Microfoundations and Macroeconomics: An Austrian Perspective by Steven Horwitz

by Steven Horwitz

This original and highly accessible work provides both an introduction to Austrian economics and a systematic understanding of Macroeconomics.

Genres: Economics

Mass Market Paperback

First published September 28, 2000

About the author

American economist of the Austrian School and Charles A. Dana Professor of Economics at St. Lawrence University in Canton, NY. He has written extensively on Austrian economics, Hayekian political economy, monetary theory and history, and macroeconomics. He is an Affiliated Senior Scholar at Mercatus Center at George Mason University and Senior Fellow of the Fraser Institute in Canada.

Reviews

[Dan Ust · Rating 5 out of 5]

Stephen Horwitz plants macroeconomics -- economics of whole economies, including their changes -- firmly on Austrian microeconomics - economics at the level of individuals and firms. He grafts Austrian trade cycle theory -- its explanation of business cycles -- onto monetary disequilibrium theory, that peculiarly non-Austrian theory of shifts in money championed by Leland Yeager, Axel Liejonhufvud, and Robert Greenfield.

Horwitz analyzes inflation and also deflation, focuses on how changes in money affect capital at a macroeconomic level. He illustrates how fractional reserve free banking fits into macroeconomics - mainly by showing how laissez faire in banking (i.e., no central bank, no legal tender laws, no special regulations for banks and money) would avoid many of the pitfalls of regulated or central banking.

Horwitz's summary and appraisal of William H. Hutt's work on price rigidities is another reason to read this book.

[Theodore Wright · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great, especially if those associated with the Austrian School want to get a better understanding of the effects inflation has on entrepreneurial decision making. Anyone who says Austrians don't understand Macroeconomics has obviously not read this book. My favorite chapter was the second to last one which discussed free banking as an alternative to Central Banking.