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{{Austrian School sidebar |expanded=all}} {{short description|School of economic thought}}
{{distinguish|Economy of Austria}}
The '''Austrian School of economics''' is a ] which bases its study of economic phenomena on the interpretation and analysis of the purposeful actions of individuals (see ]).<ref>Carl Menger, Prinicples of Economics, online at http://www.mises.org/etexts/menger/principles.asp</ref><ref name="econlib"></ref><ref></ref><ref name="Mises_Action">Ludwig von Mises. ], p. 11, "r. Purposeful Action and Animal Reaction". Referenced 2011-11-23.</ref></blockquote> It derives its name from its origin in late-19th and early-20th century Vienna with the work of ], ], ], and others.<ref>Joseph A. Schumpeter, History of economic analysis, Oxford University Press 1996, ISBN 978-0195105599.</ref> Current day economists working in this tradition are located in many different countries, but their work is referred to as "Austrian economics".
{{Redirect|Austrian school|the education system in Austria|Education in Austria}}
{{austrian School sidebar|all}}
{{Economics sidebar}}
The '''Austrian school''' is a ]<ref name="Boettke and Leeson">{{Cite book |last1=Boettke |first1=Peter J. |title=A Companion to the History of Economic Thought |last2=Leeson |first2=Peter T. |publisher=Blackwell Publishing |year=2003 |isbn=978-0-631-22573-7 |editor=Samuels |editor-first=Warren |editor-link=Warren Samuels |pages=446–452 |chapter=28A: The Austrian School of Economics 1950–2000 |author2-link=Peter T. Leeson |editor2=Biddle |editor-first2=Jeff E. |editor3=Davis |editor-first3=John B. |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3H8gBQv5MysC&pg=PA445}}</ref><ref>{{cite news | url=https://www.economist.com/node/21542174 | title=Heterodox economics: Marginal revolutionaries | newspaper=The Economist | date=December 31, 2011 | access-date=February 22, 2012 | url-status=live | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120222004727/http://www.economist.com/node/21542174 | archive-date=February 22, 2012 }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Denis |first1=Andy |title=Dialectics and the Austrian School: A Surprising Commonality in the Methodology of Heterodox Economics? |journal=The Journal of Philosophical Economics |date=2008 |volume=1 |issue=2 |pages=151–173 |url=https://openaccess.city.ac.uk/id/eprint/3961/ |access-date=19 May 2022 |language=en}}</ref> ] that advocates strict adherence to ], the concept that social phenomena result primarily from the motivations and actions of individuals along with their ]. Austrian-school theorists hold that economic theory should be exclusively derived from basic principles of human action.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Menger |first1=Carl |url=https://cdn.mises.org/principles_of_economics.pdf |title=Principles of Economics |publisher=Ludwig von Mises Institute |year=2007 |location=Auburn, Alabama |language=en-us |translator-last1=Dingwall |translator-first1=James |orig-date=1871 |translator-last2=Hoselitz |translator-first2=Bert F.}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|url=https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/spr2015/entries/methodological-individualism/|title=The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy|first=Joseph|last=Heath|editor-first=Edward N.|editor-last=Zalta|date=1 May 2018|publisher=Metaphysics Research Lab, Stanford University|access-date=1 May 2018|via=Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy}}</ref><ref name="Mises_Action">Ludwig von Mises. ], p. 11, "Purposeful Action and Animal Reaction". Referenced 2011-11-23.</ref>


The Austrian school originated in 1871<ref>{{Cite web |title=Austrian School of Economics |url=https://www.econlib.org/library/Enc/AustrianSchoolofEconomics.html#:~:text=By%20Peter%20J.,Boettke&text=The%20Austrian%20school%20of,marginalist%20revolution%20in%20economic%20analysis. |access-date=2024-12-19 |website=Econlib |language=en-US}}</ref> in ] with the work of ], ], ], and others.<ref>Joseph A. Schumpeter, History of economic analysis, Oxford University Press 1996, {{ISBN|978-0195105599}}.</ref> It was methodologically opposed to the ], in a dispute known as '']'', or methodology quarrel. Current-day economists working in this tradition are located in many countries, but their work is still referred to as Austrian economics. Among the theoretical contributions of the early years of the Austrian school are the ], ] in ] and the formulation of the ]<ref>{{cite book|last1=Birner|first1=Jack|first2=Rudy|last2=van Zijp|title=Hayek, Co-ordination and Evolution: His Legacy in Philosophy, Politics, Economics and the History of Ideas|location=London, New York|publisher=]|year=1994|page=|isbn=978-0-415-09397-2|url=https://archive.org/details/hayekcoordinatio0000unse}}</ref>
Among the theoretical contributions of the early years of the Austrian School are the ], ] in price theory, 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 = 94
| isbn = 978-0-415-09397-2 }}</ref>


In the 1970s, the Austrian school attracted some renewed interest after ] shared the 1974 ] with ].<ref name="GMeijer">{{cite book |last=Meijer |first=G. |title=New Perspectives on Austrian Economics |publisher=Routledge |location=New York |year=1995 |isbn=978-0-415-12283-2 }}</ref>
Many economists are critical of the current-day Austrian School and consider its rejection of ], ] and aggregate ] analysis to be outside of ], or "]."<ref name="Austrian Economists: Boettke">{{Cite web|url=http://austrianeconomists.typepad.com/weblog/2008/05/is-austrian-eco.html|title=Is Austrian Economics Heterodox Economics?|last=Boettke |first=Peter|publisher=The Austrian Economists|accessdate=2009-02-13| archiveurl= http://web.archive.org/web/20090328232903/http://austrianeconomists.typepad.com/weblog/2008/05/is-austrian-eco.html| archivedate= 28 March 2009 <!--DASHBot-->| deadurl= no}}</ref><ref name="Boettke and Leeson">{{Cite book|last=Boettke|first=Peter J.|coauthors=]|title=A Companion to the History of Economic Thought|editor=], Jeff E. Biddle, and John B. Davis|pages=446–452|chapter=28A: The Austrian School of Economics 1950-2000|url=http://books.google.com/?id=3H8gBQv5MysC&pg=PA445&dq=austrian+school+heterodox+economics |publisher=Blackwell Publishing |year=2003 |isbn=978-0-631-22573-7}}</ref><ref>{{cite news | url=http://www.economist.com/node/21542174 | title=Heterodox economics: Marginal revolutionaries | publisher=The Economist | date=December 31, 2011 | accessdate=February 22, 2012}}</ref><ref name="Caplan">{{Cite web|url=http://www.gmu.edu/departments/economics/bcaplan/whyaust.htm|title=Why I Am Not an Austrian Economist |last=Caplan |first=Bryan |publisher=] |accessdate=2008-07-04 | quote=More than anything else, what prevents Austrians from getting more publications in mainstream journals is that their papers rarely use mathematics or econometrics, research tools that Austrians reject on principle...Mises and Rothbard however err when they say that economic history can only illustrate economic theory. In particular, empirical evidence is often necessary to determine whether a theoretical factor is quantitatively significant...Austrians reject econometrics on principle because economic theory is true a priori, so statistics or historical study cannot "test" theory.}}</ref> Austrians are likewise critical of mainstream economics.<ref>, Roger E. Backhouse</ref>


==Methodology== == History ==
]. The ] of political economy is an intellectual ancestor of Austrian school of economics.]]
]]]
]]]
{{Main|Action axiom|Catallactics|Praxeology}}


=== Etymology ===
The Austrian School bases its understanding of the economy on the social ramifications of the subjective choices of individuals. This approach, termed '']'', differs significantly from many other schools of economic thought, which have placed less importance on individual knowledge, time, expectation, and other subjective factors and focused instead on aggregate variables, equilibrium analysis, and the consideration of 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=revised ed. 2003|publisher=Mises Institute|url=https://mises.org/mofase.asp}}</ref>
The Austrian school owes its name to members of the German ], who argued against the Austrians during the late 19th-century '']'' ("methodology struggle"), in which the Austrians defended the role of theory in economics as distinct from the study or compilation of historical circumstance. In 1883, Menger published ''Investigations into the Method of the Social Sciences with Special Reference to Economics'', which attacked the methods of the historical school. ], a leader of the historical school, responded with an unfavorable review, coining the term "Austrian school" in an attempt to characterize the school as outcast and provincial.<ref>"Menger's approach – haughtily dismissed by the leader of the German Historical School, Gustav Schmoller, as merely 'Austrian', the origin of that label – led to a renaissance of theoretical economics in Europe and, later, in the United States." ], in "Forward" to {{cite book |last1=Menger |first1=Carl |url=https://cdn.mises.org/principles_of_economics.pdf |title=Principles of Economics |publisher=Ludwig von Mises Institute |year=2007 |isbn=978-1-933550-12-1 |location=Auburn, Alabama |language=en-us |translator-last1=Dingwall |translator-first1=James |orig-date=1871 |translator-last2=Hoselitz |translator-first2=Bert F.}}</ref> The label endured and was adopted by the adherents themselves.<ref>{{cite book|last=von Mises|first=Ludwig|title=The Historical Setting of the Austrian School of Economics|year=1984|orig-year=1969|publisher=Ludwig von Mises Institute.|url=https://mises.org/etexts/histsetting.pdf|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140624182138/http://www.mises.org/etexts/histsetting.pdf|archive-date=2014-06-24}}</ref>


=== School of Salamanca ===
In 1949, ] codified his version of the subjectivist approach, which he called "]," in a book published in English as '']''.<ref name="Ludwigvon">Ludwig von Mises, Nationalökonomie (Geneva: Union, 1940), p. 3; Human Action (Auburn, Ala.: Mises Institute, 1998), p. 3.</ref> In it, Mises presented an extensive statement of his method, and stated that praxeology could be used to deduce ''a priori'' theoretical economic truths. Mises also argued against the use of probabilities in economic models. According to Mises, deductive economic ] can yield conclusions which follow irrefutably from the underlying assumptions and could not be inferred from empirical observation or statistical analysis.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://mises.org/books/ufofes/ |title=The Ultimate Foundation of Economic Science by Ludwig von Mises |publisher=Mises.org |date= |accessdate=2012-08-13}}</ref> Since Mises time, however, few Austrian thinkers have adopted Mises' entire praxeological approach and many have adopted alternative versions.<ref>Bruce J. Caldwell "Praxeology and its Critics: an Appraisal" History of Political Economy Fall 1984 16(3): 363–379; doi:10.1215/00182702-16-3-363 </ref> For example, ], ], and others, did not take Mises' strong '']'' approach to economics.<ref>Richard N. Langlois, "FROM THE KNOWLEDGE OF ECONOMICS TO THE ECONOMICS OF KNOWLEDGE: FRITZ MACHLUP ON METHODOLOGY AND ON THE "KNOWLEDGE SOCIETY" Research in the History of Economic Thought and Methodology, Volume 3, pp. 225–235 </ref> In the twentieth century, Prof. Ludwig Lachmann 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://mises.org/books/macrothinking.pdf}}</ref>
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 ===
Economist ] has written that most economists assert that economic conclusions reached by pure logical deduction are limited and weak.<ref name="Samuelson">{{Cite book |last=Samuelson |first=Paul |title=Economics |publisher=New York: McGraw-Hill |year=1964 |edition=6th |page=736 |isbn=978-0-07-074741-8}}</ref> According to Samuelson and economist ], this aspect of Austrian School methodology has led it to be widely dismissed within mainstream economics.<ref name="tremble" /> Caplan has stated that the Austrian challenge to the realism of neoclassical assumptions actually helps make those assumptions more plausible.<ref>, Bryan Caplan</ref>
]]]
The school originated in ] in the ].{{Inconsistent|date=September 2024|reason=i.e. before "Menger's 1871 book"?}} ]'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 |title=Austrian Economics in Debate |publisher=Routledge |location=New York |year=1997 |isbn=978-0-415-14054-6 }}</ref>{{page needed|date=August 2011}}


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>
Starting in the Twentieth Century, various Austrians incorporated models and mathematics into their analysis of the economy. Austrian economist ] argues that Austrian methodology is consistent with ] and that Austrian macroeconomics can be expressed in terms of ] foundations.<ref name="Horwitz, Steven 2000">Horwitz, Steven: Microfoundations and Macroeconomics: An Austrian Perspective (2000)|''Routledge''</ref> Austrian economist Roger Garrison argues that Austrian macroeconomic theory can be correctly expressed in terms of ].<ref>http://library.mises.org/books/Roger%20W%20Garrison/Austrian%20Macroeconomics%20A%20Diagrammatical%20Exposition.pdf Garrison, Roger: Austrian Macroeconomics: A Diagrammatical Exposition (1978)|''Institute for Humane Studies''</ref> In 1944, Austrian economist Oskar Morgenstern presented a rigorous schematization of an ordinal utility function (the ]) in ].<ref>Neumann, John von and Morgenstern, Oskar Theory of Games and Economic Behavior. Princeton, NJ. Princeton University Press. 1944</ref>


While marginalism was generally influential, there was also a more specific school that began to coalesce around Menger's work, which came to be known as the "psychological school", "Vienna school", or "Austrian school".<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Kirzner |first1=Israel M. |year=1987 |title=Austrian School of Economics |journal=] |volume=1 |pages=145–151}}</ref> Menger's contributions to economic theory were closely followed by those of ] and ]. These three economists became what is known as the "first wave" of the Austrian school. Böhm-Bawerk wrote extensive critiques of ] in the 1880s and 1890s and was part of the Austrians' participation in the late 19th-century {{lang|de|]}}, during which they attacked the ] doctrines of the ].
==Austrian School tenets==
===Opportunity cost===
]]]
{{Main|Opportunity cost}}
The opportunity cost doctrine was first explicitly formulated by the Austrian economist Friedrich von Wieser in the late 19th century.<ref>{{Cite book |title=Subjectivism, intelligibility and economic understanding: essays in honor of Ludwig M. Lachmann on his eightieth birthday |last1=Kirzner |first1=Israel M. |last2=Lachman |first2=Ludwig M. |publisher=McMillan |year=1986 |edition=Illustrated |isbn=978-0-333-41788-1}}</ref> Opportunity cost is the cost of any activity measured in terms of the value of the next best alternative foregone (that is not chosen). It is the sacrifice related to the second best choice available to someone, or group, who has picked among several ] choices.<ref name="investopedia">{{cite web |work=Investopedia |title=Opportunity Cost |url=http://www.investopedia.com/terms/o/opportunitycost.asp |accessdate=2010-09-18| archiveurl= http://web.archive.org/web/20100914214221/http://www.investopedia.com/terms/o/opportunitycost.asp| archivedate= 14 September 2010 <!--DASHBot-->| deadurl= no}}</ref> This view is currently held by contemporary economists of all mainstream schools of thought.


=== Early 20th century ===
Opportunity cost is a key concept in ], and has been described as expressing "the basic relationship between ] and ]".<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |url=http://www.dictionaryofeconomics.com/search_results?q=opportunity+cost&edition=current&button_search=GO |title=Opportunity cost |encyclopedia=The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics Online |author=James M. Buchanan |authorlink=James M. Buchanan |year=2008 |edition=Second |accessdate=2010-09-18 |ref=harv }}</ref> The notion of opportunity cost plays a crucial part in ensuring that scarce resources are used efficiently.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.economist.com/research/Economics/alphabetic.cfm?letter=O#opportunitycost |title=Opportunity Cost |work=Economics A-Z |publisher=The Economist |accessdate=2010-09-18 | archiveurl= http://web.archive.org/web/20101009122334/http://www.economist.com/research/Economics/alphabetic.cfm?letter=O| archivedate= 9 October 2010 <!--DASHBot-->| deadurl= no}}</ref> Thus, opportunity costs are not restricted to monetary or financial costs: the ] of ], lost time, pleasure or any other benefit that provides ] should also be considered opportunity costs.
] (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 ===
===Capital and interest===
], in ]]]
{{See also|Capital and Interest|Marginalism|Neutrality of money|Say's law|Time preference}}
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 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, ] 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><ref name="econlib_a">http://www.econlib.org/library/Enc/bios/BohmBawerk.html</ref>


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>
Böhm-Bawerk's theory was a response to Marx's ] and capital. Böhm-Bawerk's theory attacked the viability of the labor theory of value in the light of the ]. His conception of interest countered ]. Marx famously argued that capitalists exploit workers by paying them less than the fruits of their labor sell for. Bohm-Bawerk countered this claim by invoking the concept of ] to demonstrate that everyone values present consumption more than future consumption, and therefore that a difference between the (smaller) salary laborers are paid in the present and the (greater) price for which the goods they produce are later sold need not be exploitative.<ref name="econlib_a" /> 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.<ref name="BohmBawerkEugen" /> Some Austrian economists therefore entirely reject the notion that interest rates are affected by ].{{citation needed|date=March 2013}}


=== Split among contemporary Austrians ===
===Inflation===
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>
{{See also|Monetary Inflation}}
Mises believed that money prices and wages will inevitably rise when the supply of money and bank credit is increased.<ref>{{Cite book |first=Ludwig |last=von Mises |chapter=Economic Freedom and Interventionism |editor1-first=Bettina B. |editor1-last=Greaves |title=Economics of Mobilization |publisher=The Commercial and Financial Chronicle |location=Sulphur Springs, West Virginia |pages= |year=1980 |isbn= |chapterurl=http://mises.org/efandi/ch20.asp |ref=harv |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."}}</ref> He therefore used the term "inflation" to mean an excessive increase of the money supply and not, as is the common usage, to refer to ]. In Mises' view, inflation is the result of policies of the government or central bank which result in an increase in the circulating money supply.<ref>Ludwig von Mises, ", ISBN 978-0-913966-70-9</ref> Following Mises, the modern-day Austrian School argues that this semantic distinction is critical to public discussion of price inflation, and that price inflation can only be prevented by strict control of the money supply. Mises wrote:


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>
<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></blockquote>


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" />
Economist ] criticised von Mises' view that ''inflation'' must refer to an increase in the money supply. Timberlake noted that economists since the time of ] have recognized the distinction between increases in the money stock and increases in the general level of money prices. Timberlake stated that Mises' view has repeatedly been proven false and that statistical measurement of the aggregate price level is necessary in order test the empirical validity of Mises' theory.<ref name=Timberlake>{{cite journal|last=Timberlake|first=Richard H.|title=Austrian Inflation, Austrian Money, and Federal Reserve Policy|journal=The Freeman|date=September 1, 2000|url=http://www.fee.org/the_freeman/detail/austrian-inflation-austrian-money-and-federal-reserve-policy#axzz2JZKoJIRE|accessdate=31 January 2013}}</ref> Economist Paul Krugman has argued against Austrian views on inflation. Krugman has pointed out that in the period from 2008 to December 2011, the ] has more than triped while price inflation has been less than 3% per year.<ref name=Madness>{{cite news|last=Krugman|first=Paul|title=G.O.P. Monetary Madness|url=http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/16/opinion/gop-monetary-madness.html|accessdate=11 June 2013|newspaper=NY Times|date=Dec. 15. 2011}}</ref> According to Krugman:
<blockquote>If you believe that... expanding credit will simply result in too much money chasing too few goods, and hence a lot of inflation....<br>
the failure of high inflation to materialize amounts to a decisive rejection of model.<ref>Paul Krugman, Varieties of Error http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/11/29/varieties-of-error/</ref></blockquote>


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>
===Economic calculation problem===
{{Main|Economic calculation problem}}
{{ref improve section|date=May 2013}}
]]]
The economic calculation problem is a criticism of ]. It was first proposed by ] in 1920. This led to Mises discussing Weber's idea with his student Friedrich Hayek, who expanded upon it to such an extent that it became a key reason cited for the awarding of his Nobel prize.<ref name=autogenerated5>{{cite book |title=Economic calculation in the Socialist Commonwealth |accessdate=2008-09-08 |last=Von Mises |first=Ludwig |authorlink=Ludwig von Mises |year=1990|format=PDF |publisher=] |url=http://mises.org/pdf/econcalc.pdf |isbn=0-945466-07-2 | archiveurl= http://web.archive.org/web/20080923191714/http://mises.org/pdf/econcalc.pdf| archivedate= 23 September 2008 <!--DASHBot-->| deadurl= no}}</ref><ref>F. A. Hayek, (1935), "The Nature and History of the Problem" and "The Present State of the Debate," om in F. A. Hayek, ed. ''Collectivist Economic Planning'', pp. 1–40, 201–243.</ref> The problem referred to is that of how to distribute resources effectively in an economy.


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>
Austrian theory emphasizes the ] of markets. Mises and Hayek stated that the information reflected in market prices leads to socially optimal allocation of resources. Because socialist systems lack the individual incentives and ] processes of market systems, they argued that socialism cannot provide the level of welfare achieved in market economies. Those who agree with this criticism view it is a refutation of socialism and that it shows that it 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.''<ref name="School">{{Dead link|date=August 2011}}</ref>


=== Influence ===
Mises argued in a 1920 article "]" that the pricing systems in socialist economies were necessarily deficient because if government owned the ], then no prices could be obtained for ] as they were merely internal transfers of goods in a socialist system and not "objects of exchange," unlike final goods. Therefore, they were unpriced and hence the system would be necessarily inefficient since the central planners would not know how to allocate the available resources efficiently.<ref name="School" /> This led him to declare "…that rational economic activity is impossible in a socialist commonwealth."<ref name="Mises">{{Cite web|url=http://mises.org/humanaction/chap2sec4.asp|author=Ludwig von Mises|title=The Principle of Methodological Individualism|work=Human Action|publisher=Ludwig von Mises Institute|accessdate=2009-04-24| archiveurl= http://web.archive.org/web/20090422004804/http://mises.org/humanaction/chap2sec4.asp| archivedate= 22 April 2009 <!--DASHBot-->| deadurl= no}}</ref> Mises's declaration has been criticized as overstating the strength of his case, in describing socialism as impossible, rather than that it may need to establish non-market institutions to deal with a source of inefficiency.<ref name="Caplan" /><ref name="Caplan_soc">{{cite journal |last1=Caplan |first1=Bryan |title=Is socialism really "impossible"? |journal=Critical Review |volume=16 |pages=33–52 |year=2004 |doi=10.1080/08913810408443598 |ref=harv}}</ref>
Many theories developed by "first wave" Austrian economists have long been absorbed into ].<ref>It has also influenced related disciplines such as Law and Economics, see. K. Grechenig, M. Litschka, "Law by Human Intent or Evolution? Some Remarks on the Austrian School of Economics' Role in the Development of Law and Economics", ''European Journal of Law and Economics'' 2010, vol. 29, no. 1, pp. 57–79.</ref> These include Carl Menger's theories on marginal utility, Friedrich von Wieser's theories on ] and Eugen Böhm von Bawerk's theories on time preference, as well as Menger and Böhm-Bawerk's criticisms of ].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://mises.org/library/austrian-schools-critique-marxism|title=The Austrian School's Critique of Marxism|last=kanopiadmin|date=2011-03-14|website=Mises Institute|language=en|access-date=2019-02-02}}</ref>


Former ] Chairman ] said that the founders of the Austrian school "reached far into the future from when most of them practiced and have had a profound and, in my judgment, probably an irreversible effect on how most mainstream economists think in this country".<ref>Greenspan, Alan. "Hearings before the U.S. House of Representatives' Committee on Financial Services". U.S. House of Representatives' Committee on Financial Services. Washington, D.C.. 25 July 2000.</ref> In 1987, Nobel Laureate ] told an interviewer: "I have no objections to being called an Austrian. Hayek and Mises might consider me an Austrian but, surely some of the others would not".<ref>{{cite journal |url=https://mises.org/journals/aen/aen9_1_1.asp |access-date=2022-08-19 |url-status=live |title=An Interview with Laureate James Buchanan |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140914022018/https://mises.org/journals/aen/aen9_1_1.asp |archive-date=2014-09-14 |journal=Austrian Economics Newsletter |volume=9 |issue=1 |date=Fall 1987}}</ref>
===Business cycles===
{{Main|Austrian business cycle theory}}
The Austrian theory of the ] ("ABCT") focuses on the ] as the cause of business cycles. Although later elaborated by Hayek and others, the theory was first set forth by von Mises, who believed that an expansion of the money supply, at artificially low interest rates, causes businesses to overinvest capital in relatively ] production processes. Mises called the resulting misallocation of resources '']''.


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>
Most research regarding the theory finds that it is inconsistent with empirical evidence. Economists such as ],<ref name="Tullock1988">{{cite journal |author=Gordon Tullock |title=Why the Austrians are wrong about depressions |journal=The Review of Austrian Economics |volume=2 |issue=1 |year=1988 |pages=73–78 |format=PDF |url=http://mises.org/journals/rae/pdf/RAE2_1_4.pdf |accessdate=2009-06-24 |doi=10.1007/BF01539299 |ref=harv}}</ref> Bryan Caplan,<ref name=autogenerated3>{{cite web |url=http://econlog.econlib.org/archives/2008/01/whats_wrong_wit_6.html |title=What's Wrong With Austrian Business Cycle Theory |last=Caplan |first=Bryan |date=2008-01-02 |publisher=Library of Economics and Liberty |accessdate=2008-07-28}}</ref> ],<ref name="Friedman1969">{{cite book |last=Friedman |first=Milton |title=The Optimal Quantity of Money and Other Essays |publisher=Aldine |location=Chicago |pages=261–284 |chapter=The Monetary Studies of the National Bureau, 44th Annual Report}}</ref><ref name="Friedman93">{{cite journal |last=Friedman |first=Milton |title=The 'Plucking Model' of Business Fluctuations Revisited |journal=Economic Inquiry |pages=171–177 |ref=harv}}</ref> and ]<ref name="Krugman">{{cite web |url=http://www.slate.com/id/9593 |title=The Hangover Theory |last=Krugman |first=Paul |authorlink=Paul Krugman |date=1998-12-04 |publisher=Slate |accessdate=2008-06-20| archiveurl = http://www.webcitation.org/5u40jRL5e | archivedate = 2010-11-07| deadurl=no}}</ref> have said that they regard the theory as incorrect. In 1969, Friedman argued that the theory is not consistent with empirical evidence<ref>Friedman, Milton. "The Monetary Studies of the National Bureau, 44th Annual Report". The Optimal Quantity of Money and Other Essays. Chicago: Aldine. pp. 261–284.</ref> and using newer data in 1993 reached the same conclusion.<ref>Friedman, Milton. "The 'Plucking Model' of Business Fluctuations Revisited". Economic Inquiry: 171–177.</ref>


== Theory ==
In 2001, Austrian economist Roger Garrison reviewed Hayek's development of the Austrian Business Cycle Theory and discussed the factors that have sustained interest in the theory despite its rejection by mainstream economics.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Garrison|first=Roger|title=Hayekian Trade Cycle Theory: A Reappraisal|journal=Cato Journal|year=2001|volume=6|issue=2|url=http://www.auburn.edu/~garriro/c4refah.htm|accessdate=19 May 2013}}</ref>
{{capitalism sidebar|theories}}
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>


]]]
====Assertions====
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>
{{ref improve section|date=May 2013}}
According to the theory, malinvestment is induced by banks' excessive and unsustainable expansion of credit to businesses.<ref name="econlib.org">, Ludwig von Mises, Part III, Part IV</ref> Businesses borrow at unsustainably low interest rates and overinvest in capital goods, which in turn leads to a diversion of investment from consumer goods to capital goods industries. Austrians contend that this shift is unsustainable and must eventually be reversed, and that the re-adjustment process will be more violent and disruptive the longer the overinvestment in capital goods industries continues.


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>
According to the Austrian view, the proportion of income allocated to ] rather than saving is determined by the interest rate and people's ], which is the degree to which they prefer present to future satisfactions. According to this view, the pure interest rate is determined by the time preferences of the individuals in society. If the market rate of interest offered by banks is set lower than this, business borrowing will be excessive and will be allocated to malinvestment.<ref>, Ludwig von Mises, Part II</ref>


In the 20th century, various Austrians incorporated models and mathematics into their analysis. Austrian economist ] argued in 2000 that Austrian methodology is consistent with ] and that Austrian macroeconomics can be expressed in terms of ] foundations.<ref name="Horwitz, Steven 2000">Horwitz, Steven: ''Microfoundations and Macroeconomics: An Austrian Perspective'' (2000). Routledge.</ref> Austrian economist Roger Garrison writes that Austrian macroeconomic theory can be correctly expressed in terms of ].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://library.freecapitalists.org/books/Roger%20W%20Garrison/Austrian%20Macroeconomics%20A%20Diagrammatical%20Exposition.pdf|last=Garrison|first=Roger|title=Austrian Macroeconomics: A Diagrammatical Exposition|year=1978|publisher=Institute for Humane Studies|access-date=5 October 2015|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141216183224/http://library.freecapitalists.org/books/Roger%20W%20Garrison/Austrian%20Macroeconomics%20A%20Diagrammatical%20Exposition.pdf|archive-date=16 December 2014}}</ref> In 1944, Austrian economist Oskar Morgenstern presented a rigorous schematization of an ordinal utility function (the ]) in '']''.<ref>Von Neumann, John and Morgenstern, Oskar (1944). ''Theory of Games and Economic Behavior''. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press.</ref>
According to the Austrian view, newly extended credit thus malinvested will circulate from the business borrowers to the factors of production: to the landowners and capital owners who sold assets to the newly indebted ], and then to the other factors of production in wages, rent, and interest. Austrians state that, because individuals' time preferences have not changed, their market response to this shift toward higher order capital goods will tend to to reestablish the old proportions, and demand will shift back from the higher to the lower orders. In other words, depositors will tend to remove cash from the banking system and spend it (not save it), banks will then ask their borrowers for payment and the excessive capital goods will be sold at lower prices to retire the now-unprofitable loans.<ref name="econlib.org"/>


=== Fundamental tenets ===
Murray Rothbard stated that government actions to support asset prices, advance funding to insolvent banks, or stimulate the economy with deficit spending will sustain and exacerbate the malinvestment. He wrote that such government policy impedes the adjustment he believed was necessary to liquidate distortions and restore prices and resource allocations which he said would otherwise be based on time preference alone.<ref name="ReferenceA">'']'', ]</ref>
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:
====The role of central banks====
* ''']''': 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.
Many Austrian economists believe that fluctuations in bank credit are the primary cause of business cycles and that excessive credit creation at relatively low interest rates facilitates excessive capital spending by borrowers. For example, Murray Rothbard believed that ]s, by expanding the supply of loanable funds, artificially causes commercial banks to fund the loan market at a lower rate of interest than might prevail if the ] were fixed.<ref name="econlib.org"/><ref name="The Mystery of Banking">, Murray Rothbard, 1983</ref> Friedrich Hayek, on the other hand, stated that a freely competitive, banking industry tends to be endogenously destabilizing and pro-cyclical, mimicking the effects Rothbard attributes to central bank policy. Hayek stated that the need for ] control was inescapable.<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|accessdate=11 April 2013|doi=10.1215/00182702-31-4-753|pages=753}}</ref>
* ''']''': 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 ==
==Etymology==
=== Opportunity cost ===
The School owes its name to members of the German ], who argued against the Austrians during the '']'' ("methodology struggle"), in which the Austrians defended the 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." ], 2007; in the Foreword to ''Principles of Economics'', Carl Menger; trns. James Dingwall and Bert F. Hoselitz, 1976; Ludwig von Mises Institute, Alabama; 2007; ISBN 978-1-933550-12-1</ref> 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 ed.|publisher=Ludwig von Mises Institute.|url=http://mises.org/etexts/histsetting.pdf}}</ref>
{{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>
==History==
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===First Wave=== === Capital and interest ===
{{see also|Capital and Interest|Marginalism|Neutrality of money|Time preference}}
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The school originated in ], in the ]. Carl Menger'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 |title=Austrian Economics in Debate |publisher=Routledge |location=New York |year=1997 |isbn=978-0-415-14054-6 }}</ref>{{Page needed|date=August 2011}} 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>Israel M. Kirzner (1987). "Austrian School of Economics," '']'', v. 1, pp. 145–151.</ref> ] introduced the term ] in his ''Preconceptions of Economic Science'' (1900) to distinguish marginalists in the objective cost tradition of ] from those in the subjective valuation tradition of the Austrian School.<ref>Veblen, Thorstein Bunde; “The Preconceptions of Economic Science” Pt III, ''Quarterly Journal of Economics'' v14 (1900).</ref><ref name="Colander" >Colander, David; ''The Death of Neoclassical Economics''.</ref>{{Nonspecific|date=August 2011}}
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.
] contributions to economic theory were closely followed by that of Böhm-Bawerk 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, as was part of the Austrians' participation in the late 19th Century ''Methodenstreit'', during which they attacked the ] doctrines of the ].


===Twentieth century=== === Inflation ===
{{see also|Monetary inflation}}
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In Mises's definition, inflation is an increase in the supply of money:<ref>{{cite book |first=Ludwig |last=von Mises |chapter=Economic Freedom and Interventionism |editor1-first=Bettina B. |editor1-last=Greaves |title=Economics of Mobilization |publisher=The Commercial and Financial Chronicle |location=Sulphur Springs, West Virginia |year=1980 |chapter-url=https://mises.org/efandi/ch20.asp|quote="Inflation, as this term was always used everywhere and especially in this country, means increasing the quantity of money and bank notes in circulation and the quantity of bank deposits subject to check. But people today use the term "inflation" to refer to the phenomenon that is an inevitable consequence of inflation, that is the tendency of all prices and wage rates to rise. The result of this deplorable confusion is that there is no term left to signify the cause of this rise in prices and wages. There is no longer any word available to signify the phenomenon that has been, up to now, called inflation As you cannot talk about something that has no name, you cannot fight it. Those who pretend to fight inflation are in fact only fighting what is the inevitable consequence of inflation, rising prices. Their ventures are doomed to failure because they do not attack the root of the evil. They try to keep prices low while firmly committed to a policy of increasing the quantity of money that must necessarily make them soar. As long as this terminological confusion is not entirely wiped out, there cannot be any question of stopping inflation." |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140914001611/https://mises.org/efandi/ch20.asp |archive-date=2014-09-14 }}</ref> {{blockquote|In theoretical investigation there is only one meaning that can rationally be attached to the expression Inflation: an increase in the quantity of money (in the broader sense of the term, so as to include fiduciary media as well), that is not offset by a corresponding increase in the need for money (again in the broader sense of the term), so that a fall in the objective exchange-value of money must occur.<ref name="TheTheory">The Theory of Money and Credit, Mises (1912, , p. 272)</ref>}}


Hayek claimed that inflationary stimulation exploits the lag between an increase in money supply and the consequent increase in the prices of goods and services: {{blockquote|And since any inflation, however modest at first, can help employment only so long as it accelerates, adopted as a means of reducing unemployment, it will do so for any length of time only while it accelerates. "Mild" steady inflation cannot help—it can lead only to outright inflation. That inflation at a constant rate soon ceases to have any stimulating effect, and in the end merely leaves us with a backlog of delayed adaptations, is the conclusive argument against the "mild" inflation represented as beneficial even in standard economics textbooks.<ref>{{cite book |last=Hayek |first=Friedrich August |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zZu3AAAAIAAJ&q=%22only+while+it+accelerates%22 |title=1980s Unemployment and the Unions: Essays on the Impotent Price Structure of Britain and Monopoly in the Labour Market |publisher=] |date=1984|isbn=9780255361736 }}</ref>}}
By the mid-1930s, most economists had embraced what they considered the important contributions of the early Austrians.<ref name="Boettke and Leeson"/> After ], Austrian economics was disregarded or derided by most economists because it rejected mathematical and statistical methods in the study of economics.<ref>"" by Roger E. Backhouse, $34 to view {{Dead link|date=March 2011}}</ref>


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 economics after 1940 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.<ref name="Caplan"/><ref>http://mises.org/journals/qjae/pdf/qjae7_1_3.pdf</ref>


=== Economic calculation problem ===
] 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=] |date= |accessdate=2013-03-11}}</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=http://mises.org/about/3233 |title=Biography of Henry Hazlitt |publisher=The Ludwig von Mises Institute |date= |accessdate=2013-03-11}}</ref>
{{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>
The reputation of the Austrian School rose in the late-20th century due in part to the work of ] and ] at New York University, and to renewed public awareness of the work of Hayek after he won the 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= http://mises.org/etexts/austrianliberalism.asp |title=Austrian Economics and Classical Liberalism |first=Ralph |last=Raico |work=mises.org |publisher=Mises Institute |year=2011 |quote=despite the particular policy views of its founders ..., Austrianism was perceived as the economics of the free market |accessdate=27 July 2011}}</ref><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>


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>
In the late twentieth century, ] wrote about political theory and various economic issues from an anarchist point of view. Rothbard's anarchist views have been promoted and expanded by various other writers associated with the Mises Institute.<ref>{{cite book|last=Rothbard|first=Murray|title=Betrayal of the American Right|year=1991|publisher=Mises Institute|pages=74|url=http://library.mises.org/books/Murray%20N%20Rothbard/The%20Betrayal%20of%20the%20American%20Right.pdf}}</ref> Rothbard opposed ], which he called a ] that should be illegal.<ref name="mises_a" /><ref></ref> He also advocated replacing ]s, either with an unregulated 100% reserve ] or a ] system in which each individual would choose what to accept as money.<ref name="mises_a">Rothbard, Murray. , p. 261</ref>


===Split among contemporary Austrians=== === Business cycles ===
{{Macroeconomics sidebar}}
By the late twentieth century, a split had developed among those who self-identify with the Austrian School. One group, building on the work of Hayek, works within the broad framework of mainstream neoclassical economics, including its use of mathematical models and general equilibrium, and merely brings a critical perspective to mainstream methodology influenced by the Austrian notions such as the ] and the independent role of logical reasoning in developing economic theory. A second group, following Mises and Rothbard, rejects the neoclassical theories of consumer and welfare economics, dismisses empirical methods and mathematical and statistical models as inapplicable to economic science, and asserts that economic theory went entirely astray in the twentieth century; they offer the Misesian view as a radical alternative paradigm to mainstream theory. As economist ] put it, if "Mises and Rothbard are right, then economics is wrong; but if Hayek is right, then mainstream economics merely needs to adjust its focus."<ref name="Austrian Paradigms">{{cite journal|last=Caplan|first=Bryan|title=The Austrian Search for Realistic Foundations|journal=Southern Economic Journal|date=1999|volume=65|issue=4|pages=823–838|jstor=1061278|doi=10.2307/1061278}}</ref> Economists of the (dominant) Hayekian view are affiliated with the Cato Institute, George Mason University, and New York University, among other institutions. They include ], ], ], ] and ]. Self-identified Austrians of the Mises-Rothbard view include ], ], ] and ]. They tend to be associated with the ] and with various smaller academic institutions, such as ] and ].{{or|date=June 2013}}
{{main|Austrian business cycle theory}}
The Austrian theory of the ] (ABCT) focuses on banks' issuance of credit as the cause of economic fluctuations.<ref name="ReferenceA">], ''].''</ref> Although later elaborated by Hayek and others, the theory was first set forth by Mises, who posited that fractional reserve banks extend credit at artificially low interest rates, causing businesses to invest in relatively ] production processes which leads to an artificial "boom". Mises stated that this artificial "boom" then led to a misallocation of resources which he called "]" – which eventually must end in a "bust".<ref name="ReferenceA"/>


Mises surmised that government manipulation of money and credit in the banking system throws savings and investment out of balance, resulting in misdirected investment projects that are eventually found to be unsustainable, at which point the economy has to rebalance itself through a period of corrective recession.<ref name=":1">{{Cite book |last=Ebeling |first=Richard |title=Austrian Economics and Public Policy: Restoring Freedom and Prosperity |publisher=The Future of Freedom Foundation |year=2016 |location=Fairfax, Virginia |pages=217}}</ref> Austrian economist Fritz Machlup summarized the Austrian view by stating, "monetary factors cause the cycle but real phenomena constitute it."<ref name=":2">{{Cite journal|last=Hughes|first=Arthur Middleton|date=March 1997|title=The recession of 1990: An Austrian explanation|journal=The Review of Austrian Economics|language=en|volume=10|issue=1|pages=107–123|doi=10.1007/BF02538145|s2cid=154412906|issn=0889-3047}}</ref> This may be unrealistic since successful entrepreneurs will realise that interest rates are artificially low and will adjust their investment decisions based on projected long term interest rates.<ref name="Caplan"></ref>
==Influence==
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" />
Many theories developed by "first wave" Austrian economists have been absorbed into most ] schools of economics. 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 ].


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>
Former ] Chairman ] said in 2000, that " the Austrian School have reached far into the future from when most of them practiced and have had a profound and, in my judgment, probably an irreversible effect on how most mainstream economists think in this country."<ref>Greenspan, Alan. "Hearings before the U.S. House of Representatives' Committee on Financial Services." U.S. House of Representatives' Committee on Financial Services. Washington D.C.. 25 July 2000.</ref> 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> Austrian Economics Newsletter: Volume 9, Number 1; Fall 1987</ref> Former U.S. congressman ] has stated that he played a small role in the founding of the ].<ref>{{cite book |last=Paul |first=Ron |authorlink=Ron Paul |title=] |publisher=Grand Central Publishing |year=2008 |isbn=978-0-446-53751-3 |page=102}}</ref> Paul's former economic adviser, investment dealer ],<ref>{{cite news | url = http://www.reuters.com/article/pressRelease/idUS255917+25-Jan-2008+BW20080125 | work=Reuters | title=Peter Schiff Named Economic Advisor to the Ron Paul 2008 Presidential Campaign | date=2008-01-25}}</ref> calls himself an adherent of the Austrian School.<ref></ref> Former hedge fund manager ] also endorses the Austrian School of economics.<ref>''Inside the House of Money: Top Hedge Fund Traders on Profiting in the Global Markets''. 2006. Wiley. p. 230</ref> Chinese economist ], supports some Austrian theories such as the Austrian theory of the business cycle.<ref>Weiyin, Zhang, "Completely bury Keynesianism", http://finance.sina.com.cn/20090217/10345864499_3.shtml (February 17, 2009)</ref> Currently, universities with a significant Austrian presence are ], ], ], and ] in the United States and ] in Guatemala. Austrian economic ideas are also promoted by privately funded organizations such as the ], the ] and the ].


====Central banks====
==Criticisms==
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>
===General criticisms===
Some economists have argued that Austrians are often averse to the use of mathematics and statistics in economics.<ref name="white1"/>


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.
Economist Bryan Caplan argues that many Austrians have not understood valid contributions of modern mainstream economics, causing them to overstate their differences with it. For example, Murray Rothbard stated that he objected to the use of ] in microeconomic theory; however, mainstream microeconomic theorists go to great pains to show that their results are derived for any ] transformation of an ] function, and do not entail cardinal utility.<ref name="Caplan_ord">{{Cite web|url=http://www.gmu.edu/departments/economics/bcaplan/whyaust.htm|title=Why I Am Not an Austrian Economist |last=Caplan |first=Bryan |publisher=] |accessdate=2008-07-04 | quote=According to Rothbard, the mainstream approach credulously accepted the use of cardinal utility, when only the use of ordinal utility is defensible. As Rothbard insists, "Value scales of each individual are purely ordinal, and there is no way whatever of measuring the distance between the rankings; indeed, any concept of such distance is a fallacious one." ...As plausible as Rothbard sounds on this issue, he simply does not understand the position he is attacking. The utility function approach is based as squarely on ordinal utility as Rothbard's is. The modern neoclassical theorists – such as Arrow and Debreau – who developed the utility function approach went out of their way to avoid the use of cardinal utility. ...To sum up, Rothbard falsely accused neoclassical utility theory of assuming cardinality. It does not.}}</ref><ref name="Caplan_journal">{{cite journal |first=Bryan |last=Caplan |title=The Austrian Search for Realistic Foundations |publisher=Southern Economic Association |journal=Southern Economic Journal |month=April |year=1999 |pages=823–838 |volume=65 |issue=4 |ref=harv |doi=10.2307/1061278 |jstor=1061278 }}</ref> The result is that conclusions about utility preferences hold no matter what values are assigned to them.


== See also ==
Economist ] has stated that because Austrians do not use "explicit models" they are unaware of holes in their own thinking.<ref name="Krugman 2">{{Cite web|url=http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/04/07/martin-and-the-austrians |title=The Conscience of a Liberal: Martin And The Austrians |last=Krugman |first=Paul |date=4-7-2010 |publisher='']'' |accessdate=9-21-2011}}</ref> In February 2013, Krugman further criticized Austrian School economists on their failure to revise their theory of inflation in light of their incorrect prophecies of government-induced inflation following the 2008 financial crisis.<ref name=Whines>{{cite news|last=Krugman|first=Paul|title=Fine Austrian Whines|url=http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/02/20/fine-austrian-whines/|accessdate=11 June 2013|newspaper=New York Times|date=February 20, 2013}}</ref>
{{cols|colwidth=14em}}

* ]
Economist Benjamin Klein has criticized the economic methodological work of Austrian economist ]. While praising Kirzner for highlighting shortcomings in traditional methodology, Klein argued that Kirzner did not provide a viable alternative for economic methodology.<ref>Klein, Benjamin. "Book review: ''Competition and Entrepreneurship''" (by ], University of Chicago Press, 1973) '']''. Vol. 83: No. 6, 1305–1306, December 1975.<!--JSTOR has the first page of Klein's review at http://www.jstor.org/pss/1830872. Can this be used as a reference instead please? --></ref> Economist Tyler Cowen has written that Kirzner's theory of entrepreneurship can ultimately be reduced to a neoclassical search model and is thus not in the radical subjectivist tradition of Austrian praxeology. Cowen states that Kirzner's entrepreneurs can be modeled in mainstream terms of search.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Cowen|first=Tyler|title=Entrepreneurship, Austrian Economics, and the Quarrel Between Philosophy and Poetry|journal=Review of Austrian Economics|month=May |year= 2003|volume=16|issue=1}}</ref>
* ]

* ]<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>
Economist ] argues that among developed countries, those with high rates of taxation and high social welfare spending perform better on most measures of economic performance compared to countries with low rates of taxation and low social outlays. He concludes that Friedrich Hayek was wrong to argue that high levels of government spending harms an economy, and "a generous social-welfare state is not a road to serfdom but rather to fairness, economic equality and international competitiveness."<ref>{{Cite journal|title=The Social Welfare State, Beyond Ideology |last=Sachs|first=Jeffrey |date = October 2006|journal=Scientific American |url=http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=the-social-welfare-state |accessdate=2008-06-20|ref=harv }}</ref> Austrian economist ] responded by arguing that countries with large public sectors have grown more slowly.<ref>Sudha R. Shenoy, ''Are High Taxes the Basis of Freedom and Prosperity?'', http://www.thefreemanonline.org/featured/are-high-taxes-the-basis-of-freedom-and-prosperity/</ref>
* ]

* ]
===Methodology===
* ]
Critics generally argue that Austrian economics lacks scientific rigor and rejects scientific methods and the use of empirical data in modelling economic behavior.<ref name="Caplan"/><ref name="white1">{{Cite journal |title=The research program of Austrian economics |publisher=Emerald Group Publishing Limited |first=Lawrence H. |last=White |journal=Advances in Austrian Economics |year=2008 |page=20 |ref=harv }}</ref><ref name="Newton1999">"Rules for the study of ]", {{harvnb |Newton |1999 |pp=794–6 }}, from Book '''3''', ''The System of the World''.</ref> Some economists describe Austrian methodology as being '']'' or ].<ref name="Caplan" /><ref name="tremble">{{cite journal |first=Paul A. |last=Samuelson |title=Theory and Realism: A Reply |publisher=] |journal=The ] |month=September |year=1964 |pages=736–739 |quote=Well, in connection with the exaggerated claims that used to be made in economics for the power of deduction and a priori reasoning ..... – I tremble for the reputation of my subject. Fortunately, we have left that behind us. |ref=harv}}</ref><ref name="white1">
* ]
{{Cite journal |title=The research program of Austrian economics |publisher=Emerald Group Publishing Limited |first=Lawrence H.
* ]
|last=White |journal=Advances in Austrian Economics |year=2008 |page=20 |ref=harv |postscript= }}</ref><ref name="Mayer1998">{{cite journal
* ]
|first=Thomas |last=Mayer |title=Boettke's Austrian critique of mainstream economics: An empiricist's response |publisher=Routledge
|journal=Critical Review |month=Winter |year=1998 |pages=151–171 |ref=harv
|doi=10.1080/08913819808443491
|volume=12}}</ref>

Economist ] has criticized over-reliance on methodological individualism, arguing it would rule out all macroeconomic propositions that cannot be reduced to microeconomic ones, and hence reject almost the whole of received macroeconomics.<ref name=Blaug>{{Cite book|last=Blaug|first=Mark|title=The Methodology of Economics: Or, How Economists Explain|year=1992|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=0-521-43678-8|pages=45–46}}</ref>

Economist ] has stated that Austrians advocate a rejection of the ] which involves the development of empirically falsifiable ].<ref name="Newton1999" /><ref name="Mayer1998" /> Furthermore, many supporters of using models of market behavior to analyze and test economic theory argue that economists have developed numerous experiments that elicit useful information about individual preferences.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.dictionaryofeconomics.com/article?id=pde2008_M000391 |title=Models |first=Mary S. |last=Morgan |work=The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics |year=2008 |accessdate=22 November 2011}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url= http://www.dictionaryofeconomics.com/article?id=pde2008_C000569 |title=Causality in economics and econometrics |first=Kevin D. |last=Hoover |work=The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics |year=2008 |accessdate=22 November 2011}}</ref>

===Capital and interest===
Many ] object to the theory of time preference being applied to an economy as a whole in a capitalist society. They argue that the theory fails to take into account that making profits in a capitalist society is not the provision of future means of consumption, but rather profits for their own sake.<ref>The Anarchist FAQ Editorial Collective, '' An Anarchist FAQ'' http://infoshop.org/page/AnarchistFAQSectionC2#secc26</ref>

===Business cycle theory===
{{main|Austrian business cycle theory#Criticisms}}

According to ], most economists believe that the Austrian business cycle theory is incorrect because of its incompleteness and other problems.<ref name="Quiggin">{{cite web |url= http://johnquiggin.com/index.php/archives/2009/05/03/austrian-business-cycle-theory/ |title=John Quiggin " Austrian Business Cycle Theory |work=johnquiggin.com |accessdate=19 July 2010 }}</ref>{{elucidate|date=January 2013}}

====Theoretical objections====
Some economists argue that Austrian business cycle theory requires bankers and investors to exhibit a kind of irrationality, because the Austrian theory posits that investors will be fooled repeatedly (by temporarily low interest rates) into making unprofitable investment decisions.<ref name="Caplan"/><ref name="Tullock1988"/><ref></ref> Bryan Caplan writes: "Why does Rothbard think businessmen are so incompetent at forecasting government policy? He credits them with entrepreneurial foresight about all market-generated conditions, but curiously finds them unable to forecast government policy, or even to avoid falling prey to simple accounting illusions generated by inflation and deflation... Particularly in interventionist economies, it would seem that natural selection would weed out businesspeople with such a gigantic blind spot."<ref name="caplan_abct">
{{cite web
| first = Bryan
| last = Caplan
| title = What's Wrong With Austrian Business Cycle Theory
| publisher = Liberty Fund, Inc.
| date = February 12, 2009
| url = http://econlog.econlib.org/archives/2008/01/whats_wrong_wit_6.html
| format = news
| accessdate = 2010-05-17}}
</ref> Austrian economist Robert Murphy argues that it is difficult for investors to make sound business choices because they cannot know what the interest rate would be if it were set by the market.<ref name="http://mises.org/daily/3466">{{Cite web|author=Robert P. Murphy |url=http://mises.org/daily/3466 |title=Correcting Quiggin on Austrian Business-Cycle Theory – Robert P. Murphy – Mises Daily |publisher=Mises.org |date= |accessdate=2012-08-13}}</ref>

Economist Paul Krugman has argued that the theory cannot explain changes in unemployment over the business cycle. Austrian business cycle theory postulates that business cycles are caused by the misallocation of resources from consumption to investment during "booms", and out of investment during "busts". Krugman argues that because total spending is equal to total income in an economy, the theory implies that the reallocation of resources during "busts" would increase employment in consumption industries, whereas in reality, spending declines in all sectors of an economy during recessions. He also argues that according to the theory the initial "booms" would also cause resource reallocation, which implies an increase in unemployment during booms as well.<ref name="Krugman" /> In response, Austrian economist ] argues that Krugman's argument is dependent on a misrepresentation of the theory.{{clarify|date=May 2013}} He furthermore argues that prices on consumption goods may go up as a result of the investment bust, which could mean that the amount spent on consumption could increase even though the quantity of goods consumed has not.<ref></ref> Furthermore, Roger Garrison argues that a false boom caused by artificially low interest rates would cause a boom in consumption goods as well as investment goods (with a decrease in "middle goods"), thus explaining the jump in unemployment at the end of a boom.<ref>{{Cite web|author=Auburn User |url=http://www.auburn.edu/~garriro/strigl.htm |title=Overconsumption And Forced Saving |publisher=Auburn.edu |date= |accessdate=2012-08-15}}</ref> Many Austrians also argue that capital allocated to investment goods cannot be quickly augmented to create consumption goods.<ref>{{Cite web|author=Roger W. Garrison |url=http://mises.org/daily/1215 |title=Hayek on Industrial Fluctuations – Roger W. Garrison – Mises Daily |publisher=Mises.org |date= |accessdate=2012-08-13}}</ref>

Economist Jeffery Hummel is critical of Hayek's explanation of labor asymmetry in booms and busts. He argues that Hayek makes peculiar assumptions about demand curves for labor in his explanation of how a decrease in investment spending creates unemployment. He also argues that the labor asymmetry can be explained in terms of a change in real wages, but this explanation fails to explain the business cycle in terms of resource allocation.<ref name="Hummel">{{Cite web|url=http://www.reasonpapers.com/pdf/05/rp_5_4.pdf ''Reason Papers'' |title=Problems with Austrian Business Cycle Theory |last=Hummel |first=Jeffery Rogers|date=Winter 1979|format=PDF |pages=41–53|accessdate=9-17-2011}}</ref>

Milton Friedman objected to the policy implications of the theory, stating the following in a 1998 interview:

<blockquote>I think the Austrian business-cycle theory has done the world a great deal of harm. If you go back to the 1930s, which is a key point, here you had the Austrians sitting in London, Hayek and Lionel Robbins, and saying you just have to let the bottom drop out of the world. You’ve just got to let it cure itself. You can’t do anything about it. You will only make it worse. You have Rothbard saying it was a great mistake not to let the whole banking system collapse. I think by encouraging that kind of do-nothing policy both in Britain and in the United States, they did harm.<ref>Interview in ''Barron's Magazine'', August 24, 1998 archived at Hoover Institution </ref></blockquote>

====Empirical objections====
Hummel argues that the Austrian explanation of the business cycle fails on empirical grounds. In particular, he notes that investment spending remained positive in all recessions where there are data, except for the ]. He argues that this casts doubt on the notion that recessions are caused by a reallocation of resources from industrial production to consumption, since he argues that the Austrian business cycle theory implies that net investment should be below zero during recessions.<ref name="Hummel"/> In response, Austrian economist ] argues that the misallocation during booms does not preclude the possibility of demand increasing overall.<ref>http://www.reasonpapers.com/pdf/30/rp_30_4.pdf</ref>

In 1969, economist Milton Friedman, after examining the history of business cycles in the U.S., concluded that "The Hayek-Mises explanation of the business cycle is contradicted by the evidence. It is, I believe, false."<ref name=Friedman1969/> He analyzed the issue using newer data in 1993, and again reached the same conclusion.<ref name="Friedman93"/>

Referring to Friedman's discussion of the business cycle, Austrian economist Roger Garrison stated, "Friedman's empirical findings are broadly consistent with both Monetarist and Austrian views", and goes on to argue that although Friedman's model "describes the economy's performance at the highest level of aggregation; Austrian theory offers an insightful account of the market process that might underlie those aggregates."<ref>{{Cite web|author=Auburn User |url=http://www.auburn.edu/~garriro/fm1pluck.htm |title=Plucking Model |publisher=Auburn.edu |date=1982-10-25 |accessdate=2012-08-13}}</ref><ref>Milton Friedman, "The 'Plucking Model' of Business Fluctuations Revisited" Economic Inquiry April, 1993</ref>

==Principal works==
* '']'' by ]
* '']'' by ]
* '']'' by ]
* '']'' by ]
* '']'' by ]

==See also==
{{Portal|Economics}}
* ]
* ] * ]
* ]
* ]
* ]
* '']''
* ]
* ]
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{{colend}}


==References and notes== == Notes and references ==
{{Reflist|2}} {{Reflist}}


==Further reading== == Further reading ==
* Alejandro Agafonow (2012). ''Review of Political Economy'', Vol. 24, No. 02. * {{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).
* Harald Hagemann, Tamotsu Nishizawa, and Yukihiro Ikeda, eds. ''Austrian Economics in Transition: From Carl Menger to Friedrich Hayek'' (Palgrave Macmillan; 2010) 339 pages
* {{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}}.
* Stephen Littlechild, ed. (1990). ''Austrian economics'', 3 v. Edward Elgar. and scroll to chapter preview for v. 1.
* {{cite book |editor-last1=Hagemann |editor-first1=Harald |editor-first2=Tamotsu |editor-last2=Nishizawa |editor-first3=Yukihiro |editor-last3=Ikeda |title=Austrian Economics in Transition: From Carl Menger to Friedrich Hayek |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan |date=2010}} <!--339 pp.--> <!-- https://www.jstor.org/stable/23723546 book review -->
* {{cite book |last=Holcombe |first=Randall |title=The Great Austrian Economists |date=1999 |publisher=Ludwig von Mises Institute |isbn=0945466048}} <!--273pp.-->
* {{cite book |editor-last1=Littlechild |editor-first1=Stephen |date=1990 |title=Austrian economics <!--in 3 volumes--> |publisher=Edward Elgar |isbn=978-1-85278-120-0}} <!----> <!-- Vol. 1 per earlier cite preview no longer available: https://books.google.com/books?id=XoZXUkYGj-oC&printsec=frontcover&cad=0#v=onepage -->
* {{cite book |last=Papaioannou |first=Theo |title=Reading Hayek in the 21st Century: a critical inquiry into his political thought |publisher=Springer |date=2012}}
* {{cite book|last1=Schulak|first1=Eugen-Maria|last2=Unterköfler|first2=Herbert|title=The Austrian School of Economics: A History of Its Ideas, Ambassadors, and Institutions|publisher=Ludwig von Mises Institute|year=2011|url=https://mises.org/library/austrian-school-economics-history-its-ideas-ambassadors-and-institutions|isbn=9781610161343|ref=none}}
* {{cite book |last=Wasserman |first=Janek |title=The Marginal Revolutionaries: How Austrian Economists Fought the War of Ideas |date=2019}} .


==External links== == External links ==
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* at Mises Wiki
* {{dmoz|Science/Social_Sciences/Economics/Schools_of_Thought/Austrian_School/}}


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Latest revision as of 15:54, 19 December 2024

School of economic thought Not to be confused with Economy of Austria. "Austrian school" redirects here. For the education system in Austria, see Education in Austria.
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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 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 the Austrian Empire. Carl Menger's 1871 book Principles of Economics is generally considered the founding of the Austrian school. The book was one of the first modern treatises to advance the theory of marginal utility. The Austrian school was one of three founding currents of the marginalist revolution of the 1870s, with its major contribution being the introduction of the subjectivist approach in economics.

Despite such claim, John Stuart Mill had used value in use in this sense in 1848 in Principles of Political Economy, where he wrote: "Value in use, or as Mr. De Quincey calls it, teleologic value, is the extreme limit of value in exchange. The exchange value of a thing may fall short, to any amount, of its value in use; but that it can ever exceed the value in use, implies a contradiction; it supposes that persons will give, to possess a thing, more than the utmost value which they themselves put upon it as a means of gratifying their inclinations."

While marginalism was generally influential, there was also a more specific school that began to coalesce around Menger's work, which came to be known as the "psychological school", "Vienna school", or "Austrian school". Menger's contributions to economic theory were closely followed by those of Eugen Böhm von Bawerk and Friedrich von Wieser. These three economists became what is known as the "first wave" of the Austrian school. Böhm-Bawerk wrote extensive critiques of Karl Marx in the 1880s and 1890s and was part of the Austrians' participation in the late 19th-century Methodenstreit, during which they attacked the Hegelian doctrines of the historical school.

Early 20th century

Frank Albert Fetter (1863–1949) was a leader in the United States of Austrian thought. He obtained his PhD in 1894 from the University of Halle and then was made Professor of Political Economy and Finance at Cornell University in 1901. Several important Austrian economists trained at the University of Vienna in the 1920s and later participated in private seminars held by Ludwig von Mises. These included Gottfried Haberler, Friedrich Hayek, Fritz Machlup, Karl Menger (son of Carl Menger), Oskar Morgenstern, Paul Rosenstein-Rodan, Abraham Wald, and Michael A. Heilperin, among others, as well as the sociologist Alfred Schütz.

Later 20th century

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 Böhm von Bawerk's theories on time preference, as well as Menger and Böhm-Bawerk's criticisms of Marxian economics.

Former American Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan said that the founders of the Austrian school "reached far into the future from when most of them practiced and have had a profound and, in my judgment, probably an irreversible effect on how most mainstream economists think in this country". In 1987, Nobel Laureate James M. Buchanan told an interviewer: "I have no objections to being called an Austrian. Hayek and Mises might consider me an Austrian but, surely some of the others would not".

Currently, universities with a significant Austrian presence are George Mason University, New York University, Grove City College, Loyola University New Orleans, Monmouth College, and Auburn University in the United States; King Juan Carlos University in Spain; and Universidad Francisco Marroquín in Guatemala. Austrian economic ideas are also promoted by privately funded organizations such as the Mises Institute and the Cato Institute.

Theory

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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 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 Böhm von Bawerk

The Austrian theory of capital and interest was first developed by Eugen Böhm von Bawerk. He stated that interest rates and profits are determined by two factors, namely supply and demand in the market for final goods and time preference.

Böhm-Bawerk's theory equates capital intensity with the degree of roundaboutness of production processes. Böhm-Bawerk also argued that the law of marginal utility necessarily implies the classical law of costs. However, many Austrian economists such as Ludwig von Mises, Israel Kirzner, Ludwig Lachmann, and Jesús Huerta de Soto entirely reject a productivity explanation for interest rates, viewing the average period of production as an unfortunate remnant of damaged classical economic thought on Böhm-Bawerk.

Inflation

See also: Monetary 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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