Debating the Socialist Calculation Debate: A Classroom Exercise

Abstract: The author describes a classroom exercise that introduces the Socialist Calculation Debate (SCD) to undergraduate economics students. The SCD concerns an issue that remains one of the most consequential of the 20th century— the belief in the superiority of socialism and central planning over capitalism and the free market. The exercise presents the SCD in an active learning atmosphere by requiring the students to read, interpret, and discuss the writings of three notable participants in the debate—Ludwig von Mises, Oskar Lange, and Friedrich Hayek. He discusses the format and objectives of the exercise, required and optional readings, and current relevance of the SCD.     

The economic analysis of social norms: A reappraisal of Hayek’s legacy

This paper is organized as follows: first, we show that the reference to the notion of group selection is coherent with the other parts of Hayek’s thought. Second, we develop the idea that recent works in terms of the emergence and evolution of social norms corroborate in part Hayek’s theses in this domain. Finally, we put to the fore some drawbacks in Hayek’s approach and propose means to solve them.

The Role of Nonattenuated Rights in Positive Economics: A Critical Appraisal

This article assesses the institutionalist elements of Friedrich Hayek's neoliberal political economy by presenting his views on the entangled relations between the state and markets in capitalism. Through the analysis of Hayek's work, the article contributes to further consolidating the view that neoliberalism is an ideological project of institutional transformation which, despite some enduring myths, has an irreplaceable role for a state with many important functions in a more limited democracy. Markets, for their part, are politically contested social constructions that depend on previous non-market institutions for their existence and legitimation. This paper argues that Hayek's work corroborates this institutionalist claim.     

The functions of the family in the great society

Criticisms by Hodgson and others that Hayek and other Austrianscannot offer a theory of the family are responded to with adiscussion of the functions of the family in a market society.The family can be understood as a bridge between what Hayekterms ‘organisations’, or face-to-face social institutionsand ‘orders’, or the anonymous social institutionsof the Great Society. The family's necessary role is then linkedto familiar Hayekian themes of knowledge and incentives. Familieshelp us to learn the explicit and tacit social rules necessaryfor functioning in the wider world, and families are uniquelypositioned to do so, because it is those closest to us who havethe knowledge and incentives necessary to provide that learning.     

What is extreme about Mises’s extreme apriorism?

There is something extreme about Ludwig von Mises’s methodological apriorism, namely, his epistemological justification of the a priori element(s) of economic theory. His critics have long recognized and attacked the extremeness of Mises’s epistemology of a priori knowledge. However, several of his defenders have neglected what is (and what has long been recognized by his critics to be) extreme about Mises’s apriorism. Thus, the argument is directed less against Mises than against those contributions to the secondary literature that assert his methodological moderation while overlooking what the most prominent critics have found extreme about Mises’s apriorism. Defending Mises as a merely moderate apriorist because he held only a narrow part of the foundation of economics to be a priori is a straw-man defense against criticisms of his apriorism as epistemologically extreme.     

Hayekian evolution reconsidered: a reply to Hodgson

This is a reply to Geoffrey Hodgson's Comment on an earlierpaper by Caldwell (Hodgson on Hayek: a critique). Though certainareas of agreement are noted, differences in interpretationconcerning Hayek's views on the Malthus–Darwin relationship,on cultural evolution, on the extent to which Hayek may be characterisedas an ontogenist, and on methodological individualism remain.     

对目前通货膨胀现象的理论分析

本文通过对哈耶克有关文献的梳理,着重指出目前的通货膨胀是一种"凯恩斯的通货膨胀",进而从理论上指出:凯恩斯通货膨胀是一种"人为"性质的通货膨胀,是一种忽视生产过程和结构的通货膨胀,是一种在经济和政治层面上将造成危害的通货膨胀。在国内外通货膨胀已存蔓延之势的情形下,批判凯恩斯通货膨胀将为中国制止通货膨胀从心理、政治和现实三个方面提供思想资源。