F. A. Hayek: economics, political economy and social philosophy

This book explores the life and work of Austrian-British economist, political economist, and social philosopher, Friedrich Hayek. Set within a context of the recent financial crisis, alongside the renewed interest in Hayek and the Hayek-Keynes debate, the book introduces the main themes of Hayek's thought. These include the division of knowledge, the importance of rules, the problems with planning and economic management, and the role of constitutional constraints in enabling the emergence of unplanned order in the market by limiting the perverse incentives and distortions in information often associated with political discretion. Key to understanding Hayek's development as a thinker is his emphasis on the knowledge problem that economic decision makers face and how alternative institutional arrangements either hinder or assist them in overcoming that epistemic dilemma. Hayek saw order emerging from individual action and responsibility under the appropriate institutional order that itself emerges from actors discovering new and better ways to coordinate their behavior. This book will be of interest to all those keen to gain a deeper understanding of this great 20th century thinker in economics. Peter Boettke is University Professor of Economics and Philosophy, Director of the F. A. Hayek Program for Advanced Study in Philosophy, Politics, and Economics, at George Mason University, USA.

Intro -- Acknowledge Permission to Utilize Content From -- Preface -- Bibliography -- Contents -- List of Figures -- 1: Clarifying Some Misconceptions About Hayek -- Bibliography -- 2: Hayek: An Overview of His Life and Work -- Introduction -- Hayek Versus Keynes -- The Road to Serfdom -- Conclusion -- Epilogue: Hayek's Century -- Bibliography -- 3: The Anatomy of an Economic Crisis: Money, Prices, and Economic Order -- Introduction -- The Anatomy of the Global Financial Crisis -- Tacit Presuppositions and the Game of Political Economy -- Extraordinary Measures amid an Extraordinary Crisis -- Political Economy and the Counter-Factual -- Conclusion -- Epilogue: What Would Hayek Do? -- Bibliography -- 4: Hayek on Market Theory and the Price System -- Introduction -- Hayek on Economics and Knowledge, and Appreciative Theory -- The Complacency of His Neoclassical Peers of the 1940s -- Mainstream Interpretations of Hayek -- Why the Mainstream Failed to Appropriate Hayek -- Conclusion -- Bibliography -- 5: Hayek and Market Socialism -- Introduction -- Mises's Challenge of Economic Calculation Under Socialism -- The Surprising Emergence of Neoclassical Socialism -- Market Socialism and Market Processes -- Hayek and the Political Economy of Liberalism and Socialism -- Conclusion -- Bibliography -- 6: The False Promise of Socialism and The Road to Serfdom -- Introduction -- The Misesian Roots of Hayek's Argument -- Hayek's Journey from Technical Economist to Political Economist -- This Is Not a Slippery Slope -- Conclusion -- Bibliography -- 7: A Genuine Institutional Economics -- Introduction -- From Smith to Menger to Mises: The Refinement of Invisible Hand Theorizing -- Mises, Hayek, and the Link Between the Early Austrian School and the Modern Austrian School -- Hayek, the Institutional Turn, and the Emergence of Law and Economics.