Capital, Expectations, and the Market Process: Essays on the Theory of the Market Econony

by Ludwig Lachmann

This volume consists of seventeen of Ludwig Lachmann’s most important papers published during the period 1940-73. Two of the articles appear here in translation for the first time. Prepared especially for this volume is a new essay about the present “crisis” in economic thought. Walter Grinder’s extended introduction analyzes Lachmann’s scholarly career in four countries and his overall intellectual development.

Genres: Economics

352 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1977

About the author

German economist who became a member of and important contributor to the Austrian School of economics.
He grew to believe that the Austrian School had deviated from Carl Menger's original vision of an entirely subjective economics. To Lachmann, Austrian Theory was to be characterized as an evolutionary, or "genetic-causal", approach against the equilibrium and perfect knowledge found in mainstream Neoclassical economics.
Lachmann's "fundamentalist Austrianism" was rare—few living Austrian economists saw their work as departing from the mainstream. He underscored what he viewed as distinctive from that mainstream: economic subjectivism, imperfect knowledge, the heterogeneity of capital, the business cycle, methodological individualism, alternative cost and "market process". His brand of Austrianism now forms the basis for the "radical subjectivist" strand of Austrian Economics.
His work was highly influential upon later, American developments of the Austrian School.
He was also a strong advocate of using hermeneutic methods in the study of economic phenomena.

Reviews

[Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a great collection of Ludwig Lachmann’s writings dealing mainly with his thoughts on the market process, formalism in economics, and capital. His insights on the role of subjective expectations on human action in the world of uncertainty are a great advancement in furthering subjectivism in economic theory.

[Craig Bolton]

"Capital, Expectations, and the Market Process: Essays on the Theory of the Market Econony (Studies in Economic Theory) by Ludwig M. Lachmann (1981)"