This paper extends the Mises-Hayek business cycle theory to open economies with fiat currencies. I explore: (1) the problem of domestic versus international monetary policy with fiat currencies in an international setting. (2) How the feedback effects between central banks in the context of an...

This article discusses the distinction Mises (1919) draws between the nation and the state as well as the relation of this distinction with the role of the state in the free society. A previous version of this article received the 1st Prize of the European Center of Austrian Economics...

Concerns about immigration and its impact on the institutions of the countries that welcome immigrants are not new. In the United States, we find such concerns in the correspondences and writings of Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, and Alexander Hamilton. Recently, in response to a...

We argue that Machlup's (1955) interpretation of Mises’s epistemology is at least, if not more, plausible than Rothbard's (1957). The implications of Machlup’s interpretation of Mises and Austrian epistemology affect Austrians, non-Austrians and how they relate to each other. Machlup’s...

This paper applies Kirzner’s theory of entrepreneurial alertness to central banking. As opposed to entrepreneurs operating within the market, central banks can operate outside the market by defining its structure and regulations. We label as “super-alertness” the particular type of...

This paper uses a Synthetic Control Analysis to examine the economic effectiveness of dollarization in Ecuador. We address common concerns surrounding the adoption of dollarization as a policy and provide several solutions to those concerns. We find that dollarization resulted in significant...

Rafael Correa’s presidency in Ecuador (2007 – 2017) exemplifies left-leaning populist regimes in Latin America. However, there is a key difference: Ecuador is a dollarized economy. This removes the possibility of fiscal dominance over monetary policy as is common in populist regimes. This...

Dornbusch and Edwards (1990) argued that left-leaning populist leaders in Latin America have a common macroeconomic policy that pursues growth and income distribution, neglecting the adverse effects of deficits and inflation. In their analysis, populist regimes had four economic stages: boom,...

We analyze a recent paper that claims that dollarizing an economy in the presence of a “dollar shortage” will provoke an immediate sharp reduction in real output and welfare. We find many problems with the model that supports this conclusion: confusion about the nature of a dollar shortage...

We offer a critique of a paper recently published Lorenzoni and Werning (2023) that seeks to make an original contribution to the hypothesis that inflation is primarily caused by conflict and reconcile the Post-Keynesian and New-Keynesian traditions. L&W’s paper has two sections. In the first...