Im letzten Drittel des 19. und im ersten Drittel des 20. Jahrhunderts wurde von Carl Menger, Eugen von Böhm-Bawerk, Ludwig von Mises, Friedrich August von Hayek und zahlreichen anderen Wirtschaftswissenschaftern die Österreichische Schule der Nationalökonomie begründet, die auf die Entwicklung der Wirtschaftstheorie und der Theorie der Wirtschaftspolitik beträchtlichen Einfluss ausübte. Derzeit sind die «Austrians» vor allem im angelsächsischen Sprachraum aktiv; sie vertreten in ihrer betont marktwirtschaftlichen Ausrichtung eine unverwechselbare und in der aktuellen Diskussion relevante wirtschaftspolitische Position. Auch Politiker des deutschen Sprachraums nehmen bei der Begründung marktwirtschaftlich orientierter Reformvorschläge oft auf die Österreichische Schule der Nationalökonomie Bezug. In diesem Buch werden Positionen und Themen der Österreichischen Schule der Nationalökonomie dargestellt und diskutiert, wobei wirtschaftspolitische Fragen im Vordergrund stehen.

The Austrian School has made some of the most significant contributions to the social sciences in recent times but attempts to understand it have remained locked in a polemical frame. In contrast, The Philosphy of the Austrian School presents a philosophically grounded account of the School's methodological, political and economic ideas. Whilst acknowledging important differences between the key figures in the School - Menger, Mises, and Hayek - Raimondo Cubeddu finds that they also have significant things in common. Paramount amongst these are theories of subjective value and notions of spontaneous order, both of which rest on theories of seminal avenues of research in the social sciences and a major reformulation of liberal ideology.

The financial crisis has exposed severe shortcomings in mainstream monetary economics and modern finance. It is surprising that these shortcomings have not led to a wider debate about the need to overhaul these theories. Instead, mainstream economists have closed ranks to defend existing theories and public authorities have expanded their interference in markets. This book investigates the problems associated with mainstream monetary economics and finance, and proposes alternatives based on the Austrian school of economics. This school emanated from the work of the nineteenth-century Austrian economist Carl Menger and was developed further by Eugen von Böhm-Bawerk, Ludwig von Mises, and Friedrich August von Hayek. In monetary economics, the Austrian school regards the creation of money by banks through credit extension as a key source of economic instability. From this follows the need for a comprehensive reform of our present monetary system. In a new monetary order, money could be issued by both public and private institutions, and there would be no need for fractional reserve banking. Instead of creating money, banks would intermediate it. In finance, the Austrian school rejects the notion of rational expectations and measurable risk. Individuals use their subjective knowledge to gather and evaluate information, and they act in a world of radical uncertainty. Hence, markets are not "efficient" nor can portfolios be built on the basis of known probability distributions of asset prices as described in the modern finance literature. This book explores the need for a new theoretical foundation for asset pricing and investment management that will give practitioners more useful orientation.

Features papers presented at the inaugural Wirth Institute Conference on the Austrian School of Economics. This work explores issues in economic policy, applied economics, and pure theory from a variety of perspectives.