Search results

Abstract
This article reconstructs the path of the German economist Friedrich A. Lutz (1901–75) to American economics. The correspondence with his former teacher Walter Eucken, the founder of the Freiburg school, constitutes a crucial yet unexplored source for the article. Through Lutz's case, this article demonstrates the growing gulf between German and Anglo-Saxon economics during the late 1930s. In his native Germany, Lutz was trained in methodologically and institutionally focused economics, which differed fundamentally from the mathematical economics dominating Anglo-Saxon academia. He realized that an academic career in the United States would be impossible if he did not adapt to the new methods and if he did not abandon the methods of the German tradition. This gave rise to his internal Methodenstreit. After his emigration in 1938, he constantly experienced doubts and tensions because he was convinced that without considering institutions, mathematical economics could never explain the occurrence and essence of macroeconomic phenomena. Despite his stellar career at Princeton, it was only after his move to Zurich in 1953, where he taught history and theory of socioeconomics for the rest of his life, that Lutz could reconcile this internal Methodenstreit.

Meine Dissertation stellt eine historische Rekonstruktion der Krisenforschung der ordoliberalen Ökonomen Wilhelm Röpke, Walter Eucken und Friedrich A. Lutz in der Zwischenkriegszeit dar. Eine solche Rekonstruktion ist notwendig, da seit der Eurokrise im Jahre 2010 die Gefahr bestand, die deutsche wirtschaftspolitische Position in Bezug auf die verschuldeten südeuropäischen Länder als logische Fortsetzung und praktische Anwendung des intellektuellen Vermächtnisses des Ordoliberalismus im Allgemeinen und der Freiburger Schule im Besonderen zu interpretieren. Aus dogmenhistorischer Sicht ist eine solche Interpretation kritisch zu beurteilen, da sie der Botschaft der Forschungsprogramme unterschiedlicher Autoren nicht gerecht wird und außerdem zu viel Raum für eine subjektive Auslegung oder gar ahistorische Manipulation schafft. Meine Dissertation besteht aus vier Aufsätzen.

AbstractWalter Eucken formulated his concept of economic order as a solution to the tension between theoretical approaches and empirical observation that had constituted the conflict between the Austrian School of Economics and the German Historical School. Previous literature has established the linkage between the German-language business cycle debate of the late 1920 s and Eucken's concept of economic order. This paper discusses how his concept of economic order can help to understand the severity of economic crises and thus concentrates on the elements constituting the economic order, i. e. its ideal types, with whose help Eucken aimed to derive hypothetical propositions. Based on the writings of his students Leonhard Miksch and Friedrich A. Lutz who underscored the role of equilibrium in business cycle research, this paper suggests that abstract theory of economic crises should employ ideal types as models and thus study how exogenous shocks affect the endogenous economic variables. The subject of inquiry should be oriented to the process of equilibrium reestablishment. Crucial for this paper is that the equilibrium reestablishment depends on institutional factors. This method to explain economic crises represents the link which connects the business cycle debate of the 1920 s and 1930 s to the subsequent emergence of the ordoliberal theory of institutions and orders.

Bringing together several scholars from different social science disciplines who relate Hayek's theory of social change to empirical phenomena and methodological debates within their respective disciplines, Toward a Hayekian Theory of Social Change explores Hayek's political economy and social philosophy in new perspective.