The Austrian School of Economics is an intellectual tradition in economics and political economy dating back to Carl Menger in the late-19th century. Menger stressed the subjective nature of value in the individual decision calculus. Individual choices are indeed made on the margin, but the evaluations of rank ordering of ends sought in the act of choice are subjective to individual chooser. For Menger, the economic calculus was about scarce means being deployed to pursue an individual's highest valued ends. The act of choice is guided by subjective assessments of the individual, and is open ended as the individual is constantly discovering what ends to pursue, and learning the most effective way to use the means available to satisfy those ends. This school of economic thinking spread outside of Austria to the rest of Europe and the United States in the early-20th century and continued to develop and gain followers, establishing itself as a major stream of heterodox economics. The Oxford Handbook of Austrian Economics provides an overview of this school and its theories. The various contributions discussed in this book all reflect a tension between the Austrian School's orthodox argumentative structure (rational choice and invisible hand) and its addressing of a heterodox problem situations (uncertainty, differential knowledge, ceaseless change). The Austrian economists from the founders to today seek to derive the invisible hand theorem from the rational choice postulate via institutional analysis in a persistent and consistent manner. Scholars and students working in the field of History of Economic Thought, those following heterodox approaches, and those both familiar with the Austrian School or looking to learn more will find much to learn in this comprehensive volume.

The Socialist Calculation debate was one of the defining moments of 20th-century economics, opening fundamental questions about the market economy and the possibility of a non-market economy. Was a socialist economy really feasible? Advocates like Lange and Taylor clearly thought so, but their critics led by Mises and Hayek were implacable in their opposition. During the '30s and '40s the Socialists clearly appeared to have won the day: 50 years later, with the collapse of communism, a different consensus emerged. This set contains material which should provide an understanding of the debate itself, as well as giving a critical insight into the relative merits of capitalism, socialism, and the alternative market socialism.

For one semester survey courses in general economics Teach your students how to think like economists. The Economic Way of Thinking goes beyond explaining the basic principles of micro- and macroeconomic analysis by showing students a method of reasoning that teaches them how to apply these principles as tools. The authors expose students to a method of reasoning that makes them think like an economist through example and application and also shows them how not to think, by exposing errors in popular economic reasoning. The latest edition has been thoroughly updated with current material.

The third volume of The Collected Works of Israel M Kirzner presents a collection of writings on capital theory that serve both as a discourse in the history of economic thought and as conceptual clarification in one of the most complex subjects in economics. This edition explores the notions of capital and interest in light of the controversies surrounding these topics. The first essay in this volume is Kirzner's introduction to the 1996 edition. The second essay was published as a stand-alone book in 1966 and presents Kirzner's capital theory, focusing on multi-period production plans. In the third essay Kirzner offers an interpretation of Ludwig von Mises's view of capital and interest. The fourth essay, written in the late 1980s, is Kirzner's attempt to clarify the difficulties found in interest theory. Finally, the fifth essay deals with Sir John Hick's capital theory in light of Kirzner's own Austrian position.

No other economist in recent times has been so closely identified with the Austrian School of economics as Israel M Kirzner, professor emeritus of economics at New York University. A leader of the generation of Austrian economists after Ludwig von Mises and F A Hayek, Kirzner has been recognised as one of the minds behind the revival of entrepreneurship and market process theory in the twentieth century. This book defines Israel M Kirzners unique contribution to the economics profession. Pointing out the shortcomings of the traditional microeconomic model, Kirzner offers an alternative and complementary view, which illuminates and enriches the way economists think of the market process. Recognising that economics cannot explain sheer novelty and ultimately social change by referring only to productive factors already in use, Kirzner develops a theory of the market process that focuses on the role of the pure entrepreneurial element in human action.This leads him to reconstruct the theory of price in order to understand, as he puts it, how the decisions of individual participants in the market interact to generate the market forces which compel changes in prices, outputs, and methods of production and in the allocation of resources. In doing so, Kirzner offers a new appraisal of competition moving the entrepreneurial function back to centre stage, thereby shedding new light on issues such as monopoly pricing, cartels, and pure profit.

"Market Theory and the Price System" was published in 1963 as Kirzner's first (and only) textbook. This volume presents an integrated view of Austrian price theory. The basic aim of this book is to utilise the tools of economic reasoning to explain the market process. The unique framework Kirzner develops for microeconomic analysis, following Mises and Hayek, examines error in decision-making, entrepreneurial profit, and competition as a process of discovery and learning.

The third volume of The Collected Works of Israel M Kirzner presents a collection of writings on capital theory that serve both as a discourse in the history of economic thought and as conceptual clarification in one of the most complex subjects in economics. This edition explores the notions of capital and interest in light of the controversies surrounding these topics. The first essay in this volume is Kirzner's introduction to the 1996 edition. The second essay was published as a stand-alone book in 1966 and presents Kirzner's capital theory, focusing on multi-period production plans. In the third essay Kirzner offers an interpretation of Ludwig von Mises's view of capital and interest. The fourth essay, written in the late 1980s, is Kirzner's attempt to clarify the difficulties found in interest theory. Finally, the fifth essay deals with Sir John Hick's capital theory in light of Kirzner's own Austrian position.