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Some Aspects of the Relationship Between the Freiburg School and the Austrian School Some aspects of the relationship between the Freiburg School and the Austrian School Citation for published version (APA): Meijer, G. (1999). Some aspects of the relationship between the Freiburg School and the Austrian School. METEOR, Maastricht University School of Business and Economics. METEOR Research Memorandum No. 001 https://doi.org/10.26481/umamet.1999001 Document status and date: Published: 01/01/1999 DOI: 10.26481/umamet.1999001 Document Version: Publisher's PDF, also known as Version of record Please check the document version of this publication: • A submitted manuscript is the version of the article upon submission and before peer-review. There can be important differences between the submitted version and the official published version of record. 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Link to publication General rights Copyright and moral rights for the publications made accessible in the public portal are retained by the authors and/or other copyright owners and it is a condition of accessing publications that users recognise and abide by the legal requirements associated with these rights. • Users may download and print one copy of any publication from the public portal for the purpose of private study or research. • You may not further distribute the material or use it for any profit-making activity or commercial gain • You may freely distribute the URL identifying the publication in the public portal. If the publication is distributed under the terms of Article 25fa of the Dutch Copyright Act, indicated by the “Taverne” license above, please follow below link for the End User Agreement: www.umlib.nl/taverne-license Take down policy If you believe that this document breaches copyright please contact us at: [email protected] providing details and we will investigate your claim. Download date: 01 Oct. 2021 SOME ASPECTS OF THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THE FREIBURG SCHOOL AND THE AUSTRIAN SCHOOL Dr. Gerrit Meijer Maastricht University Department of Economics P.O.Box 616 6200 MD Maastricht The Netherlands Tel. +31-43-388 3649/363 Fax +31-43-325 8440 E-mail [email protected] Fout! Bladwijzer niet gedefinieerd. ABSTRACT Some Aspects of the Relationship between the Freiburg School and the Austrian School This paper is about some aspects of the interrelationship of the Freiburg School and the Austrian School. The relationships between these schools will be discussed in the field of economic theory and economic policy. No attention will be paid to the similarities and differences in the field of social philosophy and methodology. For the Freiburg School we will concentrate on W. Eucken, F.A. Hayek and W. Röpke. For the Austrian School the following writers will be contemplated: L. Mises and F.A. Hayek. Also the connection to Schumpeter will be discussed. In the case of Hayek there is a personal union. The paper consists of the following sections: + Eucken and the Austrian School. + Röpke and the Austrian School. + Some closing remarks. The five authors who have got our special attention in trying to say something on the relationships between the Freiburg and the Austrian School took different positions in economic theory and economic policy. Schumpeter and Mises belong to the same generation of the Austrian School. Schumpeter studied the relations between socialism, capitalism and democracry but obstained from formulating ideas on a policy to influence the developments he prophetized. Mises staunchly defended liberalism and attacked the centrally administered economy and interventionism. He questi- oned whether the renewal of liberalism (by e.g. Eucken, Hayek and Röpke), for which the foundations were laid by Cannan, Knight and himself would avoid interventionism (i.e. interfe- rences in the economic process by direct controls). Eucken, Hayek and Röpke were looking for possibilities to influence developments. In principle the disagreement between the fundamental position of Mises and this triumvirate may be described as follows. In contrast to Mises they thought that their diagnosis of the crisis of society had to be followed by showing a way out of that crisis by the programmes of active policy they formulated. The crisis according to them was so deep and severe that they felt themselves obliged to do their utmost to turn the tide. For that reason they thought active policies were necessary, with avoidance of centrally administered economies and the kind of interventionism which Mises in their opinion with convincing arguments warned against. J.E.L.code: B29, B31, P10, P 51 Fout! Bladwijzer niet gedefinieerd. SOME ASPECTS OF THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THE FREIBURG SCHOOL AND THE AUSTRIAN SCHOOL 1. INTRODUCTION This paper is about some aspects of the interrelationship of the Freiburg School and the Austrian School. The relationships between these schools will be discussed in the field of economic theory and economic policy. No attention will be paid to the similarities and differences in the field of social phi- losophy and methodology. The original contribution of Eucken to methodology concerns the relationship between history and theory. He was critical with regard to the historical school (Schmoller) as well as to the founder of the Austrian School (Menger). For the Freiburg School we will concentrate on W. Eucken, F.A. Hayek and W. Röpke. For the Austrian School the following writers will be contemplated: L. Mises and F.A. Hayek. Also the connection to Schumpeter will be discussed. From this it shows that in the case of Hayek there is a personal union. The paper consists of the following sections: + Eucken and the Austrian School 2.1. Eucken and the Freiburg School 2.2. Eucken and Mises 2.3. Eucken and Hayek 2.4. Eucken and Schumpeter + Röpke and the Austrian School 3.1. Life and work 3.2. Röpke and Mises 3.3. Röpke and Hayek 3.4. Röpke and Schumpeter The final section contains some closing remarks. 2. EUCKEN AND THE AUSTRIAN SCHOOL 2.1. Eucken and the Freiburg School In this section a few remarks have to be made to introduce Walter Eucken and the Freiburg School. For a fuller treatment Fout! Bladwijzer niet gedefinieerd. the reader is referred to existing literature (see Meijer 1987a, 1987b, 1988a and 1994). Walter Eucken (1891-1950) was professor of economics in Freiburg, Germany. There in the thirties originated the Freiburg or Ordo School, of which he may be regarded as the founder or head. The term Ordo School was first introduced by Hero Moeller to coin the ideas of the contributors to ORDO. Jahrbuch für die Ordnung von Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft (founded by the lawyer Franz Böhm and Eucken in 1948). Contributors were among others F.A. Hayek and W. Röpke. These two latter writers contributed regularly to ORDO, but in the strict geographical sense did not belong to the Freiburg school. There was a mutual influence between Eucken, Hayek and Röpke. In ORDO a lot was published on problems of international economic order, but mostly in the Austrian tradition, also by Haberler and Machlup. Those ideas were already formulated in the thirties long before the founding of ORDO. In the work of Eucken (1990, Viertes Buch; originally 1952) and implicitly also in the works of the other members of this school there are mentioned six constitutive and four regulative principles on which a competitive order (Wettbewerbsordnung) is founded. According to Eucken these six constitutive principles are: (1) stability of the monetary system; (2) open market i.e. free entry; (3) private property, also of the means of production; (4) freedom of contract, however not to destroy competition; (5) complete liability for economic actions; and (6) constancy of the policy. These six constitutive principles have to be realized simultaneously. Apart from these constitutive principles Eucken distinguishes the regulative principles that are directed towards keeping the competitive order intact. There are four of these principles: (1) a policy to attack monopolies (Antimonopol-politik); (2) a policy aimed at changing the distribution of incomes; (3) the fixing of minimum wages; and (4) a policy to equalize individual and social costs. Fout! Bladwijzer niet gedefinieerd. 2.2. Eucken and Mises There is little evidence of a direct influence of Mises on Eucken. The most important direct influence concerns the theory of the centrally administered economy. Eucken (1959, p. 255) thinks that the thesis of Von Mises (1922; originally 1920) is correct for the completely centrally administered economy. It holds for this type of centrally administered economy that there is no exchange and therefore no pricing. According to Eucken exact calculation is than impossible. For that reason the central administration encounters in the long run great difficulties. In practice the centrally administered economy is never present in its pure form, but exists always in connection with the free exchange economy. In this mixed form pricing can take place. To the extent that the exchange economy is more dominant, the above mentioned difficulties are less pronounced. Eucken builts further on Mises in his own methodological style. His own theory is based in historical reality (in particular the experiences with the centrally administered economy in the Soviet Union and Nazi-Germany). Eucken refers in this connection to two post-war works of Mises: Planned Chaos and Human Action (Eucken 1990, p.139). Besides this directly traceable influence there is also an indirect influence of Mises on Eucken via his pupils Haberler, Hayek and Machlup. This concerns in the first place monetary theory and business cycle theory. The monetary overinvestment theory (in which monetary theory and capital and interest theory were brought together) was one of the elements in Eucken's thinking on the business cycle.
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