From Vienna to Virginia.
Both the Austrian school of economics and the Virginia school of political economy have been staunch defenders of classical liberalism and free markets. But their commonalities run deeper, including an emphasis on rules and institutions, subjectivism, and the power of ideas.
The Foundation for Economic Education is pleased to announce "From Vienna to Virginia," a special conference for young scholars on the intersection between these two traditions.
A group of graduate students and junior faculty will gather for a weekend to discuss the commonalities and differences between them and, most importantly, to pave the way for future research that incorporates the best of both approaches. Participants will have the opportunity to present original research and get feedback from established scholars in the fields of Austrian economics and Virginian public choice.
FEE invites abstract submissions from graduate students and junior (untenured) faculty members in economics, political science, philosophy, and related disciplines. Abstracts should be 200-300 words and outline a substantive essay beginning with some common thread or divergence between the Austrian and Virginia schools. Coauthored papers are welcome. Entrants must be under 35 years of age, and may submit either one or two abstracts. They must also be willing to attend the "From Vienna to Virginia" conference at the Foundation for Economic Education in Irvington-on-Hudson, New York, September 18-20, 2008. Accommodations will be provided. Travel scholarships may be available.
The deadline for abstract submissions is May 1, 2008. Entrants will be informed by May 15 if their papers are accepted. If your abstract is accepted, a first draft of your paper will be due in electronic form by August 15. Drafts should run no more than 8000 words. The best papers from the conference may be included in a collected volume. We are especially interested in papers touching on the following topics:
* Methodology: the nature of economics, the role of economists, cost and exchange
* Austrian Themes: knowledge problems, entrepreneurship, spontaneous order
* Public Choice: democracy, voting, bureaucracy, dictatorship
* Interventionism: regulation, taxes, redistribution, monetary policy
* Political Economy: rules, institutions, constitutions, social choice, ethics and economics
All sorts of papers are welcome, though excessive formalism is discouraged. Applied, historical, and conceptual papers will receive priority over history of thought papers.
Please send abstract submissions and questions to Adam Martin via amartini@gmu.edu
For more info see the FEE website.
Comments (7)
I've never heard anything about the Virginia school before.
Published: April 6, 2008 12:08 PM
Doesn't the Austrian School also have close ties to the so-called Swedish School of Economics?
Published: April 6, 2008 12:44 PM
I've never heard of a Swedish School of Economics (except the University by that name), but one group of people were called the Stockholm School. They were proto-Keynesians, though. I believe some would add Knut Wicksell to the group, who has ties to Boem-Bahwerk, which would be a connection.
Published: April 6, 2008 1:44 PM
That is it! I've heard it referred to before as the Swedish school though. Thanks for the information, I couldn't find anything on wikipedia.
Published: April 6, 2008 5:53 PM
The Virginia school basically refers to public choice theory as the early work of Tullock, Buchanan, and Nutter took place at the University of Virginia and Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University.
Published: April 6, 2008 6:52 PM
It'll be interesting to see the outcomes of this. Public choice and Austrianism have much in common.
Published: April 6, 2008 7:13 PM
My own transit along the Vienna-Virginia axis, began in high school and continued through my years as an undergraduate economics major, 1980-1984, first at Hillsdale College under Edward Facey, one of the younger members of the famous NYU seminars conducted by Ludwig von Mises, then at NYU itself as a transfer, under noted Mises student Israel Kirzner and several younger Austrian school professors - not excepting fraternal brushes outside the classroom with the unfailingly time-generous Murray Rothbard.
Flash forward to my first semester, in the fall of 1988, as a graduate student in modern European history at the University of Virginia. I was in a colloquium on early-20th-century Europe taught by the late Professor Hans Schmitt, when my turn came at the conference table to present an oral report, on the WWI-era father of Czech independence, Tomáš G. Masaryk.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tomáš_Masaryk#Biography
After sketching to my newly-fraternal Virginians Masaryk's early life and philosophy studies, I mentioned his then having "earned his Ph.D at U.Va - the University of Vienna..."
Published: April 7, 2008 8:09 PM