Quarterly Journal of Austrian Economics

Volume 4, No. 1 (Spring 2001)

Ingo Pellengahr’s doctoral dissertation, The Austrian Subjectivist Theory of Interest, focuses on one small aspect of these ongoing debates. He traces the development and evolution of what is generally referred to as the (pure) time preference theory (PTPT) of interest. The PTPT is historically associated with the Austrian School, whose characteristically subjectivist members stress the primacy of individual valuations—versus objective facts concerning the productivity of capital—in any discussion of interest. Pellengahr offers a largely critical review of the major Austrian contributions to the evolving PTPT and then presents an original, “essentialist” synthesis which he hopes will be acceptable to the various factions in the debate.