Ludwig Lachmann

Ludwig Lachmann (1906 – 1990) was a German economist who became a passionate member of and important contributor to the Austrian School. Image File history File links Ludwig_lachman. ... 1906 (MCMVI) was a common year starting on Monday (see link for calendar). ... MCMXC redirects here; for the Enigma album, see MCMXC a. ... The Austrian School, also known as the Vienna School or the Psychological School, is a school of economic thought that advocates adherence to strict methodological individualism. ...

Education and career

Lachmann earned his Ph.D. from the University of Berlin, where he was enrolled as a graduate student from 1924 to 1933. He first became interested in Austrian economics while spending the summer of 1926 at the University of Zurich. Lachmann moved to England from Germany in 1933, and it is when he was at the London School of Economics in the 1930s as a student and colleague of Friedrich Hayek that he further developed his interest in the Austrian School. In 1948, he moved to Johannesburg, South Africa, where he accepted a professorship at the University of the Witwatersrand and would live out the remainder of his years.^[1] Doctor of Philosophy (Ph. ... There is no institution called the University of Berlin, but there are four universities in Berlin, Germany: Humboldt University of Berlin (Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin) Technical University of Berlin (Technische Universität Berlin) Free University of Berlin (Freie Universität Berlin) Berlin University of the Arts (Universität der... The University of Zurich (in German: Universität Zürich) is the largest university of Switzerland, in the city of Zurich. ... The London School of Economics and Political Science, often referred to as the London School of Economics or simply the LSE, is a specialist constituent college of the University of London. ... Friedrich August von Hayek, CH (May 8, 1899 in Vienna – March 23, 1992 in Freiburg) was an Austrian-born British economist and political philosopher known for his defense of liberal democracy and free-market capitalism against socialist and collectivist thought in the mid-20th century. ... Johannesburgs skyline as seen from the observation deck of the Carlton Centre. ... The University of the Witwatersrand (pronounced vit-vaters-rant, with flat vowels -- see South African English) is a leading South African university situated in Johannesburg. ...

Lachmann on economics

He grew to believe that the Austrian School had deviated from Carl Menger's original vision of an entirely subjective economics. To Lachmann, Austrian Theory was to be characterized as an evolutionary, or "genetic-causal", approach against the equilibrium and perfect knowledge found in mainstream Neoclassical economics. Austrian School economist Carl Menger Carl Menger Carl Menger (February 28, 1840 – February 26, 1921) was the founder of the Austrian School of economics. ... Neoclassical economics refers to a general approach (a metatheory) to economics based on supply and demand which depends on individuals (or any economic agent) operating rationally, each seeking to maximize their individual utility or profit by making choices based on available information. ...

Lachmann's "fundamentalist Austrianism" was rare—few living Austrian economists saw their work as departing from the mainstream. He underscored what he viewed as distinctive from that mainstream: economic subjectivism, imperfect knowledge, the heterogeneity of capital, the business cycle, methodological individualism, alternative cost and "market process". Economic subjectivism is the theory that value is a feature of the appraiser and not of the thing being valued. ... // [edit] Introduction [edit] Definition If we were to take snapshots of an economy at different points in time, no two photos would look alike. ... Opportunity cost is a term used in economics, to mean the cost of something in terms of an opportunity foregone (and the benefits that could be received from that opportunity), or the most valuable foregone alternative. ...

His work was highly influential upon later, American developments of the Austrian School.

To commemorate Lachmann, his widow established a trust to fund the Ludwig M. Lachmann Research Fellowship at the Department of Philosophy, Logic and Scientific Method of the LSE.^[2]

Books

• Capital and Its Structure, 1956. (text)
• The Legacy of Max Weber, 1971. (text)
• Macro-economic Thinking and the Market Economy, 1973.
• Capital, Expectations and the Market Process, 1977.
• The Market as an Economic Process, 1986.

Notes

1. ^ Lewin, Peter. "Ludwig Lachmann (1906-1990): Life and Work." Mises.org. [1]
2. ^ "Ludwig M Lachmann Research Fellowship." Department of Philosophy, Logic and Scientific Method. London School of Economics. [2]

The Ludwig von Mises Institute (LvMI), based in Auburn, Alabama, is a libertarian academic organization engaged in research and scholarship in the fields of economics, philosophy and political economy. ...

External links

• Critique on The History of Economic Thought Website
• Ludwig Lachmann at the Open Directory Project
• "The Kaleidic World of Ludwig Lachmann," a review of The Market as an Economic Process by Roger Garrison
• "The Lachmann Legacy: An Agenda for Macroeconomics," Roger Garrison