 753–769. doi:10.1215/00182702-31-4-753. Archived (PDF) from the original on 12 April 2013. Retrieved 11 April 2013.
- Ron Paul (2009). End the Fed. Grand Central Publishing.
Further reading
- Agafonow, Alejandro (2012). "The Austrian Dehomogenization Debate, or the Possibility of a Hayekian Planner". Review of Political Economy. 24 (2): 273–287. doi:10.1080/09538259.2012.664337. S2CID 154692301.
- Boettke, Peter J.; Coyne, Christopher J. (2023). "New Thinking in Austrian Economics". Annual Review of Economics 15 (1).
- Campagnolo, Gilles; Vivel, Christel (2014). "The foundations of the theory of entrepreneurship in austrian economics – Menger and Böhm-Bawerk on the entrepreneur". Revue de philosophie économique. 15 (1): 49–97. doi:10.3917/rpec.151.0049. ISBN 9782711652105. PDF Archived 2021-02-23 at the Wayback Machine (in English).
- Hagemann, Harald; Nishizawa, Tamotsu; Ikeda, Yukihiro, eds. (2010). Austrian Economics in Transition: From Carl Menger to Friedrich Hayek. Palgrave Macmillan.
- Holcombe, Randall (1999). The Great Austrian Economists. Ludwig von Mises Institute. ISBN 0945466048.
- Littlechild, Stephen, ed. (1990). Austrian economics. Edward Elgar. ISBN 978-1-85278-120-0.
- Papaioannou, Theo (2012). Reading Hayek in the 21st Century: a critical inquiry into his political thought. Springer.
- Schulak, Eugen-Maria; Unterköfler, Herbert (2011). The Austrian School of Economics: A History of Its Ideas, Ambassadors, and Institutions. Ludwig von Mises Institute. ISBN 9781610161343.
- Wasserman, Janek (2019). The Marginal Revolutionaries: How Austrian Economists Fought the War of Ideas. (Excerpt via Amazon).