Dinámica no-lineal y economía austríaca

This paper examines the similarities which exist between certain characteristics of Austrian economic thought and certain properties of nonlinear dynamics, also known as the dynamics of complexity. Specifically, the features of Mises’s theory of human action and of Hayek’s theory of spontaneous order are compared with the emerging properties, self-organi-zation, and dependence which appear in the trend of nonlinear dynamics. Palabras clave. Escuela austriaca, dinámica no-lineal, orden espontáneo, autoorganización, dependencia de la trayectoria. Códigos JEL. B4, B5. Resumen. En este trabajo se analizan las similitudes que existen entre ciertos rasgos del pensamiento económico de la Escuela Austriaca y algunas propiedades de la dinámica no lineal, también llamada de la complejidad. En particular, se comparan las propiedades de la teoría de la acción huma-na de Mises y la del orden espontáneo de Hayek, con la aparición de propie-dades emergentes, autoorganización y dependencia de la trayectoria de la dinámica no lineal.

Risks and returns in hedge funds – econometric and austrian economic perspectives

Hedge funds and funds of hedge funds are some of the preferred ways to access capital market opportunities by institutional investors and high net worth individuals seeking vehicles of absolute return. Risks and returns are difficult to assess because of skewness and kurtosis so that traditional mean and variance analyses are inappropriate. I assess the possible implications of high leverage finance and financial innovations from an Austrian economic viewpoint on the basis of an econometric analysis of hedge fund risk adjusted returns and a historical consideration of asset price shocks in Thailand and Japan. Key words: Hedge funds, leveraged finance, Austrian economics, monetary policy, risk. JEL classification: B53, C01, E58, D53.

Savage Economics: Race, Futurity, and Civilizational Hierarchy in Early Austrian Neoliberalism

In this essay, I interrogate the racialized roots of the early neoliberal conception of (Western) civilization. I do so by placing that conception in a broader genealogy of early Austrian economic theory, focusing in particular on the writings of Carl Menger, Eugen von Böhm-Bawerk, Friedrich von Wieser, and Ludwig von Mises. Rather than directly analyzing their understanding of civilization, however, I approach this topic by centering the way they construct the figure of the “savage.” This figure, as historians of racial discourse have shown, has long played an important role in European thought, often serving as the constitutive racial other to the “civilized” European. I proceed by asking what role the figure of the “savage” plays in the writings of the early Austrian economists. In doing so, I argue that while Menger and Böhm-Bawerk utilize deeply racialized tropes about “savage” peoples to establish the limits of their own theory of subjective valuation, Wieser not only adopts these tropes but also folds them into a broader racialized philosophy of history that sees historical development as a function of racial endowment. In the final section, I explore Mises’s writings in more detail, arguing that his understanding of race partially overlaps with Wieser’s but also departs from it in several crucial ways. In particular, Mises sees racial hierarchy as a historical rather than a natural phenomenon, prompting him to articulate a mode of “racial historicism” that sees racial hierarchy as a precarious system that could be overturned. In closing, I argue that Mises’s position on racial hierarchy anticipated several key elements of later neoliberal approaches to the question of race.

Austrian Economics and Organizational Entrepreneurship: A Typology

This article develops a typology for making sense of the numerous strands of Austrian (and Austrian-related) economics and demonstrates how this typology can guide organizational entrepreneurship scholars wishing to ground their research in Austrian thought. In the process, not only are existing insights from the history of Austrian economic thought rediscovered, but clearer light is also shed on important perspectives from that tradition that have received less attention in entrepreneurship research. Based on the Austrian concept of entrepreneurial production and its relationship with the core concepts of knowledge and change, the typology yields four perspectives—equilibration, punctuated equilibrium, disequilibration, and punctuated disequilibrium. These perspectives’ different paradigms as used in organizational research are explored, along with their ontological, epistemological, and methodological assumptions. The typology is illustrated with selected empirical examples from organizational research to spotlight the types of questions that contemporary scholars may appropriately ask and answer from each perspective.

C. Menger’s theory of the value of money

The aim of the article is a complex presentation of C. Menger’s theory of the value of money. The main method was the content analysis of his little-known articles devoted both to monetary theory and to practical issues of monetary reform in Austria-Hungary. In accordance with existing classifications, Menger’s theory of money may be defined as evolutionary according to the criteria of origin, functional according to the criteria of the nature of value, and psychological according to the criteria of factors of value change. It has been demonstrated that Menger’s initial view of the source of the value of money in line with the substantial approach can be explained by combining it with an evolutionary approach to the origin of money and opposition to nominalism based on a rationalistic approach. Later, in the works of the 1890s, there is a shift towards functional approach, due, among other things, to the emergence of new economic phenomena. Menger’s denial of the mechanistic version of the quantitative theory of money as inconsistent with the basic assumptions of the analysis is shown. Determining the essence of money by its position in the national economy, formed by the subjective actions of people, creates the basis for a psychological explanation of the change in the value of money. The article analyzes the concepts of the inner and outer value of money introduced by Menger into science and the reasons for refusing to consider the idea of a constant outer value. Maintaining a stable inner value of money by regulating its quantity in circulation requires careful analytical and statistical efforts, and Menger warns against arbitrary active government intervention in the sphere of money circulation. Research prospects are seen in the planes of analyzing the influence of the approaches to the theory of money laid down by Menger on the subsequent theories of various schools and the phenomenon of the seeming duality of Menger’s approach as a factor of the bifurcation of the Austrian economic school.

Kazimir Maria Szeptytskyi (the blessed F. Klymentii, M.S.U): politician, land owner, public and economic figure

The paper on the background of heritage of the clergy of both nations (Ukrainian and Polish), the figure of Father Klemens (Kazimir) and his activities are presented, as a layperson and later a cleric. Particular attention was paid to the nature of the implementation of Sheptytskyi in several social sectors — politics, economy, public activity and education. The paper gives an overview of Szeptytskyi’s public responsibilities, his parliamentary involvement and work in many professional organizations, as well as the exemplary running of his own farm in Deviatnyki and engaging in matters of the local community. With so much experience and authority in Galician and general Austrian economic spheres, Kazimir Sheptytskyi was able to achieve a significant position not only in economic but even political life. However, at the age of 42, he decided to give up secular life and dedicate himself to the clerical state.

Evaluation of economic forecasts for Austria

In this paper, we evaluate macroeconomic forecasts for Austria and analyze the effects of external assumptions on forecast errors. We consider the growth rates of real GDP and the demand components as well as the inflation rate and the unemployment rate. The analyses are based on univariate measures like RMSE and Theil’s inequality coefficient and also on the Mahalanobis distance, a multivariate measure that takes the variances of and the correlations between the variables into account. We compare forecasts generated by the two leading Austrian economic research institutes, the Institute for Advanced Studies (IHS) and the Austrian Institute of Economic Research (WIFO), and additionally consider the forecasts produced by the European Commission. The results indicate that there are no systematic differences between the forecasts of the two Austrian institutes, neither for the traditional measures nor for the Mahalanobis distance. Generally, forecasts become more accurate with a decreasing forecast horizon, as expected; they are unbiased for forecast horizons of less than a year considering traditional measures and for the shortest forecast horizon considering the Mahalanobis distance. Finally, we find that mistakes in external assumptions, in particular regarding EU GDP and the oil price, translate into forecast errors for GDP and inflation.