Afterword: Austrian Economics for the Twenty-First Century

Abstract

The editors of this volume have asked the contributors to take a critical look at Austrian economics and ask several questions. What does the future hold for the Austrian tradition? What areas seem particularly promising for future research? What are the weaknesses of Austrian analysis and how important are they in a total assessment of the research program? In this Afterword we shall address ourselves to these questions by taking a very broad look at the prospects for Austrian economics in the fast approaching twenty-first century. We shall address some of the themes in specific contributions to this volume in order to make a general assessment of the overall trends and prospects in the field. In the spirit of critical rationalism we shall venture a bold conjecture:Without significant changes in its traditional research topics and strategies (as begun here and elsewhere),Austrian economics will become increasingly irrelevant to the major intellectual currents in the next century and will ultimately fail to survive.