September | 2006 | Organizations and Markets

Archive for September, 2006

Judgment versus Alertness

| Peter Klein |

Nicolai and I have written several papers on the Knightian concept of entrepreneurship as judgment (e.g., here, here, and here). We contrast the judgment view of entrepreneurship with several other approaches, including Israel Kirzner’s idea of entrepreneurship as “discovery” or alertness to profit opportunities.

Readers and seminar participants are often confused by the distinction between judgment and alertness. We describe the judgment approach as “Austrian,” associating it not only with Knight but also with Austrian and proto-Austrian economists Richard Cantillon, Frank Fetter, Ludwig von Mises, and Murray Rothbard. But, we are asked, isn’t Kirzner an Austrian? Isn’t Kirzner’s entrepreneurial-discovery approach “the” Austrian view?

Not necessarily. Here’s why. (more…)

1 September 2006 at 10:45 am Peter G. Klein 4 comments

Is Austrian Economics Premature?

| Peter Klein |

Rafe Champion on “prematurity” in science:

This when a useful or even important discovery takes a long time to be picked up by the field at large. Mendel’s work on genetics is an example. And so is the Austrian approach to economics and social thought.

Here is Rafe’s review of Ernest B. Hook, ed., Prematurity in Scientific Discovery: On Resistance and Neglect (University of California Press, 2002), which explains it all. Personally, I prefer the moniker “ahead of my time,” but what the heck, I’ll take premature.