Peter Boettke – författare

Very Short Introductions: Brilliant, Sharp, Inspiring Friedrich A. Hayek (1899-1992) was one of the twentieth century's most influential thinkers in economics, political philosophy, and social theory. His work ranged from technical macroeconomics and studies of the epistemic functions of markets, to a strident defence of liberalism and forays into evolutionary anthropology. This scholarly breadth may come at a cost: Hayek's work feels so varied as to make it daunting for students to approach.In this Very Short Introduction, Peter J. Boettke and M. Scott King provide an overview of Hayek's work. Importantly, they argue that nearly all of Hayek's work can be read as an effort to help us understand how social coordination is possible without central command. Thus, they present a unifying framework for understanding Hayek's seemingly disparate contributions. ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.

The Austrian School of Economics is an intellectual tradition in economics and political economy dating back to Carl Menger in the late-19th century. Menger stressed the subjective nature of value in the individual decision calculus. Individual choices are indeed made on the margin, but the evaluations of rank ordering of ends sought in the act of choice are subjective to individual chooser. For Menger, the economic calculus was about scarce means being deployed to pursue an individual's highest valued ends. The act of choice is guided by subjective assessments of the individual, and is open ended as the individual is constantly discovering what ends to pursue, and learning the most effective way to use the means available to satisfy those ends. This school of economic thinking spread outside of Austria to the rest of Europe and the United States in the early-20th century and continued to develop and gain followers, establishing itself as a major stream of heterodox economics. The Oxford Handbook of Austrian Economics provides an overview of this school and its theories. The various contributions discussed in this book all reflect a tension between the Austrian School's orthodox argumentative structure (rational choice and invisible hand) and its addressing of a heterodox problem situations (uncertainty, differential knowledge, ceaseless change). The Austrian economists from the founders to today seek to derive the invisible hand theorem from the rational choice postulate via institutional analysis in a persistent and consistent manner. Scholars and students working in the field of History of Economic Thought, those following heterodox approaches, and those both familiar with the Austrian School or looking to learn more will find much to learn in this comprehensive volume.

"Market Theory and the Price System" was published in 1963 as Kirzner's first (and only) textbook. This volume presents an integrated view of Austrian price theory. The basic aim of the book is to utilise the tools of economic reasoning to explain the market process. The unique framework Kirzner develops for microeconomic analysis, following Mises and Hayek, examines error in decision-making, entrepreneurial profit, and competition as a process of discovery and learning.

The third volume of The Collected Works of Israel M Kirzner presents a collection of writings on capital theory that serve both as a discourse in the history of economic thought and as conceptual clarification in one of the most complex subjects in economics. This edition explores the notions of capital and interest in light of the controversies surrounding these topics. The first essay in this volume is Kirzner's introduction to the 1996 edition. The second essay was published as a stand-alone book in 1966 and presents Kirzner's capital theory, focusing on multi-period production plans. In the third essay Kirzner offers an interpretation of Ludwig von Mises's view of capital and interest. The fourth essay, written in the late 1980s, is Kirzner's attempt to clarify the difficulties found in interest theory. Finally, the fifth essay deals with Sir John Hick's capital theory in light of Kirzner's own Austrian position.

This volume comprises several of Kirzner's previously published papers on the subjects of methodological subjectivism and the history of entrepreneurship theorytopics of primary importance in Kirzner's economic thought because one cannot fully understand entrepreneurship theory without considering subjectivism. The volume includes Kirzner's seminal paper "Methodological Individualism, Market Equilibrium, and Market Process," in which "Kirzner conceptualized the role of the entrepreneurial function in the market process for the first time in his work." According to the editors, that paper "opened the door to Kirzner's research on the market process, leading six years later to the publication of Competition and Entrepreneurship. In doing so, it paved the way to the modern Austrian theory of the market process."

Competition, Economic Planning, and the Knowledge Problem expands on the ideas Kirzner first discussed in Competition and Entrepreneurshipthe role of the entrepreneur and its relation to the determination of prices and the coordination of individuals plansas well as economic planning, the knowledge problem, market-process theory, and the parts played by information, knowledge and advertising. It includes a paper on F. A. Hayeks theory of market coordination and the Austrian business-cycle theoryseen now for the first time in its original English. As a whole, the volume expresses Kirzners understanding that economics cannot be separated from its human element. Competition is a rivalrous process of entrepreneurial activity in which individuals and firms discover, innovate, and outdo each other. Kirzner discusses why this dynamic view of the economy is so important to understand, particularly in the contexts of economic planning and the workings of competitive markets. Over the course of this books nineteen articles and one monograph, Kirzner also stresses another point: though knowledge is present in all economic interaction, it is also dispersed in the economy such that no individual mind can ever centralize it all. This knowledge problem implies, as Mises and Hayek have argued, the impossibility of central planning. Kirzners contribution is to show that, ultimately, it is only the free, competitive entrepreneurial process that can overcome this problem through generation of knowledge that enables the most efficient allocation of scarce resources.

Ludwig von Mises: The Man and His Economics is a collection of Israel M. Kirzners work regarding his mentor, including a monograph on Mises and his work as well as several articles detailing how he impacted the world of economics. Kirzner showcases Mises as not only a man with a sparkling, fresh, fundamentally new interpretation of the tenets espoused by the Austrian school of economics, but also as Kirzners mentor and academic compatriot. To this end, Kirzners essays on Mises elucidate the work of both men and convey Misess ideas with unparalleled brilliance. For Kirzner, Mises is a man with a mission: to reignite economists search for truth. It was this mission that led both Mises and Kirzner to champion economic science and its teachingi.e., the unhampered market and the system of free enterprisein response to the encroaching philosophical and economic shadow of socialism. As Kirzner put it, Mises saw the denial of economics as an alarming threat to a free society and to Western civilization. It is economics that is able to demonstrate the social advantages of the unhampered market. Misess work was fundamental in reviving classical-liberal ideas in Europe and the United States. He resurrected inquiry into the importance of entrepreneurial function and the science of human action at a time when many economists were turning away from it. Misess economics offers ammunition to those who understand that humans are ultimately made to live with freedom and dignity.

This is a collection of Israel M Kirzners work regarding his mentor, including a monograph on Mises and his work as well as several articles detailing how he impacted the world of economics. Kirzner showcases Mises as not only a man with a sparkling, fresh, fundamentally new interpretation of the tenets espoused by the Austrian school of economics, but also as Kirzners mentor and academic compatriot. To this end, Kirzners essays on Mises elucidate the work of both men and convey Misess ideas with unparalleled brilliance. For Kirzner, Mises is a man with a mission: to reignite economists search for truth. It was this mission that led both Mises and Kirzner to champion economic science and its teaching ie: the unhampered market and the system of free enterprise -- in response to the encroaching philosophical and economic shadow of socialism. As Kirzner put it, Mises saw the denial of economics as an alarming threat to a free society and to Western civilisation. It is economics that is able to demonstrate the social advantages of the unhampered market. Misess work was fundamental in reviving classical-liberal ideas in Europe and the United States. He resurrected inquiry into the importance of entrepreneurial function and the science of human action at a time when many economists were turning away from it. Misess economics offers ammunition to those who understand that humans are ultimately made to live with freedom and dignity.

The Essence of Entrepreneurship and the Nature and Significance of Market Process is a continuation of the discourse started in Kirzners earlier work, Competition and Entrepreneurship, expanding upon his ideas about entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial alertness. Essence presents most of the detailed research Kirzner has done on the nature of entrepreneurship and the entrepreneurial process in the decades following the publication of his magnum opus. It is during that long period that Kirzner elaborated his approach further, responding to objections and critics, and offering the world a more systematic understanding of the concept of market process. In the words of the volume editors and in contrast with traditional microeconomics, Kirzners view of the entrepreneurial function in the market process consists primarily in liberating human choice from its deterministic structure by introducing alertness. Alertness to unexploited gains from trade sets the market process in motion. Hence, Kirzner holds a unique place among authors on entrepreneurship theory because of the way he focuses on the essence of the phenomenon at stake and its importance in the market process. In addition to Kirzners essays, Essence contains several critiques of Kirzners work centered on the topics of entrepreneurship, market process, and supply and demand. Kirzners response to each of these critiques shows that he welcomes criticism as an opportunity to crystallize and sharpen the difference between the normative views he espouses and contemporary economic theory. The painstaking precision with which Kirzner defends his position shows why his work has become such a staple of Austrian economic thought.

For over a generation, the collapse of communism in the Soviet Union and Eastern and Central Europe delegitimized the abolition of private property in the means of production and the practice of central planning as an effective way to achieve the ends of socialism. However, the aspiration of achieving the ends of socialism remains to this day. This Element provides a narrative of a century-long debate that was initiated by Ludwig von Mises in 1920. In so doing, it tells the history of the problem of economic calculation in the socialist commonwealth and its continuing relevance for developments in economics, political economy, and social philosophy.

For over a generation, the collapse of communism in the Soviet Union and Eastern and Central Europe delegitimized the abolition of private property in the means of production and the practice of central planning as an effective way to achieve the ends of socialism. However, the aspiration of achieving the ends of socialism remains to this day. This Element provides a narrative of a century-long debate that was initiated by Ludwig von Mises in 1920. In so doing, it tells the history of the problem of economic calculation in the socialist commonwealth and its continuing relevance for developments in economics, political economy, and social philosophy.