You’d need a differential equation or set of linked differential equations with greek letters standing for “suffering” and “robbery” and “corruption” and I guaran-fuckin’-tee it would be highly nonlinear. I fixed the book title on wikipedia (Der natürliche Werth). The most disruptive economic force today may be not technology but the emergence of a huge, relatively low-income market in China (and elsewhere) — and its impact on production with regard to goods and prices as well as location. Also: no clear capital theory. It’s one of those nice schemes that sounds great in theory and breaks down completely in reality. Thanks for the kind thought. I have just modified 2 external links on Friedrich von Wieser. Good catch. http://socialdemocracy21stcentury.blogspot.com/2013/07/friedrich-von-wieser-on-progressive.html, http://socialdemocracy21stcentury.blogspot.com/2010/10/friedrich-von-wieser-and-eugen-von.html. This means, on the one hand, that the marginal utility principle now covers the cost phenomenon and in consequence also the logic of the allocation of resources (structure of production), hence the ‘supply side’ of the economic problem SO FAR AS ALL THIS IS DETERMINED BY ECONOMIC CONSIDERATIONS. It does not matter if academic economists offer one particular definition if the rest of humanity uses another. Our editors will review what you’ve submitted and determine whether to revise the article. For Walras wages are determined by a labour market (Walras 223). Given this is (obviously) not the intention of your book, perhaps you could do a far more selective juxtaposition toward the end of it? I’m undecided as to whether I’ll include this material, perhaps as starred (skip if you feel like it) sections, or in an Appendix. They solved the fundamental problems of allocation and distribution, but via a problematic theory of the “imputation” (Wieser’s word) of the consumer’s satisfaction to choices in production. I used “scare quotes”. Also btw, the book quoted by JQ appeared 1889, not 1914. The details therefore matter a lot. . The Austrian School originated in late-19th and early-20th century Vienna with the work of Carl Menger, Eugen Böhm von Bawerk, Friedrich von Wieser and others. arrived at what has been called the alternative-use or opportunity theory of cost–the philosophy of the cost phenomenon that may be expressed by the adage: What a thing really costs is the sacrifice of the utility of those other things which we could have had from the resources that went into the one we did produce. (1910-1930 was a bad time to be emphasizing distributional impacts on the allocation of factor inputs, anyway. Certainly, that’s what happened with Austrian business cycle theory. This accounts in fact for the impression that he was neglecting cost aspects. By signing up for this email, you are agreeing to news, offers, and information from Encyclopaedia Britannica. Member of the Austrian School of economists, whose early interest in sociology was diverted towards economics by the publication of Menger’s Grundsätze. von Wieser is at this point (1910s) still playing fast and loose between opportunity costs for an individual objective function, and opportunity costs for a social planner – whose alternative costs? Wieser's most famous contributions are the imputation theory drawn from his 1889 work Der natürliche Wert (Natural Value) and the Alternative Cost (or Opportunity Cost) Theory drawn from his 1914 work Theorie der gesellschaftlichen Wirtschaft (Social Economics) in which he coined the term "opportunity cost". And the goals and goods being ranked are measured in a discrete space, such that prices are only found up to an interval. History of Friedrich Von Wieser: Friedrich Von Wieser was the second member of the Austrian trio who contributed the Austrian School. The concept of “opportunity cost,” as identified by Wieser, is still widely used in modern economic analysis.… A. Wieser, F. F. von I have my doubts. Can anyone point to useful information about von Wieser? I do suspect the problem isn’t just me :). Like his colleague, Böhm-Bawerk, Wieser was permitted to study under the three founders of the German school of historical economics—Karl Knies at Heidelberg, Wilhelm Georg Roscher at Leipzig, and Bruno Hildebrand at Jena. Wicksteed rejected the labor theory of value. So if all capitalists adopt the same logic (which they must) no one will loose market share. This is covered in “Elements of Pure Economy”, 1977 Reprint, 232. @29 But those exchange vales or relative prices of the factors constitute the costs of production for the producing firms. Both books also discuss opportunity / alternative cost. It’s spot on, and I just wouldn’t have thought the Austrians capable of that. However maybe another commenter here can help me. Wieser coined the term opportunity cost and performed a detailed study of the subject. He also introduced the concept of opportunity cost: Wieser showed that… I am a great believer in asking the right question (almost always, the correct question is why, though “what do you mean by that” is also a good question). Von Wieser said this of the theory of marginal utility in 1891: “The most momentous consequence of the theory is, I take it, that it is false, with the socialists, to impute to labor alone the entire productive return.”. But on Stigler’s own showing, Menger had all the essential results. 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