ECON 309 Free Market Economics: The Austrian Perspective

The Austrian School of Economics, so-named because of the national origin of its founders, is an alternative approach to Economics that emphasizes methodological individualism and subjectivism. The Austrian School of Economics traces its roots back to the works of the Spanish Scholastics of the 16th century and stresses the importance of the individual, private property, limited government, and the organizing power of the free-market. Students will read from authors such as Menger, Mises, Hayek, Kirzner, Rothbard, and Hoppe, and evaluate various properties of a state-planned economy versus a decentralized free market economy.