Friday, July 1, 2011

Mises’s Versions of ABCT

The Misesian versions of the Austrian trade cycle theory (ABCT) are expounded in the following works:
(1) Mises’s version in Monetary Stabilization and Cyclical Policy (1928) that can be found in Mises 2006 [1978], The Causes of the Economic Crisis and Other Essays Before and After the Great Depression (Ludwig von Mises Institute, Auburn, Ala.), p. 99ff.

(2) The version of Mises in Human Action: A Treatise on Economics (Auburn, Ala., 1998 [1949]), pp. 568–583.

(3) The version of Mises in The Theory of Money and Credit (trans. J. E. Batson; Mises Institute, Auburn, Ala. 2009 [1953]), pp. 349–366.
Two questions occur to me as follows, and I am not completely sure what the answers are:
(1) Did the original German edition of the Theorie des Geldes und der Umlaufsmittel (“The Theory of Money and Credit”; Munich and Leipzig, 1912) or the 2nd German edition published in 1924 contain the same theory of the trade cycle found in Mises (1953)?

(2) Did the version of 1912 remain unchanged in the 2nd German edition published in 1924, and in the English translation of it in 1934?
Kirzner once claimed that the way Hayek developed the trade cycle theory was “not quite consistent with the way Mises laid it out in 1912” (see “An Interview with Israel M. Kirzner,” Austrian Economics Newsletter (vol. 17.1, 1997), so presumably there was a version in the 1912 German edition, unless Kirzner is here mistakenly is thinking of a later edition of The Theory of Money and Credit.


BIBLIOGRAPHY

Mises, L. von. 1912 Theorie des Geldes und der Umlaufsmittel, Duncker & Humblot, Munich and Leipzig.

Mises, L. von. 1924. Theorie des Geldes und der Umlaufsmittel (2nd edn), Duncker & Humblot, Munich.

Mises, L. von. 1934. The Theory of Money and Credit (trans. H. E. Batson from 2nd German edition of 1924), J. Cape, London.

Mises, L. von. 1953. The Theory of Money and Credit (enlarged, new edn), Yale University Press, New Haven.

Mises, L. 1998. Human Action: A Treatise on Economics, Mises Institute, Auburn, Ala.

Mises, L. von. 2006 [1978]. The Causes of the Economic Crisis and Other Essays Before and After the Great Depression, Ludwig von Mises Institute, Auburn, Ala.

Mises, L. von, 2009 [1953]. The Theory of Money and Credit (trans. J. E. Batson), Mises Institute, Auburn, Ala.

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