Per Bylund

Per Bylund, PhD, is a Senior Fellow of the Mises Institute and Associate Professor of Entrepreneurship and Johnny D. Pope Chair in the School of Entrepreneurship in the Spears School of Business at Oklahoma State University, and an Associate Fellow of the Ratio Institute in Stockholm. He has previously held faculty positions at Baylor University and the University of Missouri. Dr. Bylund has published research in top journals in both entrepreneurship and management as well as in both the Quarterly Journal of Austrian Economics and the Review of Austrian Economics. He is the author of four books: Entrepreneurship and Evolutionary Economics, How to Think about the Economy: A Primer, The Seen, the Unseen, and the Unrealized: How Regulations Affect our Everyday Lives, and The Problem of Production: A New Theory of the Firm. He has edited Research Handbook on Austrian Economics in Management and Entrepreneurship, The Modern Guide to Austrian Economics, and The Next Generation of Austrian Economics: Essays In Honor of Joseph T. Salerno.

Articles

Review: Samuel Edward Konkin III: Revolutionary Friend

12/26/2025 Mises Wire Per Bylund

The libertarian movement is home to quite a few eccentric and radical people. Samuel Edward Konkin III (1947–2004), or SEK3, as he is often called, was one such figure.

Minarchism: The Worst Kind of State Idolatry

11/20/2025 Mises Wire Per Bylund

Is minarchism an antidote for the growing statism and socialism infecting our body politic? Think of it as “statism lite.”

Minarchism Is Statism Lite

11/04/2025 Mises Wire Per Bylund

Although minarchists claim to support a “limited” state, the question is, “How limited?” As we already know, even so-called limited states always grow beyond their original boundaries. And then they keep on growing.

Publications

How to Think about the Economy: A Primer

08/17/2022 Per Bylund

From the Preface ... This little book was written to accomplish something big: economic literacy. It is intentionally kept very short to be inviting rather than intimidating, as economics books typically are. If I managed to meet this bar, you, the

What We Know and What We Don’t Know about the Firm

03/08/2019 Per Bylund

[This is a chapter from The Problem of Production: A New Theory of the Firm.] This book is about what is generally referred to as the ‘firm’, a phenomenon in the market that appears obvious but that remains difficult to explain. While there is a

The Next Generation of Austrian Economics: Essays in Honor of Joseph T. Salerno

03/14/2015 Per Bylund David Howden

The Next Generation of Austrian Economics: Essays in Honor Joseph T. Salerno is a celebratory volume honoring the work of a respected and beloved teacher. It signifies a flourishing career of significant achievement, and also the gratitude and well

Media

Murray N. Rothbard on the Capitalist-Entrepreneur

03/27/2026 Per Bylund

Dr. Per Bylund unpacks Rothbard's concept of the capitalist entrepreneur as the economy's true mover and shaker: the figure who not only forecasts future consumer demand but puts real capital behind those forecasts, bearing uncertainty and driving the structure of production.

How to Change the World: Entrepreneurship vs. Politics

02/25/2026 Per Bylund

Dr. Per Bylund contrasts the futility of politics with the quiet power of entrepreneurship, showing how innovative businesses like Uber and Amazon actually dismantle regulations, reshape institutions, and push the state back more effectively than any protest movement or election.

How Destructive Are Regulations?

01/07/2026 Per Bylund

Dr. Per Bylund explains how prosperity really comes from imaginative, risk-taking entrepreneurs rather than redistribution, and how regulations quietly kill off an unseen world of potential innovations and wealth that never gets a chance to exist.