The production and proliferation of economists: the Austrian and Virginia schools as academic enterprises.
Journal of Private Enterprise › Vol. 24 Nbr. 2, March 2009
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The production and proliferation of economists: the Austrian and Virginia schools as academic enterprises.
I. Introduction
This essay is an exercise in the archeology of current economic thought. The Austrian and Virginia Schools of Economic Thought have long histories, and we examine the evolution of the two schools in the modern era. (1) We assume the schools of thought are interested in achieving intellectual influence. If we take intellectual influence as their end, there are two ways of influencing the profession: (1) schools of thought can have influence by persuading other intellectuals through written argument; or (2) schools of thought can expand through replication (i.e., influencing the profession by training and placing students in academic positions). An exploration of the modern Austrian and Virginia Schools of Economic Thought is especially important for readers of the Journal of Private Enterprise and members of the Association of Private Enterprise Education (APEE) because the Austrian and Virginia schools are, without question, crucial in the promotion of private enterprise education and free market thought. While the two schools have methodological differences and focus on different research questions, they tend to be united in their appreciation of market outcomes and skepticism of government. Moreover, the role of entrepreneurship and the need for restraints on government are consistently emphasized in both schools. Thus, an understanding of the current state of the two schools and their modern evolution can help us better predict the future of the broader free market movement. We begin by focusing our attention on the second method of influence economists can have over the profession. Considerable resources are devoted to the recruitment, training, and placement of new academic economists within both schools o...See the full content of this document
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