Quarterly Journal of Austrian Economics

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The Quarterly Journal of Austrian Economics

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07/30/2014Jörg Guido Hülsmann

 

Volume 2, No. 4 (Winter 1999)

 

Caplan arrives at the startling conclusion that the Austrian approach, despite the efforts, is less realistic than the neoclassical approach that flourished in the age of benign neglect for realism.  A discussion of these views is highly useful given the growing interest in economic realism. In this article, we will show that Caplan fails to identify the important differences between Austrian and neoclassical economics.  Caplan's errors seem all to be rooted in his failure to grasp that Austrian economics is a theory of action (praxeology) rather than some kind of applied psychology.  We will therefore briefly characterize the praxeological approach toward the explanation of human behavior and then discuss Caplan's main tenets in some detail.

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Contact Jörg Guido Hülsmann

Jörg Guido Hülsmann is senior fellow of the Mises Institute where he holds the 2018 Peterson-Luddy Chair and was director of research for Mises Fellows in residence 1999-2004.  He is author of Mises: The Last Knight of Liberalism and The Ethics of Money Production. He teaches in France, at Université d'Angers. His full CV is here.