ECON 3499 Austrian Economics

Independent Study in Austrian Economics
Economics 3499

R. N. Langlois

Reading list.

Overview.

Lawrence H. White, The Methodology of the Austrian School Economists. New York: Center for Libertarian Studies, 1977.

Podcast: Peter Boettke on Austrian Economics.

Menger.

Carl Menger, Principles of EconomicsNew York: NYU Press, 1981 [1871].

Mises.

Ludwig von Mises, Human Action. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1949.

The socialist calculation debate.

Assignment 1.

A. Hayek, “The Use of Knowledge in Society,” American Economic Review35(4): 519-530 (1945), reprinted in idem., Individualism and Economic Order. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1948, esp. ch. IV. [See also chapters VI, VII, and IX of the latter.]

Don Lavoie, “A Critique of the Standard Account of the Socialist Calculation Debate,”The Journal of Libertarian Studies 5(1): 41-87 (Winter 1981).

Don Lavoie, Rivalry and Central Planning. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1985.

Karen Vaughn, “Economic Calculation under Socialism,” Economic Inquiry 18: 535-54 (1980).

Peter J. Boettke and Peter T. Leeson, “Socialism: Still Impossible After All These Years.” Manuscript.

Schumpeter.

Joseph A. Schumpeter, Theory of Economic Development. Harvard University Press, 1934, chapter II.

Joseph A. Schumpeter, Capitalism, Socialism, and Democracy. New York: Harper, 1942, Part II. Excerpt here.

Richard N. Langlois, “Schumpeter and the Obsolescence of the Entrepreneur,” Advances in Austrian Economics 6: 287-302 (2003).

Competition and entrepreneurship.

Assignment 2.

Paul J. McNulty, “A Note on the History of Perfect Competition, Journal of Political Economy 75(4): 395-399 (August 1967).

  1. A. Hayek, “The Meaning of Competition,” in Individualism and Economic Order. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1948.

Israel Kirzner, Competition and Entrepreneurship. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1973.  Many of the ideas in the book are discussed in this early paper.

Israel M. Kirzner, “Entrepreneurial Discovery and the Competitive Market Process: An Austrian Approach,” Journal of Economic Literature 35(1): 60-85 (March 1997).

Capital structure and the business cycle.

Ludwig Lachmann, Capital and Its Structure. London: Bell and Sons, 1956.

Peter Lewin, “Time, Change and Complexity: Ludwig M. Lachmann’s Contributions to the Theory of Capital,” Advances in Austrian Economics, Vol. 3, 1996

Roger W Garrison, “Hayekian Trade Cycle Theory: A Reappraisal,” Cato Journal 6(2): 437-459 (Fall 1986).

Gerald P. O’Driscoll, Economics as a Coordination Problem: The Contributions of Friedrich A. Hayek, Foreword by F.A. Hayek Kansas City: Sheed Andrews and McMeel, 1977.

Roger W. Garrison, “Time and Money: The Universals of Macroeconomic Theorizing,” Journal of Macroeconomics 6(2):197-213 (1984).

Rap Video: “Fear the Boom and Bust.” (Explanation here.)

Money: competitive currency versus the gold standard.

Assignment 3.

Podcast: Larry White on Hayek and Money.

Friedrich A. Hayek, Denationalisation of Money: the Argument Refined. Institute of Economic Affairs, 1990.

Lawrence H. White, Free Banking in Britain – Theory, Experience and Debate 1800-1845. London: Insitute of Economic Affairs, 1984.

Murray N. Rothbard, “The Case for a Genuine Gold Dollar,” Ludwig von Mises Institute, 1992.

The evolution of institutions.

Richard N. Langlois, “Orders and Organizations: Toward an Austrian Theory of Social Institutions,” in Bruce Caldwell and Stephan Boehm, eds., Austrian Economics: Tensions and New Directions. Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers, 1992, pp. 165-83.

Peter J. Boettke, “Anarchism and Austrian Economics,”  GMU Working Paper in Economics No. 11-37, 2011.

Douglass C North, John Joseph Wallis, and Barry R. Weingast, “A Conceptual Framework for Interpreting Recorded Human History,” NBER Working Paper No. 12795, December 2006.

Interventionism.

Assignment 4.

Don Lavoie, “The Development of the Misesian Theory of Interventionism,” in Israel M. Kirzner, ed., Method, Process, and Austrian Economics: Essays in Honor of Ludwig von Mises, Lexington, Ma: D.C. Heath, pp. 169-188 (1982).

Murray Rothbard, Man, Economy, and State. Auburn: Ludwig von Mises Institute, Scholars Edition, 2004. Chapter 12, “The Economics of Violent Intervention in the Market.”

The future of Austrian Economics.

Gerald P. O’Driscoll and Mario J. Rizzo, with Roger W. Garrison, The Economics of Time and Ignorance. London: Routledge, second edition, 1996.

Daniel B. Klein, “Toward a Public and Professional Identity for our Economics.” Econ Journal Watch 5(3): 358–72 (2008).

Peter G. Klein, “The Mundane Economics of the Austrian School,” Working Paper, University of Missouri, 2008.

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