This thesis aims to broaden the discussion about the origins of some of the fundamental theoretical sources for Hayek’s ideas regarding freedom and the state. It focuses on the debates between the Austrian School of Economics and the German Historical School of Economics, as well as the works of Popper, Mill, Humboldt and Hegel in order to identify their positive and negative influences on Hayek’s views of freedom and the state. The originality of the thesis relates to the examination of Humboldt’s political philosophy in terms of its influence over the formation of the components of Hayek’s account of freedom, such as spontaneous order, the rule of law, the role of the state, and the nature of human knowledge. These components have assisted in Hayek’s efforts to prove the superiority of open societies over totalitarian regimes. The thesis explains that Hayek’s intellectual collaboration with Popper played a significant role in identifying many enemies of open societies. Both theorists agreed that historicism was a method commonly used and promoted by the enemies of open society; specifically, they accused Hegel of promoting historicism and, as a result, of being an enemy of open societies. However, this thesis disputes these accusations and argues that Popper and Hayek did not possess adequate knowledge of Hegel’s theoretical work to make such claims. In actuality, Hegel was not an enemy of open societies, he recognized the potential devastating outcomes associated with them and sought solutions. The thesis also explores the idea that Mill was also worried about the detrimental features of industrial capitalism and, as a result, attributed a prominent role to “state activity” in securing the conditions of positive freedom. Hayek, meanwhile, viewed such forms of state interference as obstacles to attaining freedom. This thesis examines the topic whether or not Hayek actually sought to formulate a genuine form of freedom or if he merely valued freedom as a tool for the promotion of open societies over centrally planned economies.

The aim is to present specific methodology of the austrian school with laying stress on prerequisits which determine its understanding of phenomena.

This thesis deals with the monetary theory of business cycles as presented by the so called Austrian school of economics. It analyzes the different economic effects of investments financed by saving as opposed to investments financed by credit expansion. It shows that in the latter case an unsustainable situation results in which economic actors try both to invest and to consume more at the same time, which is physically impossible. The result is recession and liquidation of malinvestments made during the boom. The thesis also provides an answer to critiques of the Austrian business cycle theory by proponents of the rational expectations hypothesis. Furthermore, a critique of traditional national income accounting measures, namely GDP, is put forward. These measures fail to adequately show the described cyclical changes in the economy's productive structure, e.g. the artificial boom and subsequent correction. Gross domestic revenue (GDR) is proposed as an alternative measure that adds the expenditure on intermediate products back to GDP. In the last part of the thesis GDR is calculated for the Czech economy.

This paper is concerned with theoretical assumptions and consequences of a free banking system. The main theme is critical inquire of Hayek`s notion of creating the system of free banks independent of central bank, which issue differentiated currencies. The main purpose of this system is to force the government institution to provide a currency more stable than it does now. However there are some crucial objections which target the possibility of operating such system in practice. The main theme is further widen by the question about fractional and full reserve banking. Based on the comparison of the different reserve system, there is a notion of a system combining both, but keeping them strictly separated. The foundation of the paper is analysis of money definition from the austrian school point of view. These arguments are applied to the inflation and deflation. The object of research are conditions of existence and consequences of both effects. The inflation analysis is used to describe current system of central institution and the net of commercial banks.

The thesis Phenomenology and Economics is an account of methodological possibilities brought by the phenomenological method into the realm of economic thought. From the starting point of Misesian praxeology the thesis advances to the key contributions of Alfred Schütz whose concept of telescopic ideal type enables us to cross the gap between theory and history. Telescopic ideal type allows us to grasp the specific nature of economics that is, on the one hand, proud of its rigor and precision connected with the formal modelling and on the other hand deals with an interpretation of individual agents in their life-world. Methodological insights developed through this analysis are then applied to the problem of coordination and spontaneous order and to the question of the relationship between behavioral economics and rational choice theory.

The purpose of this thesis is to examine the monetary policy of the Swedish central bank, Riksbanken, from the perspective of the Austrian School of Economics. The thesis starts with a description of the actions of Riksbanken, its objectives of the monetary policy and what tools are used to achieve those objectives. The thesis continues with an analysis of possible consequences for the Swedish business cycles that the monetary policy of Riksbanken may have caused. The theory that is used to answer the research question is Austrian economic theory and primarily Austrian Business Cycle Theory. A review of relevant theory is made, and an examination of relevant macroeconomic factors is produced. The examination shows that the factors have changed over time according to the prediction of the Austrian School of Economics. The Riksbank's monetary policy decisions have been affected by concerns about the household indebtedness. This concern is in line with the warnings of the Austrian school. The Riksbank has, on the other hand, not considered the Austrian schools' fears of malinvestment and artificial boom in its monetary policy decisions. The conclusion of the essay is that the monetary policy of Riksbanken may contribute to strengthening business cycles, according with the perspective of the Austrian School of Economics. If the inflation prognosis’s from Riksbanken would have been correct, they probably had exercised a more aggressive monetary policy, primary by lowering the interest rate. It would have increased the variations of the business cycles trough increasing the gap between the natural interest rate and the market rate. / Syftet med uppsatsen är att granska Riksbankens penningpolitik utifrån den österrikiska skolans synsätt. Uppsatsen redogör för Riksbankens mål för penningpolitiken och vilka verktyg de använder för att uppnå dessa. Granskningen av den förda penningpolitiken genomförs utifrån den österrikiska ekonomiska teorin, främst dess konjunkturcykelteori. En genomgång av denna teori genomförs, och en analys av bakomliggande faktorer utförs. Analysen slår fast att de flesta av de undersökta variablerna har förändrat i linje med vad som kan förväntas enligt den österrikiska teorin. Riksbankens penningpolitiska beslut har påverkats av oron för hushållen skuldsättning. Denna oro ligger i linje med vad österrikiska skolan varnar för. Den österrikiska skolans farhågor för felinvesteringar och konstlad högkonjunktur har Riksbanken däremot inte tagit hänsyn till i sina penningpolitiska beslut. Slutsatsen för uppsatsen blir att Riksbankens penningpolitik kan ha bidragit till att förstärka konjunktursvängningarna. I det fall att Riksbankens inflationsprognoser varit mer träffsäkra, skulle de under större delen av perioden enligt sina egna handlingsregler ha fört en mer aggressiv penningpolitik, främst genom lägre styrränta. Det skulle i så fall stärkt konjunktursvängningarna än mer enligt den österrikiska konjukturcykelteorin.

The theoretical part of the thesis introduces Austrian theory of business cycles and analyses equilibrium of savings and investments together with the transmission mechanism between savings, deposits, loans and investments. The practical part of the thesis explores business cycle and credit cycle. It analyses an excessive loan expansion of commercial banks together with a excessively expansive policy of central bank. The thesis deals with a procyclical action of commercial banks and contemporary tools of central bank with their limited effectiveness. Furthermore, the thesis analyses the possible adjustments of monetary policy with the emphasis on the macroprudential policy and its individual credit indicators. The end of the thesis deals with the method of credit rationing and with the imbalance between demand and supply at the credit market of non-financial corporations, which is modelled using the technique of disequilibrium model.

The thesis deals with significant moments in the relationship between methodology of economics and implications of the financial crisis culminating in 2008 and 2009. Its key insight rests upon the claim that some theoretical concepts developed within mainstream economics do not tackle the reality adequately and contributed in a significant way to the sequence of events leading to the financial crisis. Most of those concepts were introduced in the second half of the 20th century, during a "high tide" of positivistic ideas in the domain of methodology of mainstream economics. Though the same ideas had been already discredited to a large extent by the philosophy of science at the time, mainstream economists did not reflect it satisfactorily. Aside from a historical expose the thesis consists also of an outline of a possible future development of the prevailing form of economic theory; four scenarios of future potential development are presented. In the final parts of the thesis, which are focused more specifically, the author appraises negatively options of the Austrian School as well as post-Keynesianism to influence in a more significant manner the mainstream economics during the post-crisis era.

No description available.

Wirtschaftsuniv., Diss.--Wien, 2004.