The driving force of the market: the idea of “competition” in contemporary economic theory and in the Austrian theory of the market process

2000 ◽  
pp. 234-250
Keyword(s):  
Economic Theory ◽  
Driving Force ◽  
Market Process ◽  
Austrian Theory

scholarly journals Finding the Entrepreneur-Promoter: A Praxeological Inquiry

2020 ◽  
Vol 23 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 355-389
Author(s):  
Per Bylund
Keyword(s):  
Driving Force ◽  
Human Action ◽  
Theoretical Explanation ◽  
Market Process ◽  
General Function ◽  
Ludwig Von Mises ◽  
Von Mises ◽  
Economic Improvement

Entrepreneur-promoters, or the pioneers of economic improvement, provide an essential market function which economics cannot do without. Yet Ludwig von Mises maintains that this function lies beyond what can be defined with praxeological rigor. This paper attempts to find a praxeological subcategory of entrepreneurship that conforms with Mises’s indeterminate references to the entrepreneur-promoter in Human Action. Rather than relying on the evenly rotating economy, which is commonly used for analyzing entrepreneurship, the imaginary construction of a specialization deadlock is employed, adapted from Per Bylund’s Problem of Production. This construction allows for the derivation of a praxeological subcategory of entrepreneurship, distinct from the general function of uncertainty bearing, which suggests a theoretical explanation for what constitutes the driving force of the market process.

scholarly journals Ludwig Lachmann as a Theorist of Entrepreneurship

2019 ◽  
Vol 57 (1) ◽  
pp. 19-40
Author(s):  
Steven Horwitz
Keyword(s):  
20Th Century ◽  
New Products ◽  
Austrian School ◽  
Market Process ◽  
Capital Goods ◽  
Distinctive Features ◽  
Austrian Theory ◽  
Austrian School Of Economics ◽  
The Future ◽  
Resource Ownership

Abstract One of the distinctive features of the Austrian School of Economics has been its emphasis on the entrepreneur as central to the market process. One 20th century Austrian whose work is normally not thought of as making a major contribution to the Austrian theory of entrepreneurship is Ludwig Lachmann. However, a careful reading of his 1956 book Capital and its Structure can tease out a theory of the function of the entrepreneur that is distinctly different from that of Israel Kirzner, yet still clearly situated in an Austrian conception of the market process. In this contribution, I want to emphasize two points that have been raised by previous work on Lachmann, but not explored in any detail. The first is that Lachmann’s conception of entrepreneurship is deeply bound up with the need to engage in monetary calculation thanks to the heterogeneity of capital and uncertainty of the future. For Lachmann, the key function of the entrepreneur is to “specify” the uses of capital goods. Such specification requires the use of money prices and what Mises called monetary calculation. The second contribution is to offer more detail on the way in which entrepreneurs both creatively specify and re-specify the uses of their capital goods in response to profit and loss signals. The constant shuffling and reshuffling of capital goods, of which coming up with new products or new twists to old ones are a part, is the essence of Lachmann’s implicit vision of entrepreneurship. For Lachmann, entrepreneurship is bound up with resource ownership and deployment through the creation and revision of plans in ways that are much more active than Kirzner’s conception of the entrepreneur.

The Epistemology of Simulation, Computation, and Dynamics in Economics

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
K. Vela Velupillai
Keyword(s):  
Economic Theory ◽  
Political Economy ◽  
Digital Technology ◽  
Digital Computer ◽  
Driving Force ◽  
Applied Economics ◽  
Theory And Practice ◽  
Founding Father ◽  
Development Of Economic Theory

In this chapter the spirit of William Petty is the driving force, but it is given new theoret- ical foundations, mainly as a result of developments in the mathematic underpinnings of the tremendous developments in the potentials of computing, especially using digital technology. Computation and simulation have always played a role in economics, whether it be pure economic theory or any variant of applied economics. This tradition can be traced to the vision of Petty, the founding father of political economy as political arithmetic. A running theme is that, increasingly, the development of economic theory seems to go hand in hand with advances in the theory and practice of computing, which is, in turn, a catalyst for the move away from overreliance on any kind of mathematics for the formalization of economic entities that is inconsistent with the mathematical, philosophical, and epistemological foundations of the digital computer.

scholarly journals The Menger-Mises Theory of the Origin of Money--Conjecture or Economic Law?

2019 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
pp. 26-48 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kristoffer Hansen
Keyword(s):  
Economic Theory ◽  
Basic Principles ◽  
Austrian Theory ◽  
Ludwig Von Mises ◽  
Economic Law ◽  
Carl Menger ◽  
Conjectural History ◽  
Von Mises ◽  
Regression Theorem

In recent years some economists have begun to doubt the scientific standing of the standard Austrian theory of the origin of money. They seem to think that it is only one possible solution to the problem of accounting for money’s value. Of these economists, Gary North (North 2012b) has presented the most cogent counter-interpretation to how we should understand the theory of the origin of money as elaborated by Carl Menger and Ludwig von Mises. Unlike the rest of economic theory, the origin of money and Mises’s regression theorem do not partake of the character of a scientific law deduced from the basic principles of the science, but is rather, and is presented as such in the writings of Menger and Mises, what North terms “conjectural history.” In this essay we will respond to North’s challenge and to the economists who agree with him.

An Essay on the Philosophy and Psychodynamics of Income Distribution

1992 ◽  
Author(s):  
W. J. Samuels
Keyword(s):  
Economic Theory ◽  
Income Distribution ◽  
Driving Force ◽  
Role Of Government ◽  
Economic Role ◽  
Control Distribution ◽  
Present Essay

This essay considers certain fundamental aspects of the philosophy and psychodynamics of distribution and how they have entered economic theory. It treats, first, considerations of distribution as a driving force in the economy; second, the forces and considerations which have governed the treatment of distribution in economic theory; and, third, distribution as an artifact in relation to the economic role of government and the use of government to control distribution. The present essay is a sequel to Samuels (1981, 1982, 1983) and Samuels and Kelsey (1991).

scholarly journals Private Property Rights, Dynamic Efficiency and Economic Development: An Austrian Reply to Neo-Marxist Scholars Nieto and Mateo on Cyber-Communism and Market Process

Economies ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 165
Author(s):  
William Hongsong Wang ◽  
Victor I. Espinosa ◽  
José Antonio Peña-Ramos
Keyword(s):  
Economic Development ◽  
Property Rights ◽  
Information And Communication Technologies ◽  
Private Property ◽  
Institutional Environment ◽  
Economic Life ◽  
Market Process ◽  
Dynamic Efficiency ◽  
Private Property Rights ◽  
Austrian Theory

The Austrian school economics and neo-Marxist theories both have been reviving in recent years. However, the current academic discussion lacks a debate between two schools of economics with diametrically opposed views. This paper is the first and an initial Austrian challenge to Neo-Marxist scholars Nieto and Mateo’s argumentation that cyber-communism and the Austrian theory of dynamic efficiency are consistent to enhance economic development. Their argument focuses on two issues: (a) the existence of circular reasoning in the Austrian theory of dynamic efficiency, and (b) dynamic efficiency and full economic development could be strongly promoted in a socialist system through new information and communication technologies (ICT) and the democratization of all economic life. While cyber-communism refers to cyber-planning without private property rights through ICT, dynamic efficiency refers to the entrepreneurs’ creative and coordinative natures. In this paper, first, we argue that the hypothesis that dynamic efficiency and cyber-communism is not compatible. Contrary to the above cyber-communist criteria, the Austrian theory of dynamic efficiency argues that to impede private property rights is to remove the most powerful entrepreneurial incentive to create and coordinate profit opportunities, the entrepreneurial incentives to create and coordinate profit opportunities are removed to identify human problems and the ability and willingness to solve them. Second, we argue that the cyber-communism system is inconsistent with economic development. In this regard, we explain how the institutional environment can cultivate or stifle dynamic efficiency and economic development. Having briefly outlined the central argument of Nieto and Mateo, we examine the institutional arrangement supporting cyber-communism. After that, we evaluate the implications of cyber-communism in the dynamic efficiency process. It becomes manifest that Nieto and Mateo’s accounts are too general to recognize the complexity of how economic development works.

ADAM SMITH’S SYSTEM OF NATURAL LIBERTY: COMPETITION, CONTESTABILITY, AND MARKET PROCESS

2010 ◽  
Vol 32 (2) ◽  
pp. 237-262 ◽  
Author(s):  
MICHAEL E. BRADLEY
Keyword(s):  
Economic Theory ◽  
Perfect Competition ◽  
Market Process ◽  
Market Theory ◽  
Competitive Model ◽  
Modern Economic ◽  
Contestable Market

In this article, I argue that Adam Smith’s system of perfect liberty contains some of the seeds of perfect competition, but that the modern perfectly competitive model differs from Smith’s perfect liberty in some important respects—in particular, the role of active competition among firms and the role of the entrepreneur. The article examines the analytical linkages between Smith’s system of liberty and three strands of modern economic theory—neoclassical perfect competition, contestable market theory and the Austrian analysis of market process.

scholarly journals Die Evolution der bundesdeutschen Forschungs- und Technologiepolitik: Rückblick und Bestandsaufnahme

2002 ◽  
Vol 3 (3) ◽  
pp. 279-301 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andreas Fier ◽  
Dietmar Harhoff
Keyword(s):  
Economic Theory ◽  
Economic Analysis ◽  
Driving Force ◽  
Comprehensive Evaluation ◽  
State Of The Art ◽  
Policy Instruments ◽  
Cost Benefit ◽  
Policy Practice ◽  
Federal Research ◽  
The 1960S

Abstract We consider the development of German federal research and technology (R&T) policies since the 1960s and sketch the evolution of today's highly differentiated and complex set of policy instruments. Advances from economic theory and empirical results are reflected in this evolution, but have not necessarily been the driving force. In some instances, innovative policy instruments have been introduced in order to accommodate the state of the art in economic analysis; in other cases, such innovations have preceded a thorough analysis of the respective policy instruments. A major point of concern is the lack of comprehensive evaluation and cost-benefit analyses in R&T policies. In this regard, German policy practice lags behind well-established procedures in other countries.

In situ TEM Studies of agglomeration of sub-nanometer Ru layers in Ru/C multilayers

1992 ◽  
Vol 50 (1) ◽  
pp. 256-257
Author(s):  
Tai D. Nguyen ◽  
Ronald Gronsky ◽  
Jeffrey B. Kortright
Keyword(s):  
Layered Structure ◽  
Driving Force ◽  
High Energy ◽  
Superior Performance ◽  
In Situ Tem ◽  
Rayleigh Instability ◽  
Practical Applications ◽  
Transmission Electron ◽  
Diffraction Patterns

Nanometer period Ru/C multilayers are one of the prime candidates for normal incident reflecting mirrors at wavelengths < 10 nm. Superior performance, which requires uniform layers and smooth interfaces, and high stability of the layered structure under thermal loadings are some of the demands in practical applications. Previous studies however show that the Ru layers in the 2 nm period Ru/C multilayer agglomerate upon moderate annealing, and the layered structure is no longer retained. This agglomeration and crystallization of the Ru layers upon annealing to form almost spherical crystallites is a result of the reduction of surface or interfacial energy from die amorphous high energy non-equilibrium state of the as-prepared sample dirough diffusive arrangements of the atoms. Proposed models for mechanism of thin film agglomeration include one analogous to Rayleigh instability, and grain boundary grooving in polycrystalline films. These models however are not necessarily appropriate to explain for the agglomeration in the sub-nanometer amorphous Ru layers in Ru/C multilayers. The Ru-C phase diagram shows a wide miscible gap, which indicates the preference of phase separation between these two materials and provides an additional driving force for agglomeration. In this paper, we study the evolution of the microstructures and layered structure via in-situ Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM), and attempt to determine the order of occurence of agglomeration and crystallization in the Ru layers by observing the diffraction patterns.

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