The Place of Austrians in the History of Economics

A Survey of Recent Research

抄録

Historical research into Austrian economics was encouraged by two conferences in 1971 (Bellagio and Vienna) and one in 1989 (Durham, NC). Grounded on a thorough archival investigation, study of Carl Menger and Böhm-Bawerk has made a remarkable progress. Although study of Wieser is rare, we now have a good understanding of founding fathers of the Austrian school in the intellectual traditions of the Germanspeaking world. However, the theoretical research in this area shows a lag. A new general view of Austrians is still to come. One of the problems involved in this field of study is whether, Austrian' school is a branch of neo-classicism or not. In the last part of the survey, the author poses the question about the vision that guides historical reseach regarding the Austrians. His tentative answer is that a historical researcher need not adopt the same view as those of the economists he studies. The author suggests that an ‘evolutionary’ view might offer a better framework for the research than the ‘Austrian’ view could offer.