Sunday 27 December 2009

Austrian economics: recent work

Mario J. Rizzo has a new article, Austrian economics: recent work, available on The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics, Online Edition, 2009. The abstract reads,
This article reviews research in Austrian economics over the last 25 years, relating it to (but not discussing in detail) earlier classic work in the Austrian tradition. Core issues are business cycle theory, entrepreneurship, market processes and economic institutions, the communication of knowledge in markets, spontaneous order, and issues related to law and economics.
The Introduction continues,
In the past 25 years, a large amount of new research in Austrian economics has developed and expanded the basic themes that are central to its unique identity (O'Driscoll and Rizzo, 1996). These highly interrelated themes are (1) the subjective, yet socially embedded, quality of human decision making; (2) the individual's perception of the passage of time (‘real time’); (3) the radical uncertainty of expectations; (4) the decentralization of explicit and tacit knowledge in society; (5) the dynamic market processes generated by individual action, especially entrepreneurship; (6) the function of the price system in transmitting knowledge; (7) the supplementary role of cultural norms and other cultural products (‘institutions’) in conveying knowledge; and (8) the spontaneous – that is, not centrally directed – evolution of social institutions. The specific ways in which these themes have recently manifested themselves is the subject of this article.
If you can't access the final version, there is an almost-final version available here.

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