Archive for Israel M. Kirzner
Israel Kirzner is professor emeritus of economics at New York University and did his doctoral work under Ludwig von Mises. Professor Kirzner is the author of many books in the Austrian tradition of economics, among them Competition and Entrepreneurship; Perception, Opportunity, and Profit; and The Meaning of Market Process.
Human Action, 1949: A Dramatic Episode in Intellectual History
A great book, it has been remarked, is like a great castle. It can be viewed from many different angles, each offering a unique perspective. Viewing Ludwig von Mises’s monumental work from the vantage of 2009 permits one to see with great clarity one fascinating aspect of the book–the sheer drama of its emergence at [...]
19Aug2009 | Israel M. Kirzner | 3 comments | ContinuedThe Anatomy of Economic Advice, Part III
In the first article of this trilogy we explored some of the ambiguities and difficulties that surround the very idea of “economic advice” based on economic science. In the second article we set forth some of the basic foundations of economic science (with special reference to what the science can teach us about what we called the “benign” character of the spontaneous market process).
1Oct2006 | Israel M. Kirzner | 0 comments | ContinuedThe Anatomy of Economic Advice, Part II
How can positive science (consisting entirely of “is” statements) be translated into “ought” statements within the framework of economic understanding? In the first part of this series we drew attention to some of the paradoxes surrounding economic advice.
1Sep2006 | Israel M. Kirzner | 0 comments | ContinuedThe Anatomy of Economic Advice, Part I
As is the case with virtually all branches of human knowledge, economic knowledge and understanding are valued not only (or even primarily) for their own sake, but for their usefulness in practical terms. The enormous sums expended each year on economic research and economic education certainly would not be forthcoming if it were not expected that such research and education could help promote wise policies leading to prosperity and economic well-being.
1Aug2006 | Israel M. Kirzner | 0 comments | ContinuedThe Open-Endedness of Knowledge
I intend to explore in this article some aspects of the uniqueness which is FEE, and to express my fervent hope and confidence that such uniqueness will continue to permeate every nook and cranny of FEE’s activities in the years to come. I will begin by noting two related but separate paradoxes that have over [...]
1Jun2003 | Israel M. Kirzner | 0 comments | ContinuedLudwig von Mises: The Man and His Economics
Ludwig von Mises: The Man and His Economics
by Israel M. Kirzner
ISI Books – 2001 – 226 pages – $24.95 cloth; $14.95 paperback
Reviewed by Sheldon Richman
Anyone wishing to answer the question, "Who is Ludwig von Mises?," faces a formidable, if exciting, task. Where to start? Human Action, which runs close to 900 pages, is not [...]
Book Review ~ A History of Economic Thought: The LSE Lectures by Lionel Robbins
edited by Steven G. Medema and Warren J. Samuels
Princeton University Press • 2000 • 375 pages • $18.95 paperback
Reviewed by Israel M. Kirzner
In at least one respect, this is a remarkable book. It consists of the edited transcripts of a course of 33 lectures in the history of economic thought that Lionel Robbins [...]
A Puzzle and Its Solution: Rejoinder to Professor Ahiakpor
Israel Kirzner is a professor of economics at New York University.
I was at first puzzled by Professor James C.W. Ahiakpor’s charge that I had misrepresented mainstream economics (by my statement that mainstream economics’ use of its supply-and-demand apparatus relies on the assumption of perfect competition, and thus perfect knowledge). I was puzzled because mainstream [...]
Toward an Austrian Critique of Governmental Economic Policy
Israel Kirzner is a professor of economics at New York University. This is the fourth (and last) of a series of articles laying out some foundational elements of modern Austrian economics.
In preceding articles we outlined the way in which Austrian economists understand the entrepreneurial competitive market process that is responsible for the law of supply [...]
The Irresistible Force of Market Competition
Israel Kirzner is a professor of economics at New York University and author of The Meaning of Market Process. This is the third in a series of articles laying out some foundational elements of modern Austrian economics.
The systematic character of the market process derives, in the Austrian view, from the interplay of the actions of [...]
Entrepreneurial Discovery and the Law of Supply and Demand
Israel Kirzner is a professor of economics at New York University and author of The Meaning of Market Process. This is the second in a series of articles laying out some foundational elements of modern Austrian economics. The third article is here.
Last month we promised to explain how Austrian economics presents its understanding of the [...]
1Feb2000 | Israel M. Kirzner | 1 comment | ContinuedThe Law of Supply and Demand
Israel Kirzner is a emeritus professor of economics at New York University and author of The Meaning of Market Process. This is the first in a series of articles laying out some foundational elements of modern Austrian economics. The second article is here.
The theory of supply and demand is recognized almost universally as the first [...]
1Jan2000 | Israel M. Kirzner | 3 comments | ContinuedThe Nature and Significance of Economic Education
Israel Kirzner is a professor of economics at New York University. This article is a condensed and revised version of the first John Anthony Krogdahl Memorial Lecture, delivered at the Foundation for Economic Education, March 19, 1998.
For many years I have been fascinated by what at first glance seems a paradoxical feature in [...]
Fifty Years of FEE-Fifty Years of Progress in Austrian Economics
Dr. Kirzner is a professor of economics at New York University, New York City, and has served as a FEE trustee.
At this time of FEE’s golden jubilee, an Austrian economist’s thoughts dwell naturally upon the pivotal role which the Foundation has played in the survival and resurgence of Austrian Economics during the twentieth century. [...]
Book Review: The Market, Competition and Democracy: A Critique of Neo-Austrian Economics by Stavros Ioannides
Edward Elgar Publishing Company, Aldershot, Hants, England • 1992 • xiii + 194 pages $59.95
Thoughtful Marxist economists have often, it appears, been fascinated by Austrian economics. Some 70 years ago Nikolai Bukharin (the eminent Marxist economist, who had attended Bohm- Bawerk’s famous Seminar, and who was later to be executed by Stalin) perceptively pronounced [...]
Book Review: Mises: An Annotated Bibliography: A Comprehensive Listing of Books and Articles by and About Ludwig von Mises Compiled by Bettina Bien Greaves and Robert W. McGee
The Foundation for Economic Education, Inc., 1993 • 408 pages • $29.95
This is, quite simply, an extraordinary work. The reference, in its title, to an “annotated bibliography,” is grossly, almost laughably, inadequate as a description of it. Even its subtitle fails to convey its phenomenal and fascinating scope. This book not only provides a [...]
Book Review: Time And Public Policy by T. Alexander Smith
University of Tennessee Press, P.O. Box 250, Ithaca, NY 14850 1988 • 299 pages • $29.95 cloth
T. Alexander Smith, a professor of political science at the University of Tennessee, has written an impressive book. It is a book that ranges across several social science disciplines, particularly economics, sociology, and politics—but also involves psychology, philosophy, [...]
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The End of Prosperity: How Higher Taxes Will Doom the Economy–If We Let it Happen
By Arthur B. Laffer, Stephen Moore, and Peter J. Tanous
