The Collected Works of Israel M. Kirzner

Edited by Peter Boettke and Frederic Sautet, The Collected Works of Israel M. Kirzner Book Series establishes Kirzner as a careful and meticulous scholar of economics. No other living economist is so closely associated with the Austrian School of economics as Israel M. Kirzner, professor emeritus of economics at New York University. He has been a leader of the generation of Austrian School economists following Ludwig von Mises and F. A. Hayek.

Books in the Series

LUDWIG VON MISES: THE MAN AND HIS ECONOMICS
Ludwig von Mises: The Man and His Economics (2018) is a collection of Israel M. Kirzner’s work regarding his mentor, including a monograph on Mises and his work as well as several articles detailing how he impacted the world of economics.

REFLECTIONS ON ETHICS, FREEDOM, WELFARE ECONOMICS, POLICY, AND THE LEGACY OF AUSTRIAN ECONOMICS
Reflections on Ethics, Freedom, Welfare Economics, Policy, and the Legacy of Austrian Economics (2018) comprises a variety of Kirzner’s essays on social thought. Kirzner’s intellectual interest and theories go beyond market process and entrepreneurship: they encompass several important topics that are vital to the existence of human societies.

THE ESSENCE OF ENTREPRENEURSHIP AND THE NATURE AND SIGNIFICANCE OF MARKET PROCESS
The Essence of Entrepreneurship and the Nature and Significance of Market Process (2018) is a continuation of the discourse started in Kirzner’s earlier work, Competition and Entrepreneurship, expanding upon his ideas about entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial alertness. Essence presents most of the detailed research Kirzner has done on the nature of entrepreneurship and the entrepreneurial process in the decades following the publication of his magnum opus. It is during that long period that Kirzner elaborated his approach further, responding to objections and critics, and offering the world a more systematic understanding of the concept of market process.

COMPETITION, ECONOMIC PLANNING, AND THE KNOWLEDGE PROBLEM
Competition, Economic Planning, and the Knowledge Problem (2018) expands on the ideas Kirzner first discussed in Competition and Entrepreneurship—the role of the entrepreneur and its relation to the determination of prices and the coordination of individuals’ plans—as well as economic planning, the knowledge problem, market-process theory, and the parts played by information, knowledge and advertising. It includes a paper on F. A. Hayek’s theory of market coordination and the Austrian business-cycle theory—seen now for the first time in its original English.

DISCOVERY, CAPITALISM, AND DISTRIBUTIVE JUSTICE
Discovery, Capitalism, and Distributive Justice (2016) makes Kirzner’s case for the idea that entrepreneurial profit is both essential for an economy and profoundly just. Asserting that the problem with standard criticism of capitalist income distribution is a failure to see capitalism as a “discovery procedure,” Kirzner argues that production and subsequent profit are neither automatic nor guaranteed.

AUSTRIAN SUBJECTIVISM AND THE EMERGENCE OF ENTREPRENEURSHIP
Austrian Subjectivism and the Emergence of Entrepreneurship Theory (2015) comprises several of Kirzner’s previously published papers on the subjects of methodological subjectivism and the history of entrepreneurship theory—topics of primary importance in Kirzner’s economic thought because one cannot fully understand entrepreneurship theory without considering subjectivism.

COMPETITION AND ENTREPRENEURSHIP
Competition and Entrepreneurship (2013) defines Israel M. Kirzner’s unique contribution to the economics profession. Pointing out the shortcomings of the traditional microeconomic model, Kirzner offers an alternative and complementary view, which illuminates and enriches the way economists think of the market process. Kirzner develops a theory of the market process that focuses on the role of the pure entrepreneurial element in human action.

ESSAYS ON CAPITAL AND INTEREST
Essays on Capital and Interest (2012) presents a collection of writings on capital theory that serve both as a discourse in the history of economic thought and as conceptual clarification in one of the most complex subjects in economics.

MARKET THEORY AND THE PRICE SYSTEM
The second volume (2011) in Liberty Fund’s Collected Works of Israel M. Kirzner series was published in 1963 as Kirzner’s first (and only) textbook. This volume presents an integrated view of Austrian price theory. The basic aim of Market Theory is to utilize the tools of economic reasoning to explain the market process. The unique framework Kirzner develops for microeconomic analysis, following Mises and Hayek, examines errors in decision-making, entrepreneurial profit, and competition as a process of discovery and learning.

THE ECONOMIC POINT OF VIEW
The inaugural volume (2009) in Liberty Fund’s new Collected Works of Israel M. Kirzner series established Kirzner as a careful and meticulous scholar of economics. No other living economist is so closely associated with the Austrian school of economics as Israel M. Kirzner, Professor Emeritus of Economics at New York University. He has been a leader of the generation of Austrian school economists following Ludwig von Mises and F. A. Hayek.