Revisiting the Concept of Schools of Thought in Economics: The Example of the Austrian School

The aim of this article is to explore defining characteristics of schools of thought in economics, with Austrian economics chosen to illustrate some of the themes raised. This article argues that a school of thought can be interpreted as an entity that comprises both a system of thought and its member practitioners. Furthermore, a school of thought presupposes the existence of two elements: coherence and distinctiveness. Despite the existence of Misesian and Hayekian strands and thus of plurality within the Austrian school, the article argues for the existence of a broader notion of coherence within the Austrian school at the level of epistemology, methodology, and agenda/objectives.     

The New Economic Sociology of Prices: An Analysis Inspired by the Austrian School of Economics

The new economic sociology includes some reference studies on the sociology of prices. They have not until now been studied by economists, and this article attempts to fill that gap by offering a detailed analysis, inspired by the Austrian School of Economics, of their object and approach. We first show that, from a theoretical point of view, the explanations advanced by these sociologists are based implicitly on basic models of economics, such as the “law of supply and demand” and the “law of costs,” and that they cannot therefore replace economic explanations of prices. Secondly, from a methodological point of view, these studies are based on field surveys that provide concrete information on certain markets but they lose sight of an aspect that is fundamental to the Austrian School, the interdependence of prices in different markets. And when this interdependence is taken into account, namely, in the case of the relationship between cost and price, the causal link postulated by sociologists goes from cost to price when Austrian economists argue that it goes in the opposite direction.     

The Austrian Theory of the Business Cycle

The Austrian school theory of the business cycle is based on the proposition that an artificial expansion of the money supply reduces the transaction rate of interest below its natural rate, which stimulates excessive investment in capital goods of long duration, and then when the rate of interest rises back up, these investments stop, and the economy falls into recession.     

The Methodology of Austrian Economics and Its Relevance to Institutionalism

A bstract . The methodology of Austrian economics's presented in the writings of Ludwig von Mises is described. The Misesian system is built on a priori categories (choice, causality, teleology, time, uncertainty) which Mises regarded as common to all human actors. He used these categories to describe how theories of social phenomena must be constructed if they are to be comprehensible to others. To interpret history , including economic history , one must invent models based on subsidiary assumptions and he or she must make bypotheseszbom the specific "intentions and expectations" of actors. One model is that of an "economic institution." The meaning of the Misesian model of an institution is stated. It is said to have much in common with the models of phenomenologicai sociology. Finally, contrary to recent papers in this J ournal , it is argued that (1) Misesian a priori categories are not alternatives to a priori assumptions described by institutionalists, (2) although a pure theory of choice does not lend itself to the evaluation of public policy , hypotheses about specific intentions and expectations do permit such evaluations, and (3) statements by Mises on institutions and the study of history resemble those made by many institutionalists.     

Austrian Policy for the Thatcher Government

'Austrian' economics – an approach developed by a succession of Austrian economists, Menger, Wieser, Böhm-Bawerk, Mises and now the latest and greatest, F. A. Hayek – whose influence is reflected in this New Statesman cartoon – has developed new adherents among younger economists in America, Britain and around the world. Here Alex Shand outlines the main elements of government policy as they could be if based on 'Austrian' economics.     

中职学校《职业道德与法律》教学刍议

《职业道德与法律》是中等职业学校必修的一门德育课程,本文针对目前各中职学校在本学科教学中存在的两大问题提出建议以提高教学质量,实现培养目标。     

对学校等教育机构补充责任的法条解析

本文从解读了《侵权责任法》关于学校等教育机构承担补充责任的立法原因,并对法条的具体内容以及举证责任的分配进行了分析。     

台湾《私立学校法》内容解析及述评

私立高等教育立法都强调保障和促进私立高等教育的健康发展,台湾对私立学校的立法宗旨、学校性质与地位、董事会制度、奖励与扶持、税收与收费、教职工权益保障等在《私立学校法》中进行了明确的规定。本文通过解读与述评《私立学校法》,同时提出相应的政策建议,进而为完善大陆民办高等教育政策法规提供参考依据。     

The interplay between regulation and efficiency: Evidence from the Austrian hospital inpatient sector

The Austrian health policy aims to maintain and even expand high-quality health care. The implementation of an integrated master plan, which contains input and output target values for the overall health care system, is an important regulatory intervention. To support the regulatory authorities, efficiency studies that simultaneously reveal input and output improvement potential can be promising. To serve this purpose, we computed bootstrapped non-oriented super-efficiency measures to identify any improvement potential in inputs and outputs for the Austrian hospital inpatient sector for four years. Variations in hospital efficiency were investigated using non-parametric post-efficiency analyses.     

The Rebirth of Austrian Economics: 1974–99

Twenty five years ago, Austrian economics appeared to be a 'closed chapter in the history of economics.' Today Austrian ideas are flourishing as never before. That is partly due to the compelling nature of Austrian ideas. But there is a good case for arguing that the 'official rebirth' of Austrian economics dates back to a meeting in South Royalton, Vermont in June 1974.     

The CAPITAL in Social Capital: An Austrian Perspective

In recent decades economists started discovering the importance of the social dimension of economic interactions. Contemporary economics has borrowed several sociological concepts for its own use, among the most important being the concept of social capital. However, this transfer within disciplines did not occur without a loss—the nature of social capital in economics remains confused and obscure. The purpose of this article is to clarify it, specify the possibilities for its use, and discuss their limits. It is argued that economics once also possessed a view of human beings that was more “socialized” than the modern neoclassical Homo oeconomicus, and that this more “socialized” view still exists in the Austrian school of economics. Because this tradition of economic thought has also developed an elaborate capital theory, it can serve as an ideal source where we can look for inspiration in the current social capital debate. First, social capital is (re)defined along these lines as an individual's asset connected with recognized reciprocity (as opposed to interactions usually classified as “altruistic”). Then major critical claims about the relation between social and physical capital are answered and the connection between social capital, trust, and social norms is described.     

Forecasting Austrian national elections: The Grand Coalition model

Forecasting the outcomes of national elections has become established practice in several democracies. In the present paper, we develop an economic voting model for forecasting the future success of the Austrian ‘grand coalition’, i.e., the joint electoral success of the two mainstream parties SPOE and OEVP, at the 2013 Austrian Parliamentary Elections. Our main argument is that the success of both parties is strongly tied to the accomplishments of the Austrian system of corporatism, that is, the Social Partnership (Sozialpartnerschaft  ), in providing economic prosperity. Using data from Austrian national elections between 1953 and 2008 (n=18$n=18$), we rely on the following predictors in our forecasting model: (1) unemployment rates, (2) previous incumbency of the two parties, and (3) dealignment over time. We conclude that, in general, the two mainstream parties benefit considerably from low unemployment rates, and are weakened whenever they have previously formed a coalition government. Further, we show that they have gradually been losing a good share of their voter basis over recent decades.     

The international fragmentation of Austrian manufacturing: The effects of outsourcing on productivity and wages

Since the fall of the Iron Curtain, Austria and other small, open Western European countries have increasingly outsourced part of their production to the Eastern transition countries. This study assesses the effects of fragmentation of Austrian manufacturing on total factor productivity and mandated factor prices. Outsourcing to the East significantly improves domestic growth in total factor productivity, but possibly less in low-skill, labor-intensive industries and more in capital-intensive ones. Estimates of the mandated wage regressions suggest that in the presence of perfect factor markets wages would be lower for low-skilled workers and higher for high-skilled workers as a result of outsourcing.     

The Law of the Sea and Ocean Resources

From time immemorial, the ocean has provided food, adventure, and inspiration to humanity. In recent years, the nations began to recognize the ocean as an important source of resources. The immense potential of the ocean in providing food and nutrition, particularly protein, began to be reexamined. However the ocean also contains a seed of conflict among nations since claims over ocean resources are overlapping. Attempts to establish the law of the sea have failed to reach an accord with regard to the definition of territorial waters and economic zones. At stake are the freedom of navigation, the right of fishing, and claims over mining deep seabed resources. It is imperative to examine the conflicting claims over ocean resources and to foresee the possible outcome of the law of the sea to avoid scrambles over the ocean resources among nations.     

Low-Tech, innovation and state aid: the Austrian case

This paper analyses innovation patterns of Austrian Low- and Medium Tech (LMT-) SMEs and how these companies are supported by public policy. It adds evidence to the claim that Low-Tech SMEs are actually more innovative than commonly thought and that supporting these industries might yield positive effects. The Austrian innovation system is diversified, yet programmes that aim at LMT innovations are scarce. LMT SMEs are surprisingly innovative, but rarely use available support measures, indicating that these measures may be too High-Tech-oriented. Relatively high additionality effects and impacts can be achieved, if innovative LMT projects are fostered.

The myths of the Chicago School

Reconstructions of ‘Chicago School’ sociology perpetuate certain myths about the nature and style of the sociology carried out at the University of Chicago. These views have been analysed and four elements have been identified. These are that Chicago sociology was reformist in orientation, atheoretical, ethnographic and influenced by the pragmatism of G.H. Mead. These elements of myth are scrutinised in terms of their genesis and substance.     

依法治校,促进校园法治文化建设

依法治校是贯彻党的十六大精神,推进依法治国基本方略的必然要求,是深化教育改革,推动教育发展的重要内容。依法治校目前存在的主要问题是广大师生员工的法律知识缺乏,教育管理者的法律意识淡薄。采取措施是进行普法教育,增强管理者的法律意识,提高依法治校的自觉性。