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{{short description|School of economic thought}}
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{{distinguish|Economy of Austria}}
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The '''Austrian School''', also known as the “'''Vienna School'''” or the “'''Psychological School'''”, is a ] school of ] that advocates adherence to strict ]. As a result Austrians hold that the only valid economic theory is logically derived from basic principles of human action. Alongside the formal approach to theory, often called ], the school has traditionally advocated an interpretive approach to history. The praxeological method allows for the discovery of economic laws valid for all human action, while the interpretive approach addresses specific historical events.
{{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>
While the praxeological method differs from the current method advocated by the majority of contemporary economists, the Austrian method derives from a long line of deductive economic thought stretching from the 15th century to the modern era and including such major economists as ], ], ], ], ], ], ], ], and ].


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>
The most famous Austrian adherents are ], ], ], ], ], ], ], ], ], ], and ]. While often controversial, and standing to some extent outside of the mainstream of neoclassical theory—as well as being staunchly opposed to much of ]' ] and its results—the Austrian School has been widely influential{{Fact|date=November 2007}} because of its emphasis on the creative phase (i.e. the time element) of economic productivity and its questioning of the basis of the behavioral theory underlying ].


== History ==
Because many of the policy recommendations of Austrian theorists call for ], strict protection of private property, and support for ] in general, they are often cited by ], ], ], and ] groups for support, although Austrian School economists, like Ludwig von Mises, insist that ''praxeology'' must be ]. They do not answer the question "should this policy be implemented?", but rather "if this policy is implemented, will it have ]?".
]. The ] of political economy is an intellectual ancestor of Austrian school of economics.]]


==History== === Etymology ===
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>
] focused on the exchange theory of value. In the late 19th century, however, attention was focused on the concepts of “marginal” cost and value (see ]). Carl Menger's 1871 book, '']'', is considered one of the crucial works that began the period known as ]{{Fact|date=November 2007}}. While marginalism was generally influential, there was also a more specific school that grew up around Menger, which came to be known as the “Psychological School,” “Vienna School,” or “Austrian School.”<ref>Israel M. Kirzner (1987). "Austrian School of Economics," '']'', v. 1, pp. 145-51.</ref>


=== School of Salamanca ===
Austrian economics is currently closely associated with the advocacy of '']'' views. Earlier Austrian economists were more skeptical compared to later economists such as ] and ], with ] saying that he feared unbridled competition would lead to “anarchism in production and consumption”. However, the Austrian School, especially through the works of ], would be influential in the revival of ''laissez-faire'' thought in the 1980s.{{Fact|date=November 2007}}
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>


=== First wave ===
The school originated in ]. However, later adherents of the school like ] and others have derived the roots of the thought of the Austrian School from the Spanish ] teaching at the ] of the ] and the ] ] of the ].<ref></ref> It owes its name to members of the ] ] of ], who argued against the Austrians during the '']'', in which the Austrians defended the reliance that ] placed upon deductive logic. Their Prussian opponents derisively named them the “Austrian School” to emphasize a departure from mainstream German thought and to suggest a provincial, ] approach. (The name “Psychological School” derived from the effort to found marginalism upon prior considerations, largely psychological.)
]]]
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>
Menger was closely followed by ] and ]. ]n economists developed a sense of themselves as a school distinct from ] during the ], with ] and ] representing the Austrian position, where they contended that without monetary prices and private property, meaningful economic calculation is impossible.


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 ].
The Austrian economists were the first liberal economists to systematically challenge the ] school{{Fact|date=November 2007}}. This was partly a reaction to the '']'' when they attacked the ] doctrines of the ]. Though many Marxist authors have attempted to portray the Austrian school as a '']'' reaction to Marx, such an interpretation is implausible: Menger wrote his '']'' at almost the same time as ] was working upon '']'', whose second and third volumes were published more than ten and twenty years, respectively, after ''Principles''. (However, this does not refute the weaker claim that marginalism received the attention it did in the ], and not earlier, in part because it was seen as an answer to Marx.) The Austrian economists were, nonetheless, amongst the first to clash directly with Marxism{{Fact|date=November 2007}}, since both dealt with such subjects as money, ], ]s, and economic processes. Böhm-Bawerk wrote extensive critiques of Marx in the 1880s and 1890s, and several prominent Marxists &mdash; including ] &mdash; attended his seminar in 1905&ndash;6. In contrast, the classical economists had shown little interest in such topics, and many of them did not even gain familiarity with Marx's ideas until well into the twentieth century.{{Fact|date=November 2007}}


=== Early 20th century ===
The school was no longer centered in Austria after ] came to power. Austrian economics was ill-thought of by most economists after ] because it rejected observational methods{{Fact|date=November 2007}}. Its reputation has lately risen{{Fact|date=November 2007}} with work by students of ] and ], as well as a renewed interest in Hayek after he won the ]{{Fact|date=November 2007}}. However, it remains a distinctly minority position, even in such areas as capital value.
] (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}}
|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 ===
Austrian economics can be broken into two general trends. One, exemplified by Hayek, while distrusting most neoclassical concepts (like the entire corpus of macroeconomics), generally accepts a large part of the neoclassical methodology; the other, exemplified by the ], seeks a different formalism for ]. The main area of contention between the mainstream and the Austrian school is on their view of the market system as a process, not only to be studied using equilibrium models, but to be viewed as an incessant process that only tends toward a constantly changing equilibrium, this difference is the root of the Austrian business cycles theory, the economic calculation debate and their different views of monopoly and competition. The second primary area of contention between neoclassical theory and the Austrian school is over the possibility of consumer indifference &mdash; neoclassical theory says it is possible, whereas Mises rejected it as being “impossible to observe in practice”. The third major dispute arose when Mises and his students argued that utility functions are ], and not ]; that is, the Austrians contend that one can only rank preferences and cannot measure their intensity, in direct opposition to the neoclassical view at the time. Finally there are a host of questions about uncertainty raised by Mises and other Austrians, who argue for a different means of ].
], 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>
The influence that Austrian school ideas have had on Keynesian ] is often overlooked{{Fact|date=November 2007}}. Keynes himself acknowledged being exposed to the Misesian notion that “nominal” values could have “real” effects. A further source of this influence is the period of time when the ] brought in Hayek and other “continental” economists. {{Fact|date=November 2007}}While their students, though initially receptive, ultimately were drawn to the new Keynesian doctrines, many of the Hayekian concepts, particularly those relating time to the value of capital and its importance, would find their way into the work of Keynesians, especially by way of ] (who, while distancing himself from Keynesianism, nonetheless made the most influential attempt to formalize it).{{Fact|date=November 2007}}


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>
], 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.”{{Fact|date=November 2007}} The long-time ] Chairman said he attended a seminar hosted by Ludwig von Mises.<ref></ref>


=== Split among contemporary Austrians ===
==Analytical framework==
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>
Austrian economists reject statistical methods and artificially constructed experiments as tools applicable to economics, saying that while it is appropriate in the natural sciences where factors can be isolated in laboratory conditions, acting human beings are too complex for this treatment. Instead one should isolate the logical processes of human action - a discipline named "]" by ].{{Fact|date=November 2007}}


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>
Austrians view ] as the driving force in ], see ] as essential to the efficient use of resources, and usually (if not always) see ] interference in market processes as counterproductive.


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" />
As with neoclassical economists, Austrians reject ] cost of production theories, most famously the ]. Instead they ]. This psychological aspect to Menger's economics has been attributed to the school's birth in turn of the century ]. ] are explained by aggregating over the decisions of individuals, following the precepts of ], which asserts that only individuals and not collectives make decisions, and ] arguments, which compare the costs and benefits for incremental changes.


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>
Contemporary neo-Austrian economists claim to adopt ] more consistently than any other school of economics and reject many neoclassical formalisms. For example, while neoclassical economics formalizes the economy as an ] system with supply and demand in balance, Austrian economists emphasize its dynamic, perpetually dis-equilibrated nature.


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>
The core of the Austrian framework can be summarized as taking a subjectivist approach to marginal economics, and a focus on the idea that logical consistency of a theory is more important than any interpretation of empirical observations. Austrians focus completely on the ] of goods, as opposed to balancing downside or disutility costs. It is an Austrian assertion that everyone is ''better'' off in a mutually voluntary exchange, or they would not have carried it out.<ref></ref>.


=== Influence ===
This focus on opportunity cost alone means that their interpretation of the ] of a good has a strict relationship: since goods will be as restricted by scarcity at a later point in time as they are now, the strict relationship between investment and time must also hold. A factory making goods next year is worth as much less as the goods it is making next year are worth. This means that the business cycle is driven by miscoordination between sectors of the same economy, caused by money not carrying incentive information correct about present choices, rather than within a single economy where money causes people to make bad decisions about how to spend their time.
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 von Böhm-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>
==Contributions==
Some contributions of Austrian economists:
*A theory of distribution in which factor ]s result from the ] of prices of consumer goods to goods of "higher order", that is goods used in the production of consumer goods (goods of the first order).
*An emphasis on the forward-looking nature of choice, seeing time as the root of uncertainty within economics (see also ]).
*A fundamental rejection of mathematical methods in economics seeing the function of economics as investigating the essences rather than the specific quantities of economic phenomena. This was seen as an evolutionary, or "genetic-causal", approach against the stresses of ] and ] found in mainstream Neoclassical economics (see also ]).
*]'s critique of ] centered around the untenability of the ] in the light of the ]. There was also the connected argument 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.
*]'s capital theory, which equates ] with the degree of ] of production processes.
*]'s demonstration that the law of marginal utility, as formulated by ] necessarily implies the classical law of costs and hence the vast majority of the conclusions of the British ]. This discovery was later fully developed and its implications traced by a student of ], ], in his book, ''Capitalism''.
*An emphasis on ] and reservation demand in defining ], and a refusal to consider supply as an otherwise independent cause of value. (The British economist ] adopted this perspective.)
*The Mises-Hayek ] theory, which explains depression as a reaction to an intertemporal production structure fostered by ] setting ]s inconsistent with individual time preferences.
*Hayek's concept of ]. (] took over this theory in his discussion of temporary equilibrium in ''Value and Capital,'' a book very influential on the development of neoclassical economics after World War II.)
*Mises and Hayek's view of prices as permitting agents to make use of ].
*The ], which explains interest rates through ] - the different time preferences of the borrower or lender - rather than as a price paid for a ].
*Stressing uncertainty in the making of economic decisions, rather than relying on "]" or the rational man who was fully informed of all circumstances impinging on his decisions. The fact that perfect knowledge never exists, means that all economic activity implies risk.
*Seeing the entrepreneurs' role as collecting and evaluating information and acting on risks.
*The ] between Austrian and ] economists, with the Austrians claiming that Marxism is flawed because prices could not be set to recognize opportunity costs of factors of production, and so ] could not make rational decisions.


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>
== Criticism ==
] has criticized the school for rejecting on principle the use of ] or ] which is "more than anything else, what prevents Austrian economists from getting more publications in mainstream journals"<ref>], </ref> There are also criticisms of more specific theories.<ref>For example, see , part of the </ref>


== Theory ==
==Economists affiliated with the Austrian School==
{{capitalism sidebar|theories}}
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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>
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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>
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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>
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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>
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=== Fundamental tenets ===
Note that the economists aligned with the Austrian School are sometimes colloquially called "the Austrians" even though not all held Austrian citizenship, and not all economists from Austria subscribe to the ideas of the Austrian School.
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>
* ''']''': 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.
* ''']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.
* ''']''': 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:
==Other related economists==
* ''']''': 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.
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* ''']''': 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.
*] (precursor)
*] (introduced the Austrian School to the USA)
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== Contributions to economic thought ==
==Critics==
=== Opportunity cost ===
Almost no literature in ] ]s reference the school of ], because it is regarded as ] and not considered a legitimate school of economics. One of the few exceptions has been ] ] who criticized them for misinterpreting ] so as to make themselves seem more distinct and rejecting the ]. <ref> by Bryan Caplan</ref> Economists ] and ] have also been critical of the school.
{{main|Opportunity cost}}
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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>
==Seminal works==
*'']'' by ]
*'']'' by ]
*'']'' by ]
*'']'' by ]
*'']'' by ]
*'']'' by ]


=== Capital and interest ===
==References==
{{see also|Capital and Interest|Marginalism|Neutrality of money|Time preference}}
<references/>
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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.
==See also==
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==External links== === Inflation ===
{{see also|Monetary inflation}}
* Austrian School as defined by the ].
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>}}
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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>}}
===Critical ===
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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>
{{Austrian economists}}


=== Economic calculation problem ===
{{macroeconomics-footer}}
{{main|Economic calculation problem}}
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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>
{{History of economic thought}}


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>
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=== Business cycles ===
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{{Macroeconomics sidebar}}
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{{main|Austrian business cycle theory}}
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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"/>
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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>
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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" />
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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>
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]
====Central banks====
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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>
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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.
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== See also ==
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* ]<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>
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* ]
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== Notes and references ==
{{Reflist}}

== Further reading ==
* {{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}}
* Boettke, Peter J.; Coyne, Christopher J. (2023). "". ''Annual Review of Economics'' '''15''' (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 ==
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Latest revision as of 06:34, 20 January 2025

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.
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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 August von Hayek shared the 1974 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences with Gunnar Myrdal.

History

Jean-Baptiste Say. The French liberal school of political economy is an intellectual ancestor of Austrian school of economics.

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

Carl Menger

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 von Böhm-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

Campus of Mises Institute, in Auburn, Alabama

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 von Böhm-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

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Ideologies

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.

Ludwig von Mises

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 cost
Friedrich von Wieser

The 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 preference
Eugen von Böhm-Bawerk

The Austrian theory of capital and interest was first developed by Eugen von Böhm-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 inflation

In 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 problem
Friedrich Hayek
Israel Kirzner

The 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

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Main article: Austrian business cycle theory

The 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

Notes and references

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