I’ve written before on government attempts to stimulate entrepreneurship and innovation through subsidies, prizes, tax incentives, state-funded science parks and incubators, and similar policies. Both theory and evidence suggest that these programs are unlikely to be successful , for a variety of reasons. Government actors lack the information to
The death of Fidel Castro has brought to light the catastrophic failure of Cuban socialism . Cuba, whose standard of living was among the highest in the region in 1959 , is now one of the world’s poorest countries ( questionable stats on education, healthcare, and even cigars notwithstanding). And, of course, as is obvious to anyone not named
The New York Times recently ran a fascinating piece on the innovative management practices used by sharing-economy firms like Uber, AirBNB, and TaskRabbit. These firms match riders with drivers, house guests with building owners, homeowners with plumbers, and so on. The challenge for the platform owners is that the providers are independent
Volume 2, No. 2 (Summer 1999) In his “closing salvo” in the socialist calculation debate, Mises (1949, pp. 705–10) argued that the market socialists failed to understand the role of financial markets in an industrial economy. Even with markets for consumer goods, he explained, socialism would fail because it substituted collective ownership of the
Volume 4, No. 2 (Summer 2001) Do entrepreneurs make predictable mistakes? Theory and evidence suggest otherwise . Contrary to the conventional wisdom on mergers and sell-offs, divestitures of previously acquired assets do not necessarily indicate that the original acquisitions were mistakes. Indeed, empire-building motives do not seem to
[Originally published in Libertarian Papers 1, 39 (2009) ] As the transaction cost theory of the firm was taking shape in the 1970s, another important movement in economics was emerging: a revival of the “Austrian” tradition in economic theory associated with such economists as Ludwig von Mises and F. A. Hayek (1973; Dolan, 1976; Spadaro, 1978).
That’s the title of my talk tomorrow evening at the CEVRO Institut in Prague (5pm, Tuesday 9 October). You can probably anticipate the answer, but you have to come for the full explanation! The CEVRO Institut is a private college, founded in 2005, offering undergraduate and graduate degrees in political science and international relations, public
Mises Institute Senior Fellow Peter Klein and Associated Scholar Nicolai Foss were interviewed by Á ngel Mart í n Oro for Sintetia.com . Klein and Foss discuss their 2012 book Organizing Entrepreneurial Judgment: A New Approach to the Firm , published by Cambridge University Press. Sintetia: The aim of your book is, as you state, to define a
The Free Market 32, no. 3 (March 014) Author of The Capitalist and the Entrepreneur, Peter Klein has published numerous books and articles on entrepreneurship from an Austrian perspective. Dr. Klein was interviewed in late 2013 by eTalk’s Niaz Uddin on the topic of entrepreneurship: Niaz Uddin: Tell us about entrepreneurship. What are the
[Cross-posted at Organizations and Markets ] Over the years I’m increasingly convinced that Israel Kirzner’s metaphor of entrepreneurship as costless discovery — a form of arbitrage, exploiting differences between actual prices and their Walrasian equilibrium values — is a misleading way to think about entrepreneurship. Emphasizing knowledge,
What is the Mises Institute?
The Mises Institute is a non-profit organization that exists to promote teaching and research in the Austrian School of economics, individual freedom, honest history, and international peace, in the tradition of Ludwig von Mises and Murray N. Rothbard.
Non-political, non-partisan, and non-PC, we advocate a radical shift in the intellectual climate, away from statism and toward a private property order. We believe that our foundational ideas are of permanent value, and oppose all efforts at compromise, sellout, and amalgamation of these ideas with fashionable political, cultural, and social doctrines inimical to their spirit.