Austrian School Research Articles

Private Property Rights, Dynamic Efficiency and Economic Development: An Austrian Reply to Neo-Marxist Scholars Nieto and Mateo on Cyber-Communism and Market Process

The Austrian school economics and neo-Marxist theories both have been reviving in recent years. However, the current academic discussion lacks a debate between two schools of economics with diametrically opposed views. This paper is the first and an initial Austrian challenge to Neo-Marxist scholars Nieto and Mateo’s argumentation that cyber-communism and the Austrian theory of dynamic efficiency are consistent to enhance economic development. Their argument focuses on two issues: (a) the existence of circular reasoning in the Austrian theory of dynamic efficiency, and (b) dynamic efficiency and full economic development could be strongly promoted in a socialist system through new information and communication technologies (ICT) and the democratization of all economic life. While cyber-communism refers to cyber-planning without private property rights through ICT, dynamic efficiency refers to the entrepreneurs’ creative and coordinative natures. In this paper, first, we argue that the hypothesis that dynamic efficiency and cyber-communism is not compatible. Contrary to the above cyber-communist criteria, the Austrian theory of dynamic efficiency argues that to impede private property rights is to remove the most powerful entrepreneurial incentive to create and coordinate profit opportunities. Second, we argue that the cyber-communism system is inconsistent with economic development. In this regard, we explain how the institutional environment can cultivate or stifle dynamic efficiency and economic development. Having briefly outlined the central argument of Nieto and Mateo, we examine the institutional arrangement supporting cyber-communism. After that, we evaluate the implications of cyber-communism in the dynamic efficiency process. It becomes manifest that Nieto and Mateo’s accounts are too general to recognize the complexity of how economic development works.

The Harvard-MIT complexity approach to development and Austrian economics: Similarities and policy implications

The Harvard-MIT complexity approach to development and Austrian economics: Similarities and policy implications

Catering situation at Austrian schools

Abstract Background Due to the increase in all-day compulsory schools in Austria, it is important that students receive health-promoting meals throughout the day. The aim of the analysis was a nationwide evaluation of the current situation concerning catering at schools. Methods Using a nationwide representative sample of schools from the 5th grade upwards, a questionnaire was conducted as a telephone interview with 331 randomly chosen schools. In addition, 56 schools in Vienna from the 5th grade onwards were randomly selected in order to analyze the current offer at school cafeterias in detail. Results Lunch was offered at 72% of all schools, a school cafeteria was available at 81%, a cold drink vending machine at 66%, a hot drink vending machine at 41% and a snack vending machine at 23%. With regard to the health promoting composition of the catering offer, 18% of all schools already had a certified lunch menu, 22% a certified school cafeteria, 14% a certified cold drink vending machine and 5% a certified snack vending machine. In 79% of schools there is direct competition for school catering (93% supermarkets, 45% bakeries, 33% snack stands, 8% fast food restaurants). The results of the detailed analysis in Vienna showed that only 35% of all school cafeterias are certified. All of these locations are advised externally. Conclusions The majority of the schools offer catering during breaks and at lunchtime. Without external advice, the majority of the offers must be classified as not health promoting. Key messages The food offered at schools is an important component in the nutrition of students in Austria. Cafeteria operators in schools often need external advice in order to be able to offer a healthy selection of food and beverages.

Influence of an increased number of physical education lessons on the motor performance of adolescents-A non-interventional cohort study.

Increasing the amount of regular physical education lessons in school is currently discussed in many countries in order to increase physical activity in youth. The purpose of this study was to compare the motor performance of pupils from an observation group participating in a school trial of two additional physical education lessons (5 lessons of each 50 min/week) without a specific intervention program to a control group with a regular amount of three physical education lessons (3 lessons of each 50 min/week) as indicated by the standard Austrian school curriculum. In this cohort study motor performance of 140 adolescents (12.7±0.5 years) was assessed by means of the German Motor Performance Test 6–18 over a period of 1.5 years with measurement time points before (T1), after eight months (T2) and at the end of the observation period (T3). Two- and three-way mixed analysis of variance were used to detect time, group and interaction effects. Although the observation group demonstrated a higher total motor performance score at all time points (P = 0.005), the improvement over time in total motor performance (P < 0.001) was more pronounced in the control group. Girls and boys developed differently over time (time*gender interaction: P = 0.001), whereby group allocation did not affect this interaction (time*gender*group: P = 0.167). Anyway, girls of control group tend to benefit most of additional physical education lessons. Sports club members scored significantly higher in motor performance across the observation period (P = 0.018) irrespective of group allocation. These findings indicate that there could be a ceiling effect in what the pupils could achieve in terms of motor performance as the pupils of the observation group might have reached this point earlier than their counterparts in the control group. Nevertheless, sports club membership seems to reveal some benefits. Whether improving quality and specificity of the single physical lessons might be superior to merely adding additional ones needs to be confirmed in future studies.

Has the Rise of Socialism in U.S. Politics been a Boon to Austrian Economics? Evidence from Social Media and Other Metrics

The rise of socialism has been one of the more dramatic movements in US politics in the modern era, with recent Gallup polling indicating that 39 percent of Americans (and 65 percent of Democrats) hold a favorable view of the political economic ideology. Upward trends in the popularity of political economic ideologies such as socialism are observed when much of what is known by the public about them is gleaned through heuristic approaches rather than through scientific investigation. However, an increase in the persistence and severity of problems resulting from the practice of a political economic ideology such as socialism will likely lead to more science-based introspection, a turn in approach that will almost certainly be a boon to political and economic theories/models offering refutations of the ideology. This study explores such a demand-side argument with regard to the recent rise of socialism in US politics by asserting, and testing, the notion that the Austrian school of economics, which is most closely identified with the claim that socialism is unworkable, has been a beneficiary of recent political trends. Statistical evidence from various trends in informetrics is consistent with our assertion, as Google News hits and Twitter hashtag counts have ascended over the recent period (i.e., 2016 to 2019).

The Long Rehabilitation of Frank Fetter

Economics has long history of “rehabilitations,” including W.H. Hutt’s rehabilitation of Say’s law, and Alfred Marshall’s attempt to rehabilitate David Ricardo. The rehabilitation of Frank A. Fetter should be as important as either of these, especially for economists working in the contemporary Austrian tradition. The historical records reveal that for the last century there has been underway a nearly unbroken series of efforts, especially by Austrian economists, to rehabilitate Fetter’s contributions and use them to revitalize economic theory. This paper relates this history, which chronicles the rise, decline, and rise again of one of the great American economic theorists. Yet crucially, this is not a story about Fetter alone, but also of the fortunes of the Austrian school and its rise, decline, and renaissance.

Multi-Informant Assessment of Bullying in Austrian Schools

This study explores the agreement of bullying reports from different perspectives. Nominations and (self and peer) ratings of 721 students (50.5% boys, 49.5% girls, aged 9–11), 46 teachers (91.3% female, 8.7% male;Mage= 40.28 years,SDage= 1.6, teaching experience between 2 and 36 years,Mexperience= 15.16,SDexperience= 1.68), 439 mothers, and 363 fathers were analyzed. Measures included a modified version of the Revised Olweus Bully/Victim questionnaire (OBVQ) as well as nomination items, with variables on physical and relational bullying and victimization, and frequency of experience. For descriptive analyses, group comparisons and correlations were performed and to test the dimensional structure of the modified Revised OBVQ we fitted a categorical confirmatory factor analysis (CCFA) for all four raters. To estimate the degree of agreement between the four raters, we applied a simple multitrait-multimethod (MTMM) analysis in a CCFA framework. Results indicated that teachers are more likely to recognize physical bullying than relational bullying. Significant gender effects were found, with more frequent nominations for boys and a larger gender effect for physical bullying. Overall, teachers reported the highest levels of bullying, and students reported significantly higher levels of victimization compared to the other raters. In terms of bullying, the MTMM model revealed a slightly higher agreement between students and parents than between students and teachers. The findings further indicate a tendency for lower agreement between student and adult reports than among adults’ reports. The notably high agreement between the ratings of mothers and fathers for both bullying and victimization supports the research strategy to include only one parent. Although bullying is assessed from various perspectives, the study does not provide prevalence estimates of bullying in Austria.

Alexander Linsbichler, Was Ludwig von Mises a Conventionalist? A New Analysis of the Epistemology of the Austrian School of Economics

Alexander Linsbichler, Was Ludwig von Mises a Conventionalist? A New Analysis of the Epistemology of the Austrian School of Economics

Making sense of health corruption in times of COVID-19

This paper provides readers with an analytical framework to better understand the rationality of corruption and its perpetuation in the health sector during the coronavirus pandemics. To pursue the foregoing task, it embarks on integrating insights from New Institutional Economics, Public Choice Theory, and the Austrian School of Economics to come up with an explanation of corrupt deals that uncover their causally relevant mechanisms. Its goal is to shed light on corruption risks that emerge from changes in legislation that weakened public procurement rules and therefore turned the Brazilian health system more vulnerable to corrupt acts. The article conjectures that increased uncertainty, asymmetric information, and decreased transparency channels have played major roles in triggering corrupt practices, such as bribery, kickback, embezzlement, influence peddling, and cronyism. More precisely, it argues that rent-seeking and predatory political entrepreneurship are two driving forces behind Brazilian corrupt exchanges and their risks in times of the COVID-19 pandemic. It offers some evidence that corruption scandals in Rio de Janeiro state make a very good case for showing the explanatory value of the proposed theoretical approach. It closes by wrapping up the overall argument, presenting some policy implications and questions for further research.

Стейблкоины как имплементация теории частных денег Хайека

Objective: to search for the new ways and forms of evolution of the institution of private money based on one of the types of cryptocurrencies called stablecoins.Methods: the study uses the approaches of the historical school by D. North, evolutionary economics and the Austrian school of economics, as well as the new institutional economics.Results: the initial tasks of creating a bitcoin have led, as a result of the hype around its value, to a distortion of the original concept of forming “private money” and to the use of cryptocurrency in illegal operations. The development of a private monetary paradigm is also hindered by the high volatility and unpredictability of the cryptocurrency exchange rate. The solution to this problem can be stablecoins, which are more capable of performing the function of “Hayek money”. The article considers the main provisions of the concept of de-monopolization of monetary circulation in Hayek’s theory, as well as the possibilities of its implementation, taking into account the institutional technological innovations that have occurred. The scheme of operation and distribution of stablecoins is studied on the example of the Tether cryptocurrency. The main reasons for the use of stablecoins as a private form of money, as well as some obstacles to their development, are identified. The possibilities of their further implementation in the real sector based on the system of flexible-collateral system of new issued tokens are considered.Scientific novelty: it consists in a holistic assessment of the evolution of the private money institutional structure based on the analysis of the characteristics and ways of implementing certain types of cryptocurrencies in the real sector. The prospects for the formation of the private money market based on the Hayek model are determined.Practical significance: it consists in the further development of the cryptocurrency market and the formation of the institutional environment of the private money market.

Understanding general pedagogical knowledge influences on sustainable teacher well-being: A qualitative exploratory study

This qualitative reconstructive study aimed to explore teacher general pedagogical knowledge and professional well-being. The informants were a convenience sample of 18 teachers from Austrian primary schools (n = 5), lower secondary schools (n = 7), and upper secondary schools (n = 6). Demographically, the sample included: female= 10, male= 8; mean years of service = 15.8 years, SD = 12.2 years. We interviewed the teachers on their general pedagogical practices knowledge (supportive, personal, interactive, and structural), and their sense of professional well-being. Inductive thematic analysis findings indicated the teachers to value pedagogical knowledge on supporting student learning intuitively, and engagement with students and the learning process. The teachers also prioritised personal-interactive pedagogical knowledge about communicating effectively and relationships with students, parents, and fellow teachers. The teachers perceived their structural knowledge in accomplishment of education technology and their general pedagogical knowledge competencies to provide for sustainable emotional well-being and work role meaning. We conclude from these findings what teacher pedagogical knowledge is important for accomplishing both quality education and professional well-being of teachers.

The main phases of Oleksandr Zupan's development as a geographer and teacher

The main phasess of life history and formation of scientific work of Professor Oleksandr Zupan, a famous Austrian geographer, climatologist, teacher, editor of the famous geographical journal "Petermanns Mitteilungen" are described. It is shown the contribution to the development of geographical science, Austrian and German school geography whithin the analysis of O. Zupan’s career.Most of his life Oleksandr Zupan lived in Germany, namely in Gotha. His stay in Slovenia in Ljubljana was very long as well. He studied and worked as a teacher in Ljubljana. In general, we suggest to identify five periods: the first - 1847 - 1869, the second - 1869 - 1877, the third - 1878 - 1884, the fourth - 1885-1907 years, and the fifth - 1908 - 1920 years.

Sensitivity and specificity of the antigen-based anterior nasal self-testing programme for detecting SARS-CoV-2 infection in schools, Austria, March 2021.

This study evaluates the performance of the antigen-based anterior nasal screening programme implemented in all Austrian schools to detect SARS-CoV-2 infections. We combined nationwide antigen-based screening data obtained in March 2021 from 5,370 schools (Grade 1–8) with an RT-qPCR-based prospective cohort study comprising a representative sample of 244 schools. Considering a range of assumptions, only a subset of infected individuals are detected with the programme (low to moderate sensitivity) and non-infected individuals mainly tested negative (very high specificity).

The Biblical Ethic of Free Market Exchange

Despite the calls of ‘Christian Socialists’ to bring market forces under the control of the state and its temporal power, the supreme text of Christianity not only supports the existence of free markets, it also prescribes their existence and operation as the normal, God-given means of social interaction. Both the Old and New Testaments of the Bible provide an ethical defense of the market itself, the division of labor, the principle of voluntary exchange, and the condemnation of force, fraud, and coercion. As the introduction of force into society and exchange is always and ever the policy of interventionists and socialists, the aim of this paper is to oppose those doctrines on the grounds of Biblical ethics. This is not to dismiss the pragmatic, historic, or epistemological failings of the interventionists. The dismantling of socialism on these grounds has been thorough and devastating as provided by the Austrian school of economics. This work provides a moral and ethical ground that not only dismisses the socialist agenda, but adds to an already robust body of work that rejects its interventions due to its inefficiencies, failed states, and its pretense of knowledge.

Austrian Economics and Entrepreneurship

This symposium includes four papers that investigate entrepreneurship from an Austrian perspective. Bylund and Klein focus on praxeology while the other papers are focused on opportunity discovery and creation (Koppl and Minniti’s paper), effectuation (Bylund and Gupta’s paper), and entrepreneurial action and public policy (Lucas’s paper), grounding that presenter symposium in the field of entrepreneurship. Praxeology and Design: Building Rationalist Foundations for Design Science Presenter: Per L. Bylund; Oklahoma State U. Presenter: Peter G. Klein; Baylor U. Entrepreneurs Discover What Evolution Creates Presenter: Roger Koppl; Syracuse U. Presenter: Maria Minniti; Syracuse U. Effectuation and The Logic of Action: A Critical Assessment from a Praxeological Perspective Presenter: Per L. Bylund; Oklahoma State U. Presenter: Vishal K. Gupta; U. of Alabama Entrepreneurial Action, Public Policy, and Grand Challenges: A Political Economy Perspective Presenter: David Lucas; Syracuse U.

Net Present Value, Duration, and CAPM in Light of Investment Theory: A Comment on Kruk

In her paper “Corporate Risk Evaluation in the Context of Austrian Business Cycle Theory” recently published in this journal, Joanna Kruk aims to investigate how artificially low interest rates resulting from central bank intervention distort individual investment appraisals and ultimately result in both entrepreneurial misjudgment and resource-wasting malinvestment, fueling the business cycle. She identifies entrepreneurs’ net present value calculations, supposedly unadjusted for risk, as a major issue and suggests adjusting those calculations for risk via both the duration method and the Capital Asset Pricing Model to mitigate the distorting effects. Her argumentation is, however, trapped in neoclassical reasoning and is adversely affected by several misconceptions of the net present value criterion. This comment seeks to reveal those fallacies and explain how to address uncertainty when using net present value calculations to make those calculations part of the solution rather than part of the problem of entrepreneurial misjudgment. The findings are derived from German investment theory rooted in the Austrian school of thought, meaning that they differ compared to those of neoclassical finance theory.

An Anatomy of Failure: China's Wind Power Development

China is currently the world’s largest installer of wind power. However, with twice the installed wind capacity compared to the United States in 2015, the Chinese produce less power. The question is: Why is this the case? This article shows that Chinese grid connectivity is low, Chinese firms have few international patents, and that export is low even though production capacity far exceeds domestic production needs. Using the tools of Austrian economics, China’s wind power development from 1980 to 2016 is documented and analyzed from three angles: (a) planning and knowledge problems, (b) unproductive entrepreneurship, and (c) bureaucracy and government policy. From a theoretical standpoint, both a planning problem and an entrepreneurial problem are evident where governmental policies create misallocation of resources and a hampering of technological development.

Entrepreneurship and Equilibrium

Neoclassic economic theory regards equilibrium, whether general or partial, as a crucially important foundation of the dismal science[1]. In the view of mainstream economists, the general equilibrium framework not only an investigation of the economy in terms of its perfect qualities, but also is suitable as an end or goal of action. The Austrian school, in contrast, sees equilibrium (or the evenly rotating economy - ERE) merely as a tendency for economic activities to move us in that direction, but it is never attained. Praxeological economics has thus concentrated not on equilibrium, but on the process by which the market moves toward it. Since the process of shifting resources to meet these ends cannot be achieved spontaneously, entrepreneurship plays a key role. In Mises and Rothbard’s view, entrepreneurship involves uncertainty bearing which beyond the alertness emphasized by Hayek and Kirzner; on the other hand, unlike Lachmann looks the economy as a kaleidoscope and rejects the ERE, Mises and Rothbard regard the ERE as an indispensable way to understand the economy.&#x0D; &#x0D; [1] As Frank H. Hahn said “Whatever economics is used or thought about, equilibrium is a central organizing concept.” (Hahn 1984: 43). Many economists and philosophers of science consider mathematical neoclassical general equilibrium theory as one of the peak achievements of economics (Rosenberg, 1992). Tieben (2012) stated that policy-makers and theorists of all schools of economics all use some form of equilibrium theory to develop their ideas and support their main theoretical and political claims. Lawson (2005) indicated that the equilibrium concept is a major cause of controversy between different schools of economic thought. A.W. Bob Coats even deems it the case that “economics has been dominated throughout its history by a single paradigm – the theory of economic equilibrium via the market mechanism.” (Coats 1969: 292).

Responsive leadership within professional learning networks for sustainable professional learning

ABSTRACT After outlining the central role of leadership for individual and interorganisational learning in sustainable Professional Learning Networks (PLN), this article describes Austria’s professional learning environment and professional learning (PL) within this changing field. In order to meet urgent institutional requests for sustainable PL, new organisational responses are needed. The authors highlight the implications of the notion of responsiveness, framing it as resulting from interorganisational practices such as PLNs and as ensuring sustainable organisational leadership capabilities within PLNs. After describing the two levels of the study (meso and micro), the findings, which are based on two case studies in Austrian schools, show that the role played by PLNs in challenging professional learning environments is blurry. The discussion shows that these case studies have extended the single-level approach deployed in previous studies. The article concludes by highlighting the specific leadership role that is required within PLNs in order to establish responsiveness, change routines and thus enhance professional learning.

An Alternative Theory of Capital From An Austrian Economics Perspective

An Alternative Theory of Capital From An Austrian Economics Perspective