Higher education is often considered as one of the safest and most profitable investments in human capital. There are, however, signals that this sector has been experiencing unsustainable economic boom in the United States. This study examines the ability of Austrian Business Cycle Theory to explain the possibility of such boom, i.e. to explain the potential systematic errors in the allocation of human capital. We find that respective allocation is driven by the similar market forces as the allocation of physical capital and hence, that it may fall victim to the same, or similar false market signals, thus creating the cycle of boom and bust. Credit expansion in the sector of student loans can be the trigger then. Furthermore, we study the actual development in this sector and find that empirical evidence provides many reasons to believe that there has actually been unsustainable boom i.e. an economic bubble in the sector of post-secondary education in the United States.

Composée de deux parties et de quatre chapitres dans chaque partie, la première partie de la thèse examine la théorie du profit par la consommation nette (théorie-Cn) de George Reisman. La théorie-Cn fournit une grande partie du cadre analytique de Reisman, ainsi que des conclusions normatives sur la justice et la stabilité d'une économie capitaliste de marché libre. Nous examinons la prétention de cette synthèse à réconcilier l'approche classique et la dynamique de phénomènes généraux comme le profit et les salaires, la consommation et l'épargne, l'argent et le crédit. La formulation de cette théorie limite son attention aux coûts des entreprises (monétaire) et les conçoit comme dérivé des dépenses antérieures des entreprises pour des facteurs (main-d'oeuvre et capital), qui à leur tour sont financées par l'épargne. Contrairement à la théorie keynésienne, ici la consommation supplémentaire n'est ni suffisante ni nécessaire pour créer une demande supplémentaire de facteurs : elle y est antinomique. Des économies supplémentaires et des dépenses de production sont nécessaires, mais non suffisantes, pour qu'il y ait augmentation équivalente de la demande de facteurs de production. Et puisque les ventes englobent à la fois la demande de produits de consommation et la demande de facteurs de production des entreprises, les coûts ont tendance à être en retard sur les ventes. La différence qui en résulte entre les ventes et les coûts est égale au montant (global) et nous mène au taux de profit (moyen) gagné par les entreprises. / Consisting of two parts and four chapters in each part, the dissertation, in the first part, sets forth and reviews the logical substance of George Reisman's netconsumption theory of profit (nc-theory). The nc-theory provides much of both Reisman's overall analytical framework as well as normative conclusions about the justice and stability of a free-market, capitalist economy. We examine the synthesis' claim to have reconciled the classical approach with the Austrian/neoclassical emphasis of the primacy of behavioral foundations of all economic phenomena. The theory's formula restricts its attention to business (money) costs and conceives of them as derivative of prior business expenditure for factors (labor and capital goods), which in turn is financed out of saving. In contrast to Keynesian economic where spending of any kind is sufficient to finance the demand for input factors, in the nc-theory additional consumption is neither sufficient nor necessary to create additional factor demand; indeed, it is positively antithetical to it. Additional saving and productive expenditure are a necessary, though not sufficient, condition for an equivalent increase in demand for input factors. And since sales encompass both the demand for consumers' goods as well as business' demand for factors while costs are a function of productive expenditure by business only, costs tend to lag behind sales. The resultant difference between sales and costs equals (aggregate) amount and provides the means to arrive at (average) rate of profit earned by business in total.

This thesis analyzes the export policy of the Czech Republic. The aim is to propose recommendations for future direction of the Czech export policy. A comparison with the export policy of Austria is used for these recommendations. The work firstly describes foreign trade and export policy of the Czech Republic and Austria, including the main concepts and institutions. In conclusion, the export policies of both countries are compared, both in terms of their concepts, as well as institutional arrangements and instruments used to implement the state export promotion.

The main goal of this thesis is to present the true explanation of the Great Depression, which will be the basis for the critical analysis of the current situation in developed economies. This thesis contains three chapters: the first presents the Austrian business cycle theory, which is then applied in the second chapter to the Great Depression. The third chapter deals with the critical analysis of the state and its economic policies, which seeks to answer the question, why the economic crises keep repeating, which is the partial goal of this thesis.

Des relations entre la France et les Pays-Bas méridionaux, l’histoire a surtout gardé le souvenir des affrontements et de la soif de conquête. Le renversement des alliances de 1756 met fin à ce voisinage conflictuel. Cette alliance inédite amène Louis XV et Marie-Thérèse d’Autriche à pacifier leurs rapports. L’objectif de cette thèse est d’examiner comment la mise en place et le maintien de cette paix se concrétisent entre la France et les Pays-Bas, qui dépendent de Vienne depuis le traité d’Utrecht (1713). Ce sont près de deux générations des populations de ces pays qui vivent une rare période de paix. La première partie du travail porte sur la signification diplomatique et politique de l’envoi de ministres à Bruxelles - au cœur d’un territoire qui n’est pas souverain. En analysant les formes de la représentation diplomatique et la mission de ces envoyés, c’est la question des provinces belgiques comme lieu et enjeu des relations internationales qui est posée. La seconde partie s’intéresse aux hommes et aux femmes au cœur de ces relations, aux ressources qu’ils mettent en œuvre, c’est-à-dire leurs pratiques et les réseaux qu’ils forment. Dans le contexte de relations transfrontalières, l’accent est mis sur l’intervention de personnes variées, parfois éloignées des cercles et des lieux de pouvoir. / From the relations between France and the Low Countries, History has kept especially the memory of confrontations and thirst for conquest. The renversement des alliances in 1756 changes this conflictual neighborhood. This unprecedented alliance led Louis XV and Maria Theresa of Austria to pacify their relations. The objective of this doctoral thesis is to examine how this peace is concretized in the Austrian Netherlands, the nearest Hapsburg land for France. Nearly two generations of the populations of these countries live a period of peace, which is rare. The first part of the work deals with the diplomatic and political significance of sending ministers to Brussels - in the heart of a non-sovereign territory. In analyzing the forms of diplomatic representation and the mission of these envoys, emerges the question of the Belgian provinces as the place and stakes of international relations. The second part focuses on the men and women at the heart of these relationships, the resources they implement, i.e. their practices and the networks they form. In the context of cross-border relations, the emphasis is on the intervention of various people, whom sometimes are distant from Courts and places of power.

Ever since the inception of market economy, competition is the propellant of such economic systems. This is most notably so at present with global economies on the verge of a so called ‘new’ market logic. Competition nevertheless remains an elusive phenomenon, something holding true in particular when it is said to coexist with cooperation. Common knowledge has it that competition can be grasped by focusing the sheer number of suppliers and/or the level of product differentiation in a market. This dissertation instead claims that by looking at competition as subject to the impact of customers, phenomena are seen which are not otherwise readily apparent in the scrutiny of markets. By approaching markets as networks of interconnected relationships which result from human interaction this theoretical thesis, inspired by economic sociology and Austrian economics, furthers the idea of competition as indirect and hence geared by the customer. An explanatory model is formulated where competition emerges as a function of ‘inducing customer alertness’ (the customer’s exercise of entrepreneurship in the supply market) on the one hand, and ‘impeding social capital’ (the social ties that prevail between the customer and suppliers) on the other. One crucial insight gained, with particular impact for competition policy, is that consumers are to be seen not only as beneficiaries, but also as agents, of competition. / Diss. Stockholm : Handelshögsk., 2001

This contribution examines the teaching of economics at the Hochschule für Welthandel as a case study in the evolution of Austrian academic economics in the 20th century. The period considered is divided into three periods - before, under and after the NS-regime. The main focus is on the multiparadigmatic character of the discipline before WWII, on economics under the NS rule, and on the restoration and delayed integration of economics into the international mainstream after 1945. On the personal level, the teaching of economics at the Welthandel was dominated for more than three decades by Walter Heinrich and Richard Kerschagl, whose influence is explored with regard to their academic, scientific and political activities. (author's abstract) / Series: Department of Economics Working Paper Series

This dissertation traces the development of Hugo von Hofmannsthal's attempts to find solutions to what he perceived to be the crisis of meaning in his time. I focus primarily on Hofmannsthal's fictional letters and poetological reflections from the post-lyrical phase of his career, also touching on his final drama and political speeches. In the 1990s semiotic, structuralist, and poststructuralist studies of Hofmannsthal's texts allowed critics to uncover the more radically modern dimension of his creative process and work, making possible a poetological turn in the scholarship, with critics becoming far more interested in the poetics and aesthetics of Hofmannsthal's writings. Thanks to this work, a very different image of Hofmannsthal has appeared - one that attempts to overcome the common prejudice against the author as an elitist and cultural conservative who was out of step with his time. This dissertation participates in the latest approach to Hofmannsthal's work inasmuch as it largely focuses on Hofmannsthal's self-reflexive poetological writings from the Erfundene Gespräche und Briefe and on the author's intermedial search for a language that can counteract the reification of language in a positivistic age. The central argument of this dissertation is that the crises of language, of perception, of experience and of identity that Hofmannsthal repeatedly represents in his work fundamentally express a crisis of authorship. Hofmannsthal's preoccupation with these crises reflects his increasing uncertainty about the role of the poet in a modern democratic age, in which not only the social hierarchies but also the hierarchies of knowledge are leveled. I argue that Hofmannsthal radically destabilizes the role of the poet by questioning whether the poet has a necessary role in interpreting experience for the many. But I conclude by suggesting that in an effort to keep this question alive in an age of democratic skepticism about the poet's vocation, Hofmannsthal sees the need to reassert at a rhetorical level the poet's privileged position.

This paper examines the correlation between credit intermediated by financial systems and economic growth in developing countries. More specifically we have studied whether well-functioning financial markets result in economic growth. We base our study on data from 53 low- and lower-middle income countries in the period 2004-2011. By comparing the two different economic theories, Schumpeter’s growth theory and Austrian business cycle theory, we have analysed our results from two different perspectives. The results from this study show an insignificant relationship between financial systems and economic growth, contradicting much of the theory and results from previous studies that have been reviewed. Other variables outside of the financial system in this study, such as economic freedom and corruption, could be a reason for the non-existent correlation between financial development and economic growth in this study.

Zugl.: Wien, Univ., Diss., 2004