Philosophy of Business (BA 300)

Reading List

Section 1: Freedom Philosophy / Individualism

Required:

Bill of Rights; Especially the 10th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States.

The Declaration of Independence.  Found at: http://memory.loc.gov/const/declar.html

Hayek, F.A., 1948/1980. “Individualism: True and False” in Individualism and Economic Order. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. (p. 1-32).

Mises, Ludwig von, 1990. “The Individual in Society,” in Economic Freedom and Interventionism, edited by Bettina Bien Breaves, Irvington-on-Hudson, NY: The Foundation For Economic Education, pages 11-17. Found at: http://www.mises.org/efandi/ch2.asp

Sowell, Thomas, 2000, “Court decisions highlight need to limit federal power,” in The Detroit News, May 21, page 9C.

Williams, Walter E., 1999. “Political Arrogance”, in More Liberty Means Less Government: Our Founders Knew This Well. Stanford: Hoover Institution Press. (p. 66-67). (Book)

Williams, Walter E., 1999. “Mankind’s Most Brutal Institution”, in More Liberty Means Less Government: Our Founders Knew This Well. (p. 68-70).

Williams, Walter E., 1999.  “Constitutional Corruption”, in More Liberty Means Less Government: Our Founders Knew This Well. (p. 185-187).

Williams, Walter E., 1999. “Economic Freedom and Progress” in More Liberty Means Less Government: Our Founders Knew This Well. (p. 185-187).

Recommended:

Mises, Ludwig von, 1990. “On Equality and Inequality,” in Money, Method and the Market Process, edited by Richard M. Ebeling, Norwell, MA: Kluwer Academic Press, pages 190-201. Found at: http://www.mises.org/mmmp/mmmp14.asp

Section 2: Need for Economists and Economic Reasoning

Required:

Hazlitt, Henry, Economics in One Lesson. Chapters 1-3, pages 15-30.

Hayek, F.A., “Economics and Knowledge” in Individualism and Economic Order.

Heyne, Paul, Peter Boettke, and David Prychitko, 2002. The Economic Way of Thinking (10^th Ed.) New York: Prentice Hall. Chapter 1.

Klein, Daniel, B., 1999. “What do Economists Contribute?” in What do Economists Contribute?. New York: NYU Press. (p. 1-26). http://lsb.scu.edu/~dklein/papers/whatDoEcons.html

Mises, Ludwig von, 1990. “The Economic Foundations of Freedom,” in Economic Freedom and Interventionism, edited by Bettina Bien Breaves, Irvington-on-Hudson, NY: The Foundation For Economic Education, pages 3-10. Found at: http://www.mises.org/efandi/ch1.asp

Mises, Ludwig von, 1990. “The Why of Human Action,” in Economic Freedom and Interventionism, edited by Bettina Bien Breaves, Irvington-on-Hudson, NY: The Foundation For Economic Education, pages 51-56. Found at: http://www.mises.org/efandi/ch10.asp

Read, Leonard E. 1959. “I, Pencil” in Essays on Liberty, Irvington-on-Hudson, NY: The Foundation For Economic Education. Found at: http://www.fee.org/about/ipencil.html

Williams, Walter E., 1999. “Economics 101: January 30, 1996”, in More Liberty Means Less Government: Our Founders Knew This Well. (p. 224-226).

Williams, Walter E., 1999. “Economics 101: May 21, 1997”, in More Liberty Means Less Government: Our Founders Knew This Well.  (p. 244-246).

Recommended:

Tullock, Gordon, 1999. “How to do Well While Doing Good!” in What do Economists Contribute?, edited by Daniel B. Klein, New York: NYU Press. (87-103).

Section 3: The Function of Markets and Prices

Required:

Hayek, F.A., “The Use of Knowledge in Society” in Individualism and Economic Order.

Hazlitt, Henry, Economics in One Lesson.  Chapters 15, 7, 18, and 19.

Recommended:

Heyne, Paul Et.al., The Economic Way of Thinking. Chapters 3-6.

Miller, Roger LeRoy, 2001. Chapters 3 and 4 in Economics Today, 2001-2002 ed., New York, NY: Addison-Wesley, pages 48-94.

Section 4: The Role of Profits and Losses

Required:

Baird, Charles W., 1998. “Profit and Loss” in The Elgar Companion to Austrian Economics, edited by Peter J. Boettke. Northampton, MA: Edward Elgar. (p. 143-150).

Hazlitt, Henry, Economics in One Lesson. Chapter 22.

Section 5: Entrepreneurship

Required:

Allen, Candace A. 1999. “The Entrepreneur as Hero,” in Economic Insights, Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, Volume 2, no. 1. Found at: http://www.dallasfed.org/htm/pubs/ei/ei2_1.html

Hayek, F.A., 1948/1980. “The Meaning of Competition”, in Individualism and Economic Order. Chicago, University of Chicago Press. (92-106).

Hayek, F.A. 1984. “Competition as a Discovery Procedure,” in The Essence of Hayek, Stanford, CA: Hoover Institute Press, pages 254-265.

Kirzner, Israel M., 1973. Competition and Entrepreneurship, Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Section 6: Wages, Savings and Capital

Hazlitt, Henry, 1979. Economics in One Lesson, “New” Edition, New York, NY: Crown Trade Paperbacks, Chapters 10 and 20.

Mises, Ludwig von, 1980. “Wages, Unemployment and Inflation,” in Planning For Freedom, South Holland, IL: Libertarian Press, pages 145-156.

Steele, G.R., 1996. “Business Cycles” in The Economics of Friedrich Hayek, New York, NY: St. Martin’s Press, Inc., pages 164-194.

Section 7: Public Choice

Required:

Shaw, Jane S. 1993. “Public Choice Theory,” The Fortune Encyclopedia of Economics, edited by David R. Henderson, New York, NY: Warner Books, Inc., pages 150-154.

Tullock, Gordon, 2003. Government Failure: A Primer in Public Choice, Arlington, VA: Cato Institute.

Section 8: Interventionism

Required:

Kirzner, Israel M., 1985 “The Perils of Regulation: A Market-Process Approach” in Discovery and the Capitalist Process. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. (p. 1-25).

Mises, Ludwig von, 1977. A Critique of Interventionism, translated by Hans F. Sennholz, New Rochelle, NY: Arlington House, pages 15-41.

Section 9: Capitalism vs. Socialism

Required:

Hayek, F.A., 1979.”Engineers and Planners” in The Counter-Revolution of Science: Studies on the Abuse of Reason. Indianapolis: Liberty Fund. (p. 165-182).

Mises, Ludwig von, 1990. “Economic Freedom,” in Economic Freedom and Interventionism, edited by Bettina Bien Breaves, Irvington-on-Hudson, NY: The Foundation For Economic Education, page 1. Found at: http://www.mises.org/efandi/i0.asp

Marx, Karl and Friedrich Engles, 1985. “Proletarians and Communists,” The Communist Manifesto, New York, NY: Penguin Books, pages 95-105.

Mises, Ludwig von, 1956. The Anti-Capitalistic Mentality, Grove City, PA: Libertarian Press, Inc., pages Introduction and 1-15.

Vaughn, Karen I., 1994. “The Socialist Calculation Debate” in The Elgar Companion to Austrian Economics, edited by Peter J. Boettke. Northampton, MA: Edward Elgar. (p. 478-484.

Recommended:

Mises, Ludwig von, 1985. Liberalism: In the Classical Tradition, 3rd edition, Irvington-on-Hudson, NY: The Foundation For Economic Education, pages 1-46. Found at: http://www.mises.org/liberal.asp

Mises, Ludwig von, 1980. “Middle-of-the-Road Policy Leads to Socialism,” in Planning For Freedom, South Holland, IL: Libertarian Press, pages 18-35.

Salerno, Joseph T. "Postscript: Why a Socialist Economy is 'Impossible'," in Ludwig von Mises, Economic Calculation in the Socialist Commonwealth, Auburn, AL: Ludwig von Mises Institute, 1990, pp. 51-71. http://www.mises.org/econcalc/POST.asp

Section 10: Law and Economics

Required:

Coase, Ronald, 1988. “The Problem of Social Cost” in The Firm, The Market, and The Law, IL: University of Chicago Press.  Chapter 5 (p. 95-119).

Nicholas Mercuro ,Steven G. Medema, 1998. Economics and the Law. N.J.: Princeton University Press. Chapters 1 and 2 (p. 3-83).

Section 11: Applications

Perfect Competition and Monopoly Theory:

This should have been covered in your Principles of Microeconomics class.

Miller, Roger LeRoy, 2001. Chapters 23 and 24 in Economics Today, 2001-2002 ed., New York, NY: Addison-Wesley, pages 560-611.