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Turning Austrian Economics into an Evolutionary Theory

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Austrian Economics: Tensions and New Directions

Part of the book series: Recent Economic Thought Series ((RETH,volume 30))

Abstract

Although two of the original protagonist of evolutionary thinking in economics — Schumpeter and Hayek — were born in Austria and educated in Vienna, Austrian economics and the evolutionary approach are usually considered to be two distinct and independent developments. This distinction has something to it and the present chapter will give some hints as to why. However, the two schools also have much in common. It seems worthwhile, therefore, to examine whether matching the two lines of thought could yield a promising research strategy. An exploration of this question is complicated, unfortunately, by the fact that within the Austrian school there is considerable disagreement about various issues (see, Shand, 1981). The same is true with respect to the evolutionary approach that still suffers from a significant lack of coherence (see Witt, 1992a). Before the possible gains from matching ideas from the two camps can be assessed, a thorough review of similarities and differences between, and shortcoming and strenghts of, several positions in both schools seems necessary.

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Authors
  1. Ulrich Witt
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  2. John Foster
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Economics Joseph M. Bryan School of Business and Economics, University of North Carolina at Greensboro, 462 Bryan Building, Greensboro, NC, 27412-5001, USA

    Bruce J. Caldwell

  2. Faculty of Social and Economics Studies Institute of Economics, Karl-Franzens University of Graz, Graz, A-8010, Austria

    Stephan Boehm

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Witt, U., Foster, J. (1992). Turning Austrian Economics into an Evolutionary Theory. In: Caldwell, B.J., Boehm, S. (eds) Austrian Economics: Tensions and New Directions. Recent Economic Thought Series, vol 30. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-2186-6_8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-2186-6_8

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  • Print ISBN: 978-94-010-4968-9

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