The widespread opinion that demography is lacking in theory is based in part on a particular view of the nature of scientific theory, generally known as logical empiricism [or positivism]. A newer school of philosophy of science, the model-based view, provides a different perspective on...

This article makes use of Lee’s ‘dynamic synthesis’, which aims to combine the views of Malthus and Boserup, to provide a new interpretation of population dynamics in Northern Italy from about 1450 to 1800. The article analyzes Lee’s theory and suggests that, even if it is difficult to...

In diesem Beitrag werden die Grundzüge der Überinvestitionstheorien von Hyman Minsky auf der einen und die von v. Hayek/Garrison auf der anderen Seite zunächst in den 'Sprachen' der Originalbeiträge herausgearbeitet. Anschließend wird ihr möglicher Erklärungsbeitrag für die aktuelle...

Cost-benefit analysis (CBA), as a distinctive tool for public investment projects evaluation laying in the portfolio of the governmental authorities, strives to replicate the market in establishing economic standards for the measurement of their success, while the government’s actions are in...

The re-appraisal after 25 years of The Economics of Time and Ignorance by G.P. O’Driscoll and M.J. Rizzo seeks to accomplish three things: (1) to situate the beginnings of the book against the background of the “doom and gloom” scenario of economics in the late 1970s; (2) to gauge...

At first sight and in terms of explicit references, the relationship between Hayek and the early Freiburg School seems to have been one of mutually benign neglect. It took several decades before the “Hayekian challenge” was fully understood in Freiburg; in a way one could even argue that the...

This article serves as the introduction to a symposium on O’Driscoll and Rizzo’s The Economics of Time and Ignorance. The book was first published in 1985. The symposium aims to provide a retrospective assessment of the book’s contribution to modern Austrian economics. The article...