Maximizing Action and Market Adjustment: Inquiry into the Theory of Economic Disequilibrium (The international Carl Menger library) - Hardcover

High, Jack C.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 388405029X ISBN 13: 9783884050293

Publisher: Philosophia, 1990

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Synopsis

Nothing is more central to economics than price, and nothing is more characteristic of market prices than ferment and change. Yet modern economists have paid relatively little attention to the theory of price dynamics. In "Maximizing, Action and Market Adjustment", Jack High has undertaken the tasks of placing price dynamics in perspective, and of advancing the economic theory of price change. A brief survey of stability analysis, search theory, and market process theory is followed by a summary statement of market theory as developed by Mises, Hayek, Kirzner, Rothbard and other modern proponents of the Austrian School. Then High undertakes an in depth analysis of search theory, including the foundations of probability upon which the theory of search is built. He argues that economists have overestimated the applicability of search theory, because they have conflated Bayesian inference and subjective probability. In the final chapter of the book, High develops some models of price adjustment in relatively non-technical language.

These models are of considerable interest in their own right, and also reveal the stringency of the assumptions required to obtain price convergence, even allowing for entrepreneurial activity. This work should find its way into the curricula of graduate economics programs throughout the United States and Europe. The importance of the sujbect, the clarity of the exposition, and the cogency of the argument combine to give the book especial appeal to everyone concerned with the modern theory of price.

Edition details

• Publisher: Philosophia
• Publication date: 1990
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 388405029X
• ISBN 13: 9783884050293
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 186