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William Barnett Ii, Walter E. Block
The Antimathematicality of Demand Curves
Summary:
Mathematics has proven so helpful in the physical sciences such as physics that it has been improperly applied to economics. The dismal science studies purposeful human action, while purpose in the hard sciences is properly dismissed as anthropomorphic. The present paper takes the demand curve as a case in point. It demonstrates that this tool of analysis is fundamentally flawed in that it violates its own economic assumption of ceteris paribus, and also the mathematical requirement that only the proper number of variables may vary along a given graph in two-dimensional space.
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Walter E. Block
A Response to Brooks' Support of Demsetz on the Coase Theorem
Summary:
Coase (1960) claimed that in the zero costs world, it would not matter for the allocation of resources which of two disputants were awarded the relevant property rights. Block (1977) disputed this, on the ground that it assumed that both parties would have the wherewithal with which to make the relevant bribe. Demsetz (1977) maintained that Block (1977) failed to reckon with Coase‘s (1960) explicit assumption of no wealth effects. Block (1995) disputed this claim of Demsetz‘s (1977), claiming the Coase (1960) anticipated no such thing. The next round in this debate was Demsetz (1997) who reiterated his position, followed by Block (2000) in a response to Demsetz (1997). Brook (2007) mostly takes Demsetz‘s (1977, 1997) side of this ongoing discussion. The present paper is a rejoinder to Brook (2007), supporting Block (1997, 1995, 2000).
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Walter E. Block
Rejoinder to Wysocki on Indifference and the Block-Hoppe Debate
Summary:
There has been an ongoing debate in Austrian economic circles on indifference and methodology. It started with Nozick (1977) who criticized this school of thought on that issue. Block (1980) responded to that essay. The main debaters within Austrian circles have been Block (2009A), Block and Barnett (2010), and Hoppe (2005, 2009). Wysocki (2017) is a recent entry into this discussion. The present paper is a response to this latter contribution.
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Walter E. Block
Indifference in economics: comment on Nozick, Hoppe and Wysocki
Summary:
Nozick (1977) set a challenge for Austrian economics. On the one hand, this school of thought rejects the notion of indifference, and along with it, indifference curves. On the other hand, the praxeological school accepts the concepts of supply and demand curves. But the latter supposition logically implies indifference, in that the persons for whom the supply and demand curves apply look upon all the constituent items as identical; if not, these diagrams could not be drawn. A similar account applies to diminishing marginal utility, another tool of economic analysis accepted by Austrians. But this, too, implies indifference, at least according to Nozick.
Block (1980) responded critically to Nozick (1977). Hoppe (2005, 2009), a leading Austrian economist, agreed with Block that Nozick was in error, but also rejected Block’s specific refutation this eminent philosopher’s critique. Wysocki (2021) sided with Nozick and Hoppe in this debate. The present paper is an attempt to support the Blockian view vis a vis that of these three scholars.
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Igor Wysocki, Walter E. Block
Caplan on Probability: a Critique
Summary:
This paper addresses economic methodology, focusing particularly on Caplan’s (2003) probabilistic analysis and the problems therewith. The argument launched against Caplan is based on the fact that the said author either violates the rule of self-reference (his methodological statement) rule does not obey the standard it sets itself to judge the lower-level propositions of economics) or if it does not, Caplan is inevitably in the epistemic dark as to the probability of lower-level propositions. In the meantime, we will make an attempt at the exegesis of what Caplan may possibly mean by the notion of probability. Finally, it will be demonstrated that the criticism directed at Caplan does not apply to the methodology employed by Austrian economics.
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Laura Davidson, Walter E. Block
A Critique Of Definitions in Economics from an Austrian Perspective: Microeconomics
Summary:
In the physical sciences, it goes without saying that all practitioners use words in the same manner. A mere verbal dispute would be anathema in this arena of intellectual discourse. There is no dispute, , as to the means of words such as “gravity,” “mass,” “genus,” “species,” “oxygen,” “x-ray,” etc. Matters are not as salutary in the social sciences. The present paper is an attempt to place economics, the queen of the social sciences, on a par with physics, chemistry, biology, etc., or at least to make an attempt in this direction. Systematic knowledge, the sine qua non of science, requires good communication. But this, in turn, can only be achieved, if its necessary condition is attained: precise definitions. In the present paper, we discuss in this regard the microeconomic concepts of entrepreneurship, monopoly, derps, indifference, development and rent seeking.
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Walter E. Block
My Case of and for Coauthoring
Summary:
The benefits of co authoring vastly outweigh the costs in my own case. So much so that I have engaged in this form of publication on numerous occasions. The present paper (single authored) sets out the advantages and disadvantages, and relates my several decades long experience with this mode of cooperative writing.
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Dwight Davison, Jay Mukherjee, David Simpson, Walter E. Block
Preserving Species
Summary:
With the 40th anniversary of the passage of the Endangered Species Act it becomes necessary to review the history of this act and its impact on achieving its goals of preventing the extinction of endangered species. Many environmentalists have argued that the only way to prevent the extinction of animals, most notable Elephant populations in Africa, is through government management and ownership. However, we argue in this paper that the best solution to preserving endangered species is creating a more free market- oriented system of private property rights over animals and land use.
Our argument is two-fold, first - that without a true market with effective property rights we encounter a tragedy of the commons where there is no effective incentive among individual actors to protect endangered animals. Second is the unintended consequences of regulation by government actors that distort the incentives of individuals to protect endangered animals. By instituting a more market oriented way of governing all animals would significantly benefit by reducing the tragedy of the commons problem and the unintended consequences of government management. Using examples from the American buffalo, African elephants, fish farms, and farm animals we try to build the case for more free market-oriented policies in achieving the goal of species preservation.
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Walter E. Block
Secession
Summary:
Secession, political disassociation, can be justified on libertarian grounds, particularly on the basis of the law of free association. We make this case, and then consider objections to this thesis. We conclude with the claim that the war that occurred in the U.S. between 1861 was not a “civil war,” but rather a war of northern aggression.
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Chad Van Schoelandt, Ivan Jankovic, Walter E. Block
Rejoinder on Free Will, Determinism, Libertarianism and Austrian Economics
Summary:
Block (2015) claimed that the free will position is correct, that of determinism incorrect, and that libertarianism and Austrian economics are compatible with the former but not the latter. Edelstein, Wenzel and Salcido (2016) criticized Block (2015) on the grounds that. The present paper is a rejoinder to EWS. It argues that determinism is incorrect; that free will is correct, and that freedom of will is important for both Austrian economics and libertarianism.
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Walter E. Block
The One Article at a Time to a ‘Customer’ Rule in Academic Journals
Summary:
Some journal editors of periodicals ostensibly libertarian oriented yet practice an editorial policy with would be in other contexts seen as anathema to this philosophy: to wit, affirmative action. The present paper documents this case, offers a criticism of this practice, and considers several objections to its thesis.
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Sosthene Codjia, Walter E. Block
Economic Development Policies in West Africa: Making the Case for Free Enterprise
Summary:
Economic development in Africa and everywhere else for that matter, is furthered by capital accumulation. And this is fostered by economic freedom and private property rights which encourages the saving and investment which are the sine qua non of economic growth. The present paper attempts to make this case with regard to the African continent.
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William Barnett Ii, Walter E. Block
Involuntary Unemployment
Summary:
Our claim is that in the purely free enterprise system, there can be no such thing as involuntary unemployment, as long as wage demands are in accord with expected productivity, as perceived by the potential employer. Seeming counter examples are shown to violate one or more of these conditions. Nevertheless, there is great resistance on the part of professional economists to this axiomatic claim. The second part of the paper attempts to probe the cause of this resistance, and finds in praxeology, a rejection of Keynesian economics and psychological analysis, the cure for it.
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William Barnett Ii, Walter E. Block
Spreading the Benefits of Productivity Increases: Price Increases, Decreases, or Both? A Critique of Baumol on Subsidies to the Arts
Summary:
This paper attempts to grapple with the market mechanism through which growth in one sector of the economy spreads to other sectors. It calls into question Baumol’s argument for subsidies to the arts and by extension, to other economic areas that have not enjoyed productivity increases.
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Walter E. Block
Free Will, Determinism, Libertarianism and Austrian Economics
Summary:
This paper makes the claim that the free will position is correct, that of determinism incorrect, and that libertarianism and Austrian economics are compatible with the former but not the latter.
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Walter E. Block
Free Enterprise and Poverty: Cause or Cure?
Summary:
Poverty in general is created by governmental mismanagement. The solution to the problem is the free enterprise system. Markets reduce poverty by promoting incentives and rational economic activity. Governments exacerbate it by attacking private property, regulating business, and through taxation. The problem of black poverty stems mainly from the breakup, nay, the failure to form, of the black family. This, in turn, is traced to governmental welfare programs.
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William Barnett Ii, Walter E. Block
Scale of Values Violates Singularism
Summary:
There is at the very least a tension between two basic building blocs of Austrian economics. The doctrine of singularism maintains that choice is inevitably and necessarily between two and only two things: that which is chosen, and the next best alternative, which is set aside. However, implicit in the concept the scale of values is the claim that choice can take place over many, many alternatives. If one of these has to be jettisoned, and we argue that one must be, then we vote for the latter.
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William Barnett Ii, Walter E. Block
The Rate of Time Preference: a Praxeological Oxymoron
Summary:
In ordinal utility analysis, one can but prefer or set aside. A person can choose option A or option B. Chalk or cheese, guns or butter. There cannot be any such thing as a rate at which a man engages in such activities. Cardinality cannot enter into the picture. No one prefers a given amount of chalk twice as much as cheese. This basic praxeological insight should not be lost sight of when we enter the more complex realm of time preference and interest rate determination. And yet, it commonly is. For we all speak of a “time preference rate.” This is an oxymoron and a praxeological monstrosity. The present paper is devoted to promoting clear thinking by attempting to purify economic language, so as to jettison the concept of a “time preference rate.”
