Austrian School of Economics: A history of its ideas, ambassadors, and institutions

270 Pages·2011·1.73 MB·English

by  Eugen-Maria Schulak

The Austrian School of Economics
The Austrian School of Economics
A History of Its Ideas, Ambassadors, and Institutions
Eugen Maria Schulak
and
Herbert Unterköfler
Translated by Arlene Oost-Zinner
Copyright © 2011 by the Ludwig von Mises Institute
Published under the Creative Commons Attribution License 3.0.
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
Ludwig von Mises Institute
518 West Magnolia Avenue
Auburn, Alabama 36832
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Fax: [phone]
mises.org
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
ISBN: 978-1-61016-134-3
Translator’s Note
The goal of this translation is accurately to convey the content of its original
German counterpart, as well as the breezy style of its unmistakably Austrian
authors. Word choice was of prime consideration throughout, followed by clear
English syntax and contemporary idiomatic usage. The book contains many
citations from German works never before translated. All passages falling into
this category have been rendered in English for the first time in this edition.
The translator wishes to thank Douglas French and Jeffrey Tucker of the
Mises Institute for bringing this important project to her attention; Nathalie
Charron Marcus for countless hours of tracking down details; and Robert
Grözinger, whose preliminary translation proved helpful throughout.
Auburn, Alabama
February 5, 2011
Contents
Preface to the English Edition
Preface
The Austrian School in Brief
1. Vienna in the Mid-Nineteenth Century
2. Economics as an Academic Discipline
3. The Discovery of the Self: The Theory of Subjective Value
4. The Emergence of the Austrian School in the Methodenstreit
5. Carl Menger: Founder of the Austrian School
6. Time is Money: The Austrian Theory of Capital and Interest
7. Friedrich von Wieser: From Economist to Social Scientist
8. Eugen von Böhm-Bawerk: Economist, Minister, Aristocrat
9. Emil Sax: The Recluse from Voloska
10. Further Students of Menger and Other Supporters
11. Money Makes the World Go Round: The Monetary Theory of the Business
Cycle
12. Joseph A. Schumpeter: Maverick and Enigma
13. Schumpeter’s Theory of Economic Development
14. The Austrian School’s Critique of Marxism
15. 1918 and the Consequences of War: The Imminent Collapse
16. Between the Wars: From Re-formation to Exodus
17. Ludwig von Mises: The Logician of Freedom
18. Friedrich August von Hayek: Grand Seigneur on the Fence
19. Other Members of the Younger Austrian School
20. Praxeology: A New Start from Ludwig von Mises
21. Friedrich August von Hayek’s Model of Society and His Theory of Cultural
Evolution
22. The Entrepreneur
23. The Rejected Legacy: Austria and the Austrian School After 1945
24. The Renaissance of the old ‘Viennese’ School: The New Austrian School of
Economics
Abbreviations
References
Index
Preface to the English Edition
When preparations for the 2008 German edition were complete, the prospect of
an English translation lay in the far distance. That it would come about so
quickly, only shortly after the German edition’s appearance in 2009, is owed to
our friend and mentor, Hans-Hermann Hoppe. He not only lent his support and
good counsel in the case of the first German edition— now in its second edition
—but also brought it to the attention of the Ludwig von Mises Institute,
suggesting it publish a translated edition. This development is without doubt a
great joy for the authors. Along with it comes the expectation that the recast
contents will reach a much wider audience than ever before.
Whoever believes that the honor of having one’s work translated includes the
convenient self-contentment of looking on as others labor with the same text one
had successfully concerned himself with years before, makes a formidable error.
Rendering a comprehensive bibliography in another language in a user-friendly
way is alone a task that can scarcely be brought to perfection. All in all, the
pitfalls of translation are numerous, unexpected, and theoretically endless,
especially in the scientific literature. This is ever more the case when intellectual
or political schools of thought are to be conveyed across culture or language
groups, preferably without losing meaning. The many discontinuities, violent
upheavals, and contradictions in the history of middle Europe, wherein ideas,
institutions, and terms were repeatedly in need of turning upside down and
reframing, pose unusual problems. Take the question, for example, of whether
certain historical personalities should be cited according to their legal names or
according to the inherited, aristocratic titles they carried with them to foreign
lands. Further, one stumbles upon the limits of language when fundamental,
historically authentic but long antiquated German terms are to be rendered in a
modern foreign language; or if no English equivalents for the baroque
multiplicity of official titles, position descriptions, and service categories of the
Austrian bureaucracy or European universities are readily found.
A first translation was undertaken by Robert Grözinger and financed by
André Homberg, and appeared as an online version at Mises.org. Upon the wish
of the publisher and the authors, it was replaced by the present edition, which
Arlene Oost-Zinner attended to in an exemplary manner. Veronika Poinstingl
offered significant help with research and correction, as did Rahim
Taghizadegan and Gregor Hochreiter of the Institut für Wertewirtschaft
(Institute for Value-Based Economics) in Vienna.
The title of the German edition, Die Wiener Schule der Nationalökonomie
(The Viennese School of Economics), which emphasized Vienna’s natural role
in the history of the “old” Austrian School of Economics, was modified. We
ultimately decided that the internationally established, technical term was the
most appropriate for the English edition, despite the fact that the Austrian School
originated in Vienna and it was there that it experienced its first bloom and first
international recognition.
We thank all of our friends, advisors, translators, and supporters for their
work and cooperation on this book. Their efforts have made the present edition
possible. Special thanks are due our publisher, Douglas French, president of the
Ludwig von Mises Institute in Auburn, Alabama, who actively supported our
work. Finally, we wish to extend our sincere and loving thanks to those in closer
proximity—Elvira and Veit Georg, and Kerstin—for their abundant support.
Eugen Maria Schulak
Herbert Unterköfler
Vienna, January 2011