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DAVID HART'S WEBPAGE

THE AUSTRIAN SCHOOL OF ECONOMIC THOUGHT

INTRODUCTION | THE AUTHORS (4) | THE BOOKS (22)

[The memorial plaques of the founders of the Austrian School of Economics at the University of Vienna]

[Created: 2 April, 2024]
[Updated: December 26, 2024 ]

Introduction

From the opening paragraph of Israel Kirzner's entry on "Austrian Economics" in The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics (2018):

The birth of the Austrian School of economics is usually recognized as having occurred with the 1871 publication of Carl Menger’s Grundsätze der Volkwirthschaftslehre. On the basis of this work Menger (hitherto a civil servant) became a junior faculty member at the University of Vienna. Several years later, after a stint as tutor and travelling companion to Crown Prince Rudolph, he was appointed to a professorial chair at the University. Two younger economists, Eugen von Böhm-Bawerk and Friedrich von Wieser (neither of whom had been a student of Menger), became enthusiastic supporters of the new ideas put for- ward in Menger’s book. During the 1880s a vigorous outpouring of literature from these two followers, from several of Menger’s students, and in particular a methodological work by Menger himself, brought the ideas of Menger and his followers to the attention of the international community of economists. The Austrian School was now a recognized entity.

From Peter Boettke and Christopher Coyne's The Oxford Handbook of Austrian Economics (2015):

This intellectual tradition (the Austrian school) in economics and political economy has a long history that dates back to Carl Menger in the late nineteenth century. Menger is recognized as one of the three co-discoverers of marginal utility analysis, which became the cornerstone of early neoclassical economics. But Menger's analysis from the beginning offered something different from either the analysis of Leon Walras or that of William Stanley Jevons. 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 the 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.

The opening paragraph of Murray Rothbard's entry on Mises in The New Palgrave:

Mises enrolled in the University of Vienna in 1900. He earned his doctorate in law and economics in 1906, after which he became a leading member of Bӧhm-Bawerk’s famous seminar at the university. From 1913 to 1934, Mises taught as an unpaid Privatdozent at the University of Vienna, conducting a seminar on economic theory. From 1909 to 1934, he was an economist for the Vienna Chamber of Commerce, serving as the principal economic adviser to the Austrian government.

Disturbed at encroaching Nazi influence in Austria, Mises accepted a professorship at the Graduate Institute of International Studies in Geneva, where he taught from 1934 to 1940, after which he emigrated to New York City. Mises became a visiting professor at New York University in 1948, where he continued to teach a seminar on economic theory until he retired in 1969, spry and energetic at the age of 87.

Mises’ multifaceted achievements in economic theory built upon the insights and methodology of the Menger–Böhm-Bawerk Austrian School of economics. In contrast to the Jevons and Walras branches of marginal utility theory, the Austrians engaged in a logical analysis of the action of individuals, their major focus on a step-by-step process analysis rather than on the necessarily unreal world of static general equilibrium. Furthermore, ‘cause’, for the Austrians, was a unilinear ‘causal-genetic’ flow from individual utilities and actions to price, rather than the familiar neo-classical mutual determination of mathematical functions.

Recommended Reading

Peter J. Boettke, "Austrian Economics" Encyclopedia of Libertarianism (2008) <https://www.libertarianism.org/topics/austrian-economics>.

"What is Austrian Economics?" Mises Institute <https://mises.org/what-austrian-economics>.

The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics. Third Edition. (Palgrave Macmillan, 2018).

  • Israel Kirzner, "Austrian Economics", vol. 1, pp. 582-92.
  • Mario Rizzo, "Austrian Economics: Recent Work," vol. 1, pp. 592-604.
  • Murray N. Rothbard, "Mises, Ludwig Edler von (1881-1973)," pp. 8817-8820.

The Oxford Handbook of Austrian Economics. Edited by Peter J. Boettke and Christopher J. Coyne (Oxford University Press, 2015).

The Essential Austrian Economics. By Christopher J. Coyne and Peter J. Boettke (Fraser Institute, 2020).

Randall Holcombe, Advanced Introduction to the Austrian School of Economics (Edward Elgar, 2014).

Handbook on Contemporary Austrian Economics. Edited by Peter J. Boettke (Edward Elgar, 2010).

Schools of Thought in Economics 10. Austrian Economics. Ed. Stephen Littlechild. Three volumes. (Edward Elgar, 1990).

On Using the Tables Below

The first table lists the authors in the collection in chronological order by year of birth. Clicking on a name will sort the table of texts below by author and take you to the first book by that author.

The second table lists the texts by date of publication. It has information about the author, the title, and the date of the edition used, with links to other parts of the site for more information or particular versions of the texts. The table is "sortable" by "Author" name, book "Title"(with full bibliographical detaiuls), and date of publication. Clicking on the column name will sort the material in ascending order; clicking on it a second time with sort it in descending order. This may take a second or so to happen. The default order of the texts is by the date of publication.

 

 

1. The Authors in the SCHOOL (4)

  1. Carl Menger (1841-1921)
  2. Eugen von Böhm-Bawerk (1851-1914)
  3. Friedrich von Wieser (1851-1926)
  4. Ludwig von Mises (1881-1973)

 

 

2. WORKS BY THESE AUTHORS (22)

 

 

SORT THE TABLE BY: AUTHOR'S NAME - TITLE - DATE OF THE EDITION ONLIINE - ⇪

 

  AUTHOR TITLE DATE EBOOK
 

Menger, Carl (1841-1921)

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Grundsätze der Volkswirthschaftslehre (1871)


Carl Menger, Grundsätze der Volkswirthschaftslehre (Wien: Braumüller, 1871).

See the English translation at the Mises Institute [PDF and ePub]: Carl Menger, Principles of Economics. Foreword By Peter G. Klein. Introduction by F.A. Hayek. Translated By James Dingwall and Bert F. Hoselitz (Instituter for Human Studies (1976) and Ludwig von Mises Institute, Auburn, Alabama, 2007).

1871

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Menger, Carl (1841-1921)

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Untersuchungen über die Methode der Socialwissenschaften (1883)


Carl Menger, Untersuchungen über die Methode der Socialwissenschaften und der politischen Oekonomie insbesondere (Leipzig: Verlag von Duncker & Humboldt, 1883)

See the English translation at the Mises Institute [PDF and ePub]: Carl Menger, Investigations into the Method of the Social Sciences with Special Reference to Economics. With a new Introduction by Lawrence H. White. Edited by Louis Schneider. Translated by Francis J. Nock (New York University Press New York and London 1985).

1883

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Menger, Carl (1841-1921)

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Irrthümer des Historismus (1884)


Carl Menger, Die Irrthümer des Historismus in der deutschen Nationalökonomie. (Wien: Hölder, 1884).

This book is available in various formats:

1884

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Menger, Carl (1841-1921)

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Kritik der politischen Oekonomie (1887)


Carl Menger, „Zur Kritik der politischen Oekonomie“, Zeitschrift für das Privat- und öffentliche Recht der Gegenwart, Band 14, 1887, S. 555–585.

This book is available in various formats:

 

1887

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Menger, Carl (1841-1921)

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Theorie des Kapitals (1888)


Carl Menger, “Zur Theorie des Kapitals,” in: Jahrbücher für Nationalökonomie und Statistik, Band 17, 1888, S. 1–49.

This book is available in:

 

1888

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Menger, Carl (1841-1921)

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Grundzüge einer Klassifikation der Wirtschaftswissenschaften (1889)


Carl Menger, “Grundzüge einer Klassifikation der Wirtschaftswissenschaften,” in: Jahrbücher für Nationalökonomie und Statistik, N.F. Band 19, 1889, S. 1–32

This book is available in:

 

1889

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Böhm-Bawerk, Eugen von (1851-1914)

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Abschluss des Marxschen Systems (1896)


Eugen von Böhm-Bawerk, "Zum Abschluss des Marxschen Systems" in Staatswissenschaftliche Arbeiten. Festgaben für Karl Knies zur fünfundsiebzigsten Wiederkehr seines Geburtstages in dankbaren Vehehring. Otto v. Boenigk (Hrsg.) (Berlin: O. Haering, 1896), S. 87-205.

 

1896

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Böhm-Bawerk, Eugen von (1851-1914)

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Karl Marx and the close of his system (1898)


Eugen von Böhm-Bawerk, Karl Marx and the close of his system, a criticism. Translated by Alice M. Macdonald with a Preface by James Bonar (London: T. Fisher Unwin, 1898). Revised slightly by Paul M. Sweezy (1949) and David M. Hart (2018).

This book is available in various formats:

 

1898

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Mises, Ludwig von (1881-1973)

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Entwicklung des Gutsherrlich-Bäuerlichen Verhältnisses (1902)


Ludwig von Mises, Die Entwicklung des Gutsherrlich-Bäuerlichen Verhältnisses in Galizien (1772-1848) (Wien und Leipzig: Franz Deuticke 1902).

This book is available in :

 

1902

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Wieser, Friedrich (1851-1926)

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Recht und Macht (1910)


Friedrich von Wieser, Recht und Macht. Sechs Vorträge (Leipzig: Duncker & Humblot, 1910).

The volume contains a Foreword and six lectures:

  1. Äussere und innere Mächte
  2. Der Ursprung der gesellschaftlichen Mächte
  3. Die Bewegungstendenzen der Geschichte
  4. Recht (Exkurs. Unser Verfassungsrecht)
  5. Die materialistische Geschichtsauffassung
  6. Freiheit

 

1910

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Böhm-Bawerk, Eugen von (1851-1914)

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Macht oder Ökonomisches Gesetz (1914)


Eugen von Böhm-Bawerk, “Macht oder Ökonomisches Gesetz?”, Zeitschrift für Volkswirtschaft, Sozialpolitik und Verwaltung. Band 23 (1914), S. 205–271.

This book is available in various formats:

 

1914

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Mises, Ludwig von (1881-1973)

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Nation, Staat und Wirtschaft (1919)


Ludwig Mises, Nation, Staat und Wirtschaft. Beiträge zur Politik und Geschichte der Zeit (1919).

 

1919

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Mises, Ludwig von (1881-1973)

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Wirtschaftsrechnung im sozialistischen Gemeinwesen (1920)


Ludwig von Mises, "Die Wirtschaftsrechnung im sozialistischen Gemeinwesen" in Archiv für Sozialwissenschaft und Sozialpolitik, 1920-21, 47: 86-121.

This book is available in various formats:

In German:

In English translation:

  1. translated by S. Adler and published in a collection of essays, In Collective Economic Planning, Friedrich A. Hayek, ed. (1935), "Economic Calculation in the Socialist Commonwealth". Reprinted Clifton, NJ: Kelley Publishing, 1975, pp. 87–130, and Auburn, AL: Ludwig von Mises Institute, 1990. It can be found online at the Mises Institute: <https://mises.org/library/book/economic-calculation-socialist-commonwealth>. And at this website here. and in a parallel version with facing German and English texts.
  2. A revised translation was made by Harald Anderson in 2012 and can be found here: "A New Translation of Mises' 'Economic Calculation in the Socialist Commonwealth'" (April 13, 2012). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2039501 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2039501

My "parallel edition" with the English and German side-by-side in HTML.

1920

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Mises, Ludwig von(1881-1973)

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Neue Beiträge zum Problem der sozialistischen Wirtschaftsrechnung (1924)

Mises would return to the problem of economic calculation under socialism in two further articles published in the 1920s:

Ludwig von Mises, "Neue Beiträge zum Problem der sozialistischen Wirtschaftsrechnung," in Archiv für Sozialwissenschaft und Sozialpolitik 51 (1924). (New Contributions to the Problem of Socialist Economic Calculation) - [facs. PDF]

L. von Mises, "Neue Schriften zum Problem der sozialistische Wirtschaftsrechnung," Archiv für Sozialwissenschaft und Sozialpolitik 60 (1928). (New Papers on the Problem of Socialist Economic Calculation) - [PDF not available]

On these two papers, see Keizer, William. "Two Forgotten Articles by Ludwig von Mises on the Rationality of Socialist Economic Calculation." The Review of Austrian Economics 1, (1987) 109–122.

 

1924

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Wieser, Friedrich (1851-1926)

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Gesetz der Macht (1926)


Friedrich von Wieser, Das Gesetz der Macht (Wien: Verlag von Julius Springer, 1926).

This book is available in various formats:

1926

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Mises, Ludwig von (1881-1973)

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Interventionismus (1926)

Ludwig von Mises, “Interventionismus” Archiv für Sozialwissenschaft und Sozialpolitik Bd. 56, 1926. Republished in the collection Kritik des Interventionismus: Untersuchungen zur Wirtschaftspolitik und Wirtschaftsideologie der Gegenwart. (Jena: Gustav Fischer, 1929).

 

This book is available in :

1926

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Mises, Ludwig (1881-1973)

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Liberalismus (1927)


Ludwig von Mises, Liberalismus (Jena: Verlag von Gustav Fischer, 1927).

This book is available in various formats:

1927

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Mises, Ludwig (1881-1973)

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Gemeinwirtschaft: Untersuchungen über den Sozialismus (1922, 1932)


Ludwig Mises, Die Gemeinwirtschaft: Untersuchungen über den Sozialismus. Zweite, umgearbeitete Auflage (Jena: Verlag von Gustav Fischer, 1932) [1st edition 1922].

This book is available in various formats:

1932

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Mises, Ludwig (1881-1973)

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Grundprobleme der Nationalökonomie (1933)


Ludwig Mises, Grundprobleme der Nationalökonomie. Untersuchungen über Verfahren, Aufgaben und Inhalt der Wirtschafts- und Gesellschaftslehre (Jena: Gustav Fischer, 1933).

This book is available in various formats:

  • no facs. PDF version of the original text is avaiable
  • an "enhanced HTML" version with the citation tool
  • various eBook formats: HTML, PDF, and ePub
  • a zipped file of the facs. PDF, the eBooks and the code to display them.

1933

  
 

Mises, Ludwig (1881-1973)

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Socialism (1936, 1951)


Ludwig von Mises, Socialism: An Economic and Sociological Analysis. Translated by J. Kahane B.Sc. (Econ.) New Edition, Enlarged With An Epilogue (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1951). First edition London: Jonathan Cape, 1936.

 

1936

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Mises, Ludwig (1881-1973)

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Nationalökonomie: Theorie des Handlens und Wirtschaftens (1940)


Ludwig von Mises, Nationalökonomie: Theorie des Handlens und Wirtschaftens (Genf: Editions Union, 1940).

1940

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Böhm-Bawerk, Eugen von (1851-1914)

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Control or Economic Law (2010)


Eugen von Böhm-Bawerk, Control or Economic Law. Translated by John Richard Mez, Ph.D. (Auburn AL.: Ludwig von Mises Institute, 2010). Online at the Mises Institute and here.

© 2010 by the Ludwig von Mises Institute and published under the Creative Commons Attribution License 3.0.

This book is available in various formats:

.

 

2010

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