ABSTRACT

A great deal has been written on the Austrian school: about the Austrian contributions to economic theory and economic methodology, about the Austrians' battles against socialism and planned economies in particular. Those who regard the development of economics as continuous progress and refinement of theory will be more inclined to look at it in retrospect or as history of economic analysis. Those who regard it, or at least most of it, as ideology, bourgeois or otherwise, may see very little progress and a great deal of apologetics. The historian of econometrics will, by the nature of the object of enquiry, have to put a great deal more emphasis on the development of technique than, say, the historian of value theory, who will be more concerned to understand the meaning of the concept of value in different ages. Before commencing with the investigation something must be said about the treatment of Menger in the literature.