Austrian school of economics

The Austrian school is a heterodox[1][2][3] 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.[4][5][6]

The Austrian school originated[when?] in Vienna with the work of Carl Menger, Eugen von Böhm-Bawerk, Friedrich von Wieser, and others.[7] 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[8]

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.[9]

  1. ^ Boettke, Peter J.; Leeson, Peter T. (2003). "28A: The Austrian School of Economics 1950–2000". In Samuels, Warren; Biddle, Jeff E.; Davis, John B. (eds.). A Companion to the History of Economic Thought. Blackwell Publishing. pp. 446–452. ISBN 978-0-631-22573-7.
  2. ^ "Heterodox economics: Marginal revolutionaries". The Economist. December 31, 2011. Archived from the original on February 22, 2012. Retrieved February 22, 2012.
  3. ^ Denis, Andy (2008). "Dialectics and the Austrian School: A Surprising Commonality in the Methodology of Heterodox Economics?". The Journal of Philosophical Economics. 1 (2): 151–173. Retrieved 19 May 2022.
  4. ^ Menger, Carl (2007) [1871]. Principles of Economics (PDF). Translated by Dingwall, James; Hoselitz, Bert F. Auburn, Alabama: Ludwig von Mises Institute.
  5. ^ Heath, Joseph (1 May 2018). Zalta, Edward N. (ed.). The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Metaphysics Research Lab, Stanford University. Retrieved 1 May 2018 – via Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
  6. ^ Ludwig von Mises. Human Action, p. 11, "Purposeful Action and Animal Reaction". Referenced 2011-11-23.
  7. ^ Joseph A. Schumpeter, History of economic analysis, Oxford University Press 1996, ISBN 978-0195105599.
  8. ^ Birner, Jack; van Zijp, Rudy (1994). Hayek, Co-ordination and Evolution: His Legacy in Philosophy, Politics, Economics and the History of Ideas. London, New York: Routledge. p. 94. ISBN 978-0-415-09397-2.
  9. ^ Meijer, G. (1995). New Perspectives on Austrian Economics. New York: Routledge. ISBN 978-0-415-12283-2.