Hostname: page-component-745bb68f8f-lrblm Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-01-08T08:00:49.038Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Praxeology, Entrepreneurship and the Market Process: A Review of Kirzner's Contribution

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 June 2009

Keith Jakee  and
Heath Spong
Keith Jakee
Affiliation:
Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, School of Economics and Finance, 239 Bourke St, Melbourne, Australia3000.
Heath Spong
Affiliation:
Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, School of Economics and Finance, 239 Bourke St, Melbourne, Australia3000.
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

It is surely Israel M. Kirzner who has promoted the role of the entrepreneur more than any other author in the second half of the twentieth century. His description of the market process and entrepreneurship in his Competition and the Market Process (1973) represents a seminal contribution to Austrian thinking, although it has been slow to catch on in broader circles. As Humberto Barreto argues above, for example, an entrepreneurial role seems to have disappeared from mainstream economics as the theory of the firm progressed (1989, pp. 95–98). The standard core of microeconomics allows little room for entrepreneurial elements, particularly if the latter are defined in terms of uncertainty, intuition, ignorance, and disequilibrium. In light of this intellectual discord and given his recent retirement, it is timely to reconsider Kirzner's unceasing efforts to resurrect the role of the entrepreneur, and especially his effort to reconcile this role with conventional neoclassical approaches.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of the History of Economic Thought , Volume 25 , Issue 4 , December 2003 , pp. 461 - 486
Copyright
Copyright © The History of Economics Society 2003

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Arrow, Kenneth. 1959. “Toward a Theory of Price Adjustment.” In Abramovitz, Moses, ed., The Allocation of Economic Resources. Stanford: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
Backhouse, Roger. 1994. “Introduction: New Directions in Economic Methodology.” In Backhouse, Roger, ed., New Directions in Economic Methodology. New York: Routledge.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Barreto, Humberto. 1989. The Entrepreneur in Microeconomic Theory: Disappearance and Explanation. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Boettke, Peter, Horowitz, Steven, and Prychitko, David. 1986. “Beyond Equilibrium Economics: Reflections on the Uniqueness of the Austrian Tradition.” Market Process 4 (2): 6–25.Google Scholar
Binenbaum, Eran. 1995. “Kirzner's Core Concepts.” In Meijer, Gerit, ed., New Perspectives in Austrian Economics. London and New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Blaug, Mark. 1992. The Methodology of Economics: Or How Economists Explain. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Boudreaux, Don. 1994. “Schumpeter and Kirzner on Competition and Equilibrium.” In Boettke, Peter and Prychitko, David, eds., The Market Process: Essays in the Contemporary Austrian Economics. Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar.Google Scholar
Buchanan, James. 1954. “Social Choice, Democracy, and Free Markets.” Journal of Political Economy 62 (2): 114–23.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Buchanan, James and Vanberg, Victor. 1991. “The Market as a Creative Process.” Economics and Philosophy 7 (2): 167–86.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Caldwell, Bruce. 1982. Beyond Positivism: Economic Methodology in the Twentieth Century, Revised Edition. New York: Routledge, 1994.Google Scholar
Caplan, Bryan. 1999. “The Austrian Search for Realistic Foundations.” Southern Economic Journal 65 (4): 823–38.Google Scholar
Choi, Young Back. 1993. Paradigms and Conventions: Uncertainty, Decision Making, and Entrepreneurship. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dow, Sheila. 1997. “Critical Survey: Mainstream Economic Methodology.” Cambridge Journal of Economics 21 (1): 73–93.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Friedman, Milton. 1953. Essays in Positive Economics. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Friedman, Milton. 1962. Price Theory: A Provisional Text. Chicago: Aldine Publishing.Google Scholar
Gerrard, Bill. 1990. “On Matters Methodological in Economics.” Journal of Economic Surveys 4 (2): 197–219.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Harper, David. 1996. Entrepreneurship and the Market Process: An Inquiry into the Growth of Knowledge. New York: Routledge Publishing.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hausman, Daniel. 1992. The Inexact and Separate Science of Economics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hayek, Frederick. 1937. “Economics and Knowledge.” Reprinted in Frederick Hayek, Individualism and Economic Order. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1948.Google Scholar
Hayek, Frederick. 1945. “The Use of Knowledge in Society.” American Economic Review 35 (09): 519–31.Google Scholar
Hayek, Frederick. 1948. Individualism and Economic Order. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Hayek, Frederick. 1952. The Sensory Order: An Inquiry into the Foundations of Theoretical Psychology. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Hayek, Frederick. 1973. Individualism Law, Legislation and Liberty: Rules and Order, Vol. I. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul.Google Scholar
Hayek, Frederick. 1974. “The Pretense to Knowledge.” Nobel Lecture. Stockholm: Nobel Foundation.Google Scholar
High, Jack. 1982. “Alertness and Judgment: Comment on Kirzner.” In Kirzner, Israel, ed., Method, Process, and Austrian Economics: Essays in Honor of Ludwig von Mises. Lexington, MA: Lexington Books.Google Scholar
High, Jack. 1983–1984. “Knowledge, Maximising, and Conjecture: A Critical Analysis of Search Theory.” Journal of Post Keynesian Economics 6 (2): 252–65.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jakee, Keith and Spong, Heath. 2003. “Uncertainty, Institutional Structure and the Entrepreneurial Process.” In Metcalfe, Stanley and Cantner, Uwe, eds., Change, Transformation and Development. New York: Physica/Springer.Google Scholar
Kirzner, Israel M. 1960. The Economic Point of View: An Essay in the History of Economic Thought. New York: Van Nostrand Company Inc.Google Scholar
Kirzner, Israel M. 1963. Market Theory and the Price System. New York: Van Nostrand Company Inc.Google Scholar
Kirzner, Israel M. 1967. “Methodological Individualism, Market Equilibrium, and Market Process.” Conference paper presented at Mont Pelerin Society, 09, 1967 (Vichy, France). Also in Reprint Series, No. 75, Schools of Business, New York University.Google Scholar
Kirzner, Israel M. 1971. “Entrepreneurship and the Market Approach to Development. Reprinted in Kirzner, Israel, Perception, Opportunity and Profit: Studies in the Theory of Entrepreneurship. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1979.Google Scholar
Kirzner, Israel M. 1973. Competition and Entrepreneurship. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Kirzner, Israel M. 1976. “On The Method of Austrian Economics.” In The Foundations of Modern Austrian Economics. Mission, KS: Sheed and Ward.Google Scholar
Kirzner, Israel M. 1979. Perception, Opportunity and Profit: Studies in the Theory of Entrepreneurship. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Kirzner, Israel M. 1980. “The Primacy of Entrepreneurial Discovery.” In Seldon, Arthur, ed., The Prime Mover of Progress: The Entrepreneur in Capitalism and Socialism. Reprinted as “Entrepreneurship, Economics, and Economists,” in Discovery and the Capitalist Process. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1985a.Google Scholar
Kirzner, Israel M. 1982. “Uncertainty, Discovery, and Human Action: A Study of the Entrepreneurial Profile in the Misesian System.” In Kirzner, Israel, ed., Method, Process, and Austrian Economics: Essays in Honor of Ludwig von Mises. Lexington, MA: Lexington Books.Google Scholar
Kirzner, Israel M. 1985a. “Entrepreneurship, Economics, and Economists.” In Discovery and the Capitalist Process. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Kirzner, Israel M. 1985b. “The Entrepreneurial Process.” In Discovery and the Capitalist Process. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Kirzner, Israel M. 1992. The Meaning of Market Process: Essays in the Developments of Modern Austrian Economics. New York: Routledge.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kirzner, Israel M. 1996. Essays on Capital and Interest: An Austrian Perspective. Cheltenham, U.K. and Lyme, N.H: Edward Elgar.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kirzner, Israel M. 1997a. “Between Mises and Keynes: An Interview with Israel Kirzner.” The Austrian Economics Newsletter 17 (1): 1–12.Google Scholar
Kirzner, Israel M. 1997b. “Entrepreneurial Discovery and the Competitive Market Process: An Austrian Approach.” Journal of Economic Literature 35 (1): 60–85.Google Scholar
Lachmann, Ludwig M. 1976. “On the Central Concept of Austrian Economics: Market Process.” In The Foundations of Modern Austrian Economics. Mission, KS: Sheed and Ward.Google Scholar
McNulty, Paul. 1967. “A Note on the History of Perfect Competition.” Journal of Political Economy 75 (08): 395–99.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McNulty, Paul. 1968. “The Meaning of Perfect Competition.” Quarterly Journal of Economics 82 (4): 639–56.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mises, Ludwig von. 1949. Human Action: A Treatise on Economics. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
O'Driscoll, Gerald and Rizzo, Mario. 1985. The Economics of Time and Ignorance. New York: Routledge, 1996.Google Scholar
Sautet, Frederic. 2000. An Entrepreneurial Theory of the Firm. New York: Routledge.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shackle, George. 1972. Epistemics and Economics: A Critique of Economic Doctrines. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Stigler, George. 1960. “The Influence of Events and Policies on Economic Theory.” American Economic Review 50 (2): 36–54.Google Scholar
Vaughn, Karen. 1992. “The Problem of Order in Austrian Economics: Kirzner vs. Lachmann.” Review of Political Economy 4 (3): 251–74.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Vivel, Christel. 2001. “The Fiction of the Pure Entrepreneur: The Essence of the Austrian Middle Ground.” Paper presented at the History of Economics Society's Annual Meeting, Wake Forest, NC.Google Scholar
Witt, Ulrich. 1992. “Turning Austrian Economics into an Evolutionary Theory.” In Caldwell, Bruce and Boehm, Stephan, eds., Austrian Economics: Tensions and New Directions. London: Kluwer Academic Publishers.Google Scholar