This book [pdf here] provides a wonderful discussion on the theoretical implications of treating capital [goods] as heterogeneous. It may not seem very radical, since everybody knows that a hammer is not exactly the same thing as a ladder, an airplane, or a machine. But to economic theory, this is a radical move. Only in [...]
A nice summary of the rise and fall of the Swedish welfare state, “the capitalist welfare state” to the author. The book covers the “golden years” approximately 1870-1970 and discusses how and why Sweden could go from being one of the poorest to one of the richest countries in the West – while supporting an [...]
Mises supposedly said that Carl Menger’s Principles was still (at the time) the best introduction to Austrian economics. This is certainly true, but I would go further than that. The Principles is not only an introduction to Austrian economics but a great introduction to sound economic thinking. Whether you agree with “Austrians” or not, and [...]
A nice introduction to the study of functional entrepreneurship and the context in which it exists and is exercised. But emphasis should be on the word “introduction” – this is not a heavy analysis in scholarly style, but rather a quick overview of the topics studied re: both entrepreneurship and institutions. I’m not sure exactly [...]
Freakonomics was an immediate success when hitting the bookstores back in 2005. I guess its melding of pop culture with economics was something unexpected, long awaited, and seemed interest in the market. Granted, the book is an easy read with plenty of provocative examples and a clear logical reasoning that is scarce both on television [...]
I was recently recommended to read Bryan Caplan‘s 1999 article “The Austrian Search for Realistic Foundations” (JSTOR). Caplan is no doubt an intelligent scholar, but he does not show this fact in the mentioned article. Rather, to any reader knowledgeable in Austrian economics, this article appears at best to be a spectacle. The reason for [...]
In an article recently accepted for publication in the Quarterly Journal of Austrian Economics, I draft a model for explaining how firms emerge in the market place. Whereas theories of the firm generally attempt to explain the rationale for firms, their boundaries, and how they are internally organized, there are pretty much no studies at [...]
In a previous post I discussed the well-known fact that economists’ predictions are always wrong, and why they always are. But one obvious problem with predictions was left out of the discussion, and I would like to discuss this problem in a separate post. In contrast to the previous post, which was quite general in [...]
The general conclusion at the moment seems to be that there is a need for a new set of theories of the market and economics – “crisis economics.” The reason for this need is the fact that “no one” predicted the current downturn and crisis, and that the predictions made turned out as wrong as [...]
This is a legitimate question even though it doesn’t necessarily imply that economists (American such, at least) in general are Republicans. But it is a fact that economists in general tend to be to the “right” (according to the common understanding of the political right) of e.g. sociologists and political scientists. It is also a [...]