Thursday, February 4, 2016

Why are austrian economics disregarded in academia?

I am a philosophy and econ undergrad. In the course of my philosophy classes I took some econ classes which touched upon austrian economics. I decided to add an econ major to my bachelor for the sake of having a more applied side to my bachelors side. Frankly, it turned out to be far more applied than I had anticipated. It's all keynesian economics through and through. What strikes me as odd is that my peers either have no idea what austrian economics is (~90%) or dismiss it completely because the keynesian curriculum has taught them otherwise (~10%). Now, I believe both keynesian and austrian economics have their merits, but for the life of me I cannot figure out why academia frowns upon the austrian school and labels it as 'proven false'.

Typically the data do not support the Austrian outcomes or assumptions. The argument is that this is due to too much government intervention or lack of symmetrical information. Take that as you will. Also the stereotype of the Austrian school is to not back up theory with formal mathematical modeling or data, but to just cite examples. This has been changing though.
- jewcy83


link: http://bit.ly/1oanhQ4