Austrian Economics Forum: sgrizzard -

Some countries have experienced enormous growth under socialist/communist governments. However, observe the following:

1) All countries experiancing a communist growth miracle were non-industrialized (USSR)

2) Many third-world countries that have adopted communism have not experienced growth miracles, but remained mired in economic stagnation (North Korea, Cuba, Iraq, half of Africa, Vietnam until recently, India until recently)

3) Those countries that are communist that have experienced growth miracles recently have done so after liberalizing their economies (China, Vietnam, India)

4) Developed countries that adopted communism after industrialization (East Germany) experienced economic stagnation.

Given the evidence, I think there is a better case to be made that the Czarist government was so corrupt and rent-seeking, that even the Bolsheviks were better than the Czars.

Education is not "a public good", even by the definition provided by public choice theory.

A public good has two criteria:
1) non-rivaled - once produced for one consumer, the marginal cost of production for additional consumers is zero (the good is provided to everyone at the same price as one person).
2) non-excludable - it is impossible (or prohibitively expensive) to exclude users that have not paid for the good.

There are no pure public goods, but education does not even come close. Indeed, computer software is more of a public good than education, but software is generally provided by private entities.

At best, an argument can be made that education has some positive externalities, but the claim is tenuous at best.

Are you teaching Principles, or a course specifically on Austrian Economics?

I taught principles from an Austrian perspective, but I thought it was important to teach some of the mainstream stuff so that those students that went on to intermediate weren't lost.

I used callahan's book as my core text, and ekelund's book as my mainstream supplement (though, if memory serves, I reversed that on my syllabus). The only complaints I have about Callahan's book are that there are no problem sets or short answer questions, and there is no text book. The other great thing about the callahan book is that it is FREE, and students really like that.

The Ekelund book is a great textbook for intro courses, because he teaches neoclassical economics with an Austrian tinge. There are several essay questions in the book that reference the mises.org website, and articles contained in it.

I also used a bunch of supplemental readings from other sources. I let the class vote on what they wanted their last four lectures (each lecture was a week's worth of class) to be on, and they chose Stock markets and Corporate Takeovers, Socialist Calculation Debate, Law and Economics, and Economics of Religion.


This list is below.

Callahan - Economics for Real People

Rothbard - Man, Economy, and State, Chapter 1

Shane - Dismantling Utopia
Only pages 75-78 are assigned for reading, but you are welcome to read the whole chapter.

Hayek - Use of Knowledge in Society (this was a little too much for them, and the ideas in it are neatly contained in the Shane reading)

Klein - The Free Market and Shareholder Rights (mp3)
pdf of PowerPoint slides
(using this Klein lecture worked, but it needs to be supplemented by a reading)

Cooter & Ulen - Law & Economics Chapter 4
This is the reading for the Law and Economics lecture.

Hayek - Planning and the Rule of Law
This is an optional reading for the Law and Economics Lecture

Friedman - The Machinery of Freedom: Guide to a Radical Capitalism (excerpt)
This is an optional reading for the Economics of Law lecture

Ekelund - Sacred Trust, Chapter 8
Eleklund - Marketplace of Christianity, Chapter 1

I am an Austrian Economist (though, of the Hayekian branch), and I work for an online financial/economic publication.

It's amazing that, once you get outside of hardcore economist jobs (like city planner, or econometrician) how many people are open to the Austrian point of view. For many businessmen, it is the first economics that makes sense to them intuitively.

I am also open about my anarchist political point of view (just not "in your face" about it), and, apart from my step-mother, I haven't caught much flak for it in the private sector.

There are jobs out there for any economist that can write, you just need to know where to look for them.


By the way, while it is not important to subscribe to the mainstream point of view, you do have to know it! You will receive respect from mainstreamers (outside of the hard-core econ jobs, where it is all mathematical models anyway) if you know and reject some of their opinions, but no one cares about your opinion if you don't understand his or hers.


If you are looking for a job, my company is hiring in L.A. Send me your resume, and I'll pass it to HR and keep it at the top of the pile.

Gilbert and Sullivan