Principles of Economics
by Carl Menger
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Book Summary Information
Author: Carl MengerEdition: Paperback
Published: 2007
ISBN: N/A
Publisher: Ludwig von Mises Institute
Book Reviews of Principles of Economics
Book Review: Principles of Economics
Summary: 5 Stars
The significance of this book hardly needs to be stressed. W. Stanley Jevons had stated the utility principle before, but his book was published in the same year as was Menger's. Léon Walras followed somewhat later. Although he was therefore not alone in developing the theory of diminishing utility, Menger nevertheless exerted a special influence through his students, several of whom became outstanding economists. Together with Menger they constitute the Austrian School of economists of which Menger is therefore of course the founder. The term marginal utility was later introduced by one of them, Friedrich von Wieser.
Here is the famous paragraph in which Menger states his marginal utility proposition:
"Accordingly, in every concrete case, of all the satisfactions secured by means of the whole quantity of a good at the disposal of an economizing individual, only those that have the least importance to him are dependent on the availability of a given portion of the whole quantity. Hence the value to this person of any portion of the whole available quantity of the good is equal to the importance to him of the satisfactions of least importance among those assured by the whole quantity and achieved with an equal portion." (p. 132)
Here, is Menger (comparatively very briefly) on complementarity:
"The additional complexity arising with goods of higher than second order lies rather in the fact that even command of all the goods required for the production of a good of the next lower order does not necessarily establish their goods-character unless men also have command of all their complementary goods of this next and of all still lower orders." (p. 61)
The development of subjective value theory represented a challenge of the first importance to the classical cost theories and particularly to the socialist theories of labor-power as the source of value. The task of reconciling what sometimes appeared to be an excessive stress on demand on the part of the Austrians and the more or less exclusive analysis of value in terms of cost or supply on the part of the classical writers remained for neoclassical writers to pursue. The foregoing comments cover familiar ground. However, there seems to be an importance to the Austrian School which often appears to be overlooked by American economists. The various writers, from Menger through von Wieser, Bohm-Bawerk, Mises, and Hayek, developed their views by careful reasoning and with due regard for what, taken together, may be called Austrian theory. In the development of their views regarding capital, interest, business fluctuations, and the nature of the economic system there is a logical cohesiveness which might well be understood more widely. Frequently only fragments of their views are presented for critical evaluation and attack. This is well illustrated in a general way by the criticism which the opposition on the part of Mises and Hayek to interventionism and socialism generally evokes in some quarters. Although their opposition is entirely consistent with their own system of thought, their opponents have not attacked the logical structure as such.
Summary of Principles of Economics
In the beginning, there was Menger. It was this book that reformulated, and really rescued, economic science. It kicked off the Marginalist Revolution, which corrected theoretical errors of the old classical school. These errors concerned value theory, and they had sewn enough confusion to make the dangerous ideology of Marxism seem more plausible than it really was.Menger set out to elucidate the precise nature of economic value, and root economics firmly in the real-world actions of individual human beings.
For this reason, Carl Menger (1840-1921) was the founder of the Austrian School of economics. It is the book that Mises said turned him into a real economist. What's striking is how nearly a century and a half later, the book still retains its incredible power, both in its prose and its relentless logic.
The Mises Institute's new edition features a new foreword by Peter G. Klein, which summarizes Menger's contribution and places him in the history of ideas. He also explains his continued relevance.
Economics students still say that it is the best introduction to economic logic ever written. The book also deserves the status as a seminal contribution to science in general. Truly, no one can claim to be well read in economics without having mastered Menger's argument.
328 pp. (pb)
ISBN 978-1-933550-12-1 paperback
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