This study develops an economic methodology in which,behavioural laws (in the sense of necessary connections between cause and effect) play no essential role. Hayek and Menger are important sources of inspiration. Economic behaviour is explained by way of tendencies rather than laws and insight into economic phenomena is gained by laying bare their "action structure" in which behavioural explanation and behavioural laws play no role. This methodology is applied to the explanation of macroeconomic coordination. The appropriate equilibrium conditions are developed and the relevant tendencies away from or towards equilibrium are identified. The institutions responsible for these tendencies are identified and anarysed. In the light of these findings, pre-Keynesian macroeconomics, the macroeoconomics of Walrasian theory, as well as Keynes's General Theory itself are critically assessed. / Economics and Management Sciences / D. Comm. (Economics)

This study develops an economic methodology in which,behavioural laws (in the sense of necessary connections between cause and effect) play no essential role. Hayek and Menger are important sources of inspiration. Economic behaviour is explained by way of tendencies rather than laws and insight into economic phenomena is gained by laying bare their "action structure" in which behavioural explanation and behavioural laws play no role. This methodology is applied to the explanation of macroeconomic coordination. The appropriate equilibrium conditions are developed and the relevant tendencies away from or towards equilibrium are identified. The institutions responsible for these tendencies are identified and anarysed. In the light of these findings, pre-Keynesian macroeconomics, the macroeoconomics of Walrasian theory, as well as Keynes's General Theory itself are critically assessed. / Economics and Management Sciences / D. Comm. (Economics)

Neither Austrian nor Post Keynesian school is part of contemporary economic mainstream, both schools explain business cycle theory by monetary influences. This thesis examinates, through analysis of these theories, whether there are any other common elements except of the fact that both are monetary theories of business cycle. The key question author tries to answer is if we can describe these theories as substitute or complement. In last part theoretical analysis is enriched by the scale, which reflects substitution or complementary nature of the theories.

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.

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.

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

Series: SRE - Discussion Papers

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

Thesis "Economics and Information" advances a consistent theoretic concept of information as part of economic theory. In contrast of contemporary semantic confusions about information in economics this thesis tries to build a meaningful theory based on classical economic studies and conception of information in system theory. The first part is concerned with methodological foundation and contemporary methodological problems of information in economic theory. These issues are crucial for presenting methodological individualism and subjectivism as fundamental approach to understanding role of information in social sciences. This leads to human action as basic framework for studying information. Next part of the thesis describes few basic approaches to information in economics. In comparison with neoclassical views like information asymmetry this thesis propose own praxeology based concept of information. This concept shows information in its duality as a resource of human activities, but also as objective of human action. This duality as resource and objective connect information to concepts of interpretation, knowledge and dynamic processes. The final part of the thesis applies theoretical concepts to economic policy issues and institutional problems.