ABSTRACT

In this introduction a short overview is given of the contents of this volume, without giving way to the temptation to evaluate and discuss the contributions.

Kirzner gave a keynote lecture on ‘The Subjectivism of Austrian Economics’. As he observes, this topic is both appropriate and important. He argues that the subjectivism that developed out of the pioneering insights of Carl Menger, who founded the Austrian School, has come to mean entirely different things to different doctrinal traditions within modern economics — each of which derives substantially or wholly from the Mengerian tradition. He argues that the variety that informs modern Austrian economics preserves and deepens most faithfully Menger’s own fundamental insights. The deepening took place in three phases through the work of Mises, Hayek and Kirzner. The key elements in this modern extension of Mengerian subjectivism are the role of entrepreneurship in market processes (Mises), and the gradual expansion of knowledge gener­ ated in the course of the competitive market process (Hayek). Kirzner integrated these elements in his theory of entrepreneurship and equilibrium.