Thursday, March 01, 2007

"Ignorance of Economics?"

I have critiqued the capital-theoretic basis of Austrian business cycle theory. I draw upon Sraffianism in my critique. I might as well point out that Post Keynesians have argued elsewhere against some aspects of the Austrian school of economics with another rationale. I refer to critiques that argue some Austrians do not take uncertainty and historical time seriously. I think the following Davidson article has been referenced more frequently than the following Kregel article:
  • Davidson, Paul (1989). "The Economics of Ignorance or Ignorance of Economics?", Critical Review, V. 3: 467-487
  • Kregel, Jan (1986). "Conceptions of Equilibrium: The Logic of Choice and the Logic of Production", in Subjectivism, Intelligibility, and Economic Understanding: Essays in Honor of Ludwig M. Lachmann on his Eightieth Birthday (edited by Israel M. Kirzner), New York University Press

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Maybe I haven't been exposed to enough economists and really haven't read enough textbooks to know how if they strictly believe one doctrine with out question.

But my opinion is that no group is 100% correct, they each have some correct ideas and do show contradictions in each other's thinking. I see economics as more as tradeoffs than being right.

anonymous Mike

Robert Vienneau said...

One journal I once submitted an article to promises, as part of an agreement you sign with them, to find peers to criticize your article. The wording is as if they are doing you a favor.

And they are, although I can understand how one might react emotionally.

Anyways, although perhaps this is worded to anger some Austrian-school economists, I have already on this blog expressed an appreciation of the difficulties of calculation in socialist central planning. And Sraffians have been prominent in the literature in pointing out the historical importance of Hayek in the creation of the concept of intertemporal equilibrium.