Since the transformation from Political Economy to Economics and from Classical to Neoclassical theory in the late nineteenth century, a theory of human behavior has constituted the initial foundation upon which all economic theory is based and developed. Two main theories of human behavior developed by William Stanley Jevons and Carl Menger have been generally accepted to have ushered in this Marginalist Revolution. Jevons marginal utility theory popularized by Alfred Marshall is still extensively used today, while the Austrian approach of Menger was effectively removed from academic discussion in the nineteen thirties; mainly as a result of the annexation of Austria and the dissolution of the Austrian School of Economics. Given the inability of economists to fully operationalize the marginal utility theory and realistically explain and resolve a broad range of behavioral anomalies using Neoclassical and Post-Neoclassical Economics, this thesis attempts to examine and address the most fundamental issues of human behavior in economics to explain how utility theory and modern Neoclassical and Post-Neoclassical Economics are flawed and how a realistic theory of human behavior, developed from the scholarly work of the early Austrian Economists, can be used to develop the basis of a scientific economics, derived from observation, that holds the potential to both expand the scope of economic understanding, redirect the focus of the discipline, and possibly unify the many disparate theories in the field.

<p>The  Austrian  Business  Cycle  Theory  (ABC)  provides  a  qualitative  explanation  of  why economies go through ups and downs in terms of national income, production output and labor employment. The theory states that interest and money supply policy distort the time preferences of economic agents. If the monetary authority reduces the interest rate through artificial credit expansion the new economic conditions induce both increased production and consumption. The  framework of  the Austrian  theory depends on  savings  to  fuel  investments, i.e. reduced consumption in order to create increased future consumption. Artificially  induced  expansions  create  a wedge between  these producer  and  consumer preferences, and prolonging of the process widens the gap between the economic state and the free market  equilibrium which  is  long-term  sustainable. When  the  financial  system  eventually is unable to maintain inflation of credit to uphold the economy, there will be abandonment of capital investments, resulting in an unavoidable recession. The purpose of this thesis is to analyze the theory from a short run perspective, using data from  the United Kingdom  economy. The  theory has previously primarily been  tested  in long run perspectives and mainly on the American economy. To achieve the noted a model was constructed based on the description of the theory by economists Hayek and Garrison, members of the Austrian school of economics. To empirically model the ABC theory the ratio between consumption and investment, the intertemporal  resource allocation, was  calculated and used as a dependent variable  in  regressions with money aggregates, credit and interest rate gap as independent variables. The empirical findings give some support to the theory, with a number of those findings directly in favor of the theory. Credit was shown to better explain changes in the C/I ratio than money aggregates, indicating that credit is more directly suited for investments. The coefficient for the interest rate gap, the difference between the natural interest rate and the market interest rate, showed strong significance. Overall differences between economic expansions and recessions were found statistically significant, which lends support to the model.</p>

Univ., Diss.--Göttingen, 2004.

Applying the concept of comparative advantage in the allocation of production has been required but ignored in Canadian supply-managed agriculture. There seems to be a lack of consensus among economists on how comparative advantage is to be observed and applied in this context. It is also not clear whether the recent changes in the environmental pressures from agriculture across Canada might have contributed to changes in the patterns of comparative advantage in primary dairy production. Linking the concept of individual comparative advantage with the concept of the market as an information discovery process through comprehensive microeconomic general equilibrium modeling, deductive reasoning, and statistical analysis of recent industry data has shown (1) that changes in individual comparative advantage in supply-managed industries are expressed through quota exchange and revealed through quota prices, and (2) that environmental externalities may change the patterns of comparative advantage. The current provincial quota prices, as the appropriate indicators of comparative advantage, suggest that more quota should be allocated to British Columbia and Alberta. / Canadian Dairy Commission, Toronto Milk Producers, Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs

In this paper I will critically reflect upon an intercultural experience connected with appearance, dress, and the different mutual perceptions of 'others' in public space in current Moscow and Vienna. I will construe this experience as fundamentally different attitudes towards informal behaviour, appearance and gender ambivalence. One of the main causes of this situation I have located in the 1960s, a period of anti-authoritarian subcultural upheaval in the Soviet Union as well as 'the West'. The very different social, economic and political contexts of their emergence and their further ('socialist' vs. capitalist) trajectories are, as I will argue, at the root of the perceptions and connotations of casual wear and behaviour in the public spaces of present-day Moscow and Vienna.(author´s abstract) / Series: WU Online Papers in International Business Communication / Series One: Intercultural Communication and Language Learning

Studies concerning the development of the piano trio primarily cultivate analyses of the musical structures found in this genre. Few of these studies deal in depth with the socio-historical aspect of the development of the piano trio. Such a neglected process can only lead to the loss of valuable information. It is important to pay careful attention to our ever-changing environment and how this phenomenon impacts upon music. The study of the development of the early piano trio (because of the social nature of chamber music) requires greater attention to the social history associated with this genre. This development can be traced as an integral part of the Germanic culture, more specifically that of eighteenth century Germany and Austria. Both societies' love for the piano led to the full blossoming of the piano trio. The question arises: to which degree did the early development of the piano and the changing society- as it mostly appeared during the eighteenth century in Germany and Austria- have an impact on the development of the early piano trio? This hypothesis holds that the development of the early piano trio depended (among other aspects) on the early development of the piano and the changing society of eighteenth century Germany and Austria. Thus, a mutual connection exists between all three factors. / Thesis (M.Mus.)--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2011

Studies concerning the development of the piano trio primarily cultivate analyses of the musical structures found in this genre. Few of these studies deal in depth with the socio-historical aspect of the development of the piano trio. Such a neglected process can only lead to the loss of valuable information. It is important to pay careful attention to our ever-changing environment and how this phenomenon impacts upon music. The study of the development of the early piano trio (because of the social nature of chamber music) requires greater attention to the social history associated with this genre. This development can be traced as an integral part of the Germanic culture, more specifically that of eighteenth century Germany and Austria. Both societies' love for the piano led to the full blossoming of the piano trio. The question arises: to which degree did the early development of the piano and the changing society- as it mostly appeared during the eighteenth century in Germany and Austria- have an impact on the development of the early piano trio? This hypothesis holds that the development of the early piano trio depended (among other aspects) on the early development of the piano and the changing society of eighteenth century Germany and Austria. Thus, a mutual connection exists between all three factors. / Thesis (M.Mus.)--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2011

Thesis (M.A.)--University of Central Florida, 2010. / Adviser: Peter Larson. Includes bibliographical references (p. 95-100).

We propose a statistical model for weighted temporal networks capable of measuring the level of heterogeneity in a financial system. Our model focuses on the level of diversification of financial institutions; that is, whether they are more inclined to distribute their assets equally among partners, or if they rather concentrate their commitment towards a limited number of institutions. Crucially, a Markov property is introduced to capture time dependencies and to make our measures comparable across time. We apply the model on an original dataset of Austrian interbank exposures. The temporal span encompasses the onset and development of the financial crisis in 2008 as well as the beginnings of European sovereign debt crisis in 2011. Our analysis highlights an overall increasing trend for network homogeneity, whereby core banks have a tendency to distribute their market exposures more equally across their partners.

O propósito deste trabalho é estudar o Debate do Cálculo Econômico Socialista, desde a sua pré-história a partir da Revolução Marginalista e o seu início em 1920 com o artigo de Ludwig von Mises até a moderna retomada do mesmo na década de noventa. Argumentaremos que a fonte do desacordo pode ser traçada nas diferentes percepções sobre a complexidade do problema alocativo. A desconsideração dessa complexidade por sua vez levou os economistas a usar a teoria microeconômica padrão para construir um novo sistema econômico, desconsiderando as assimetrias entre explicação e previsão/controle existentes na teoria econômica neoclássica. Em cada fase do debate, elementos importantes dos mercados reais, geralmente desconsiderados pela teoria econômica então prevalecente, foram utilizados para criticar as tentativas de solução do problema do cálculo. Em particular, a articulação de Hayek da abordagem austríaca de processo de mercado foi em parte fruto do debate e ainda é relevante para avaliar os méritos das propostas modernas de socialismo de mercado e o significado da teoria micro em geral. / The purpose of this work is to study the Socialist Economic Calculation Debate, from its prehistory since the Marginalist Revolution and its beginning in 1920 with Ludwig von Mises article to the modern reopening of the discussions in the 90´s. We will argue that the source of the disagreement can be traced to the different perceptions about the complexity of the allocative problem. The neglect of this complexity in turn lead the economists to use the standard microeconomic theory to construct a new economic system, disregarding the asymmetries between explanation and prediction/control in neoclassical economic theory. At each phase of the debate, important elements of the real markets, usually disregarded by the economic theory prevailing in the moment, were used to criticize the attempts to find a solution to the calculation problem. Particularly, Hayek´s articulation of the Austrian or market process approach to economic theory was in part fruit of this debate and is still relevant to evaluate the merits of the modern market socialist proposals and the significance of micro theory in general.