A clear and succinct distinction between the Austrian school and the dominant
neoclassical school can be written without long historical explanations and origin stories.
In fact, most Neoclassical economists would argue that there is little in the manner of a fixed doctrine or dogma in the
Neoclassical school. Just about everything is subject to questioning, change or evolution.
The first part deals with heterodox challenges to the mainstream view of development; the second part is about challenges to the mainstream view of development from within the mainstream
neoclassical school; the third part summarises the 'neo-classical counter-challenge'; and the fourth presents the challenges to 'Neo-liberalism'.
And that is a pressing argument against the
neoclassical school of thought in Economics that strives to achieve a "natural equilibrium" and economic efficiency.
Drawing on neoclassical price theory, one school (referred to as the
neoclassical school) sees little, if any, difference between arrangements involving dual distribution and a conventional channel of distribution.
Following the marginalist revolution, the Austrian school took a different direction to the dominant
neoclassical school by emphasizing risk and dynamic change.
A central theme in the book, the desirability of reinstating the entanglement of fact, value and theory that existed widely before the dominance of the
neoclassical school, is particularly important in a world economy still struggling to cope with the global financial crisis.
The first part of the book explains the chasm between the dominant
neoclassical school of economics and the Austrian school.
The
neoclassical school of economics argues that an aging population should depress the return on capital.
According to the
neoclassical school, people make choices based on a rational calculation of what will serve them best.
The only real challenge to the domination of the
neoclassical school was the increasingly popular work of Keynes.
There, visitors could truly venerate this Spanish master, whom Manet called "the greatest painter there has ever been." The exceptional realism of Velazquez's paintings was that these young artists sought as an antidote to the Renaissance ideals espoused by the
Neoclassical school and advanced at the French Academy.