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From Crisis to Confidence not only describes the process which the economy must go through before a full recovery after the financial crash, it also describes the journey that must be travelled by the discipline of economics. As economics students and other commentators question post-war macroeconomics, Roger Koppl provides some of the answers needed to understand the long slump since 2008. A theory of confidence is needed in any economic framework that is to explain one of the most important periods in modern economic history

Leading scholars consider Austrian economics from several perspectives such as characteristic themes of entrepreneurship and uncertainty, scientific methods such as mathematical complexity theory and experimental economics, and historical contexts such as pre-war Vienna and post-war France. Placing "Austrian economics" in these multiple contexts helps to reveal the rich texture of the Austrian tradition in social thought and its multiple connections to current research in diverse fields. Applications to the theory of the trade cycle and to foreign intervention suggest that the Austrian traditi

Introduction / Roger Koppl -- The research program of Austrian economics / Lawrence H. White -- Hayek vs. Hayek : a defence of moderate trade union activity / Torsten Niechoj -- Analogous models of complexity : the Austrian theory of capital and Hayek's theory of cognition as adaptive classifying systems / Steven Horwitz -- The firm in disequilibrium : a market process view of firm organization and strategy / Peter Lewin -- Policy advice by Austrian economists : the case of Austria in the 1930 / Hansj(c)·org Klausinger -- Markets vs. politics : correcting erroneous beliefs differently / Martin Gregor -- Opening remarks by Alfred Wirth / Alfred G. Wirth -- The continuing relevance of F.A. Hayek's political economy / Peter J. Boettke, Christopher J. Coyne, Peter T. Leeson -- Scientific hermeneutics : a tale of two Hayeks / Roger Koppl

Economics evolving : an introduction to the volume / Roger Koppl -- Hayeks theory of the mind / Brian J. Loasby -- Is homo economicus / C. Athena Aktipis, Robert O. Kurzban -- Austrian economics, evolutionary psychology, and methodological dualism : subjectivism reconsidered / Viktor J. Vanberg -- Economics and evolutionary psychology / David Friedman -- The new fable of the bees : multilevel selection, adaptive societies, and the concept of self interest / David Sloan Wilson -- Group selection and methodological individualism : compatible and complementary / Douglas Glen Whitman -- On group selection and methodological individualism : a reply to Douglas Glen Whitman / Elliott Sober, David Sloan Wilson -- Comment on group selection and methodological individualism : compatible and complementary by Douglas Glen Whitman / Richard N. Langlois -- Reconciling group selection and methodological individualism / Todd J. Zywicki -- Levels of selection and methodological individualism / Adam Gifford -- Group selection and methodological individualism : reply to comments / Douglas Glen Whitman -- Mogul games : In defense of inequality as an evolutionary strategy to cope with multiple agents of selection / Deby Cassill, Alison Watkins -- Austrian economics, evolutionary psychology and individual actions / Geoffrey M. Hodgson -- Hayek and modern evolutionary theory / Paul H. Rubin, Evelyn Gick. - The contributors to this volume seriously engage issues in the crossroads where biology, psychology, and economics meet. The volume makes several important contributions to the area and provides an overview of the current state of knowledge. Biologist David Sloan Wilson, psychologists Robert Kurzban and C.A. Aktipis, economists Geoffrey Hodgson, Paul Rubin and Evelyn Gick, and jurist David Friedman consider altruism, selfishness, group selection, methodological individualism, dominance hierarchies, and other issues relating evolutionary psychology to economics. Several contributors, such as Viktor Vanberg and Brian Loasby, pay special attention to the role of F. A. Hayek and other Austrian thinkers in shaping evolutionary approaches to economic theory.Theoretical biologist Deby Cassill relates her revolutionary theory of skew selection in biology to perennial issues in political economy. The volume includes a symposium on group selection and methodological individualism. In an important paper, D. G. Whitman argues that group selection and methodological individualism are compatible and complementary. Comments from Elliot Sober & David Sloan Wilson, Richard Langlois, Todd Zywicki, and Adam Gifford offer a heterogeneous set of responses to Whitman's argument. Roger Koppl's introduction constitutes a review essay and includes an argument that Austrian economists have a comparative advantage in bringing the Verstehen tradition of social thought into contact with recent work in biology and evolutionary psychology

Abstract:Judge Posner (2010) has identified an important lacuna in law and economics, namely a tendency to ignore organization theory. I will apply the tools of organization theory to an area almost completely neglected in law and economics, forensic science. Posner points us to tools we should make use of; I am pointing to an application we have neglected. Forensic science today is characterized by a twofold monopoly. First, evidence is typically examined by one crime lab only. Second, that same lab will normally be the only one to offer an interpretation of the results of the examination it performs. Crime labs today are typically organized under law enforcement agencies, which may create conscious and unconscious biases in favor of police and prosecution. These organizational features of forensic science today encourage errors and wrongful convictions.

This comment is part of a symposium on Ekkehart Schlicht, On Custom in the Economy (1998)

In "monopoly epistemics", one privileged actor is asked to identify the truth. In "democratic epistemics", several independent parties are asked. In an experiment contrasting them, democratic epistemics reduced the systemic error rate by two-thirds, supporting the claim that replacing monopoly epistemics with democratic epistemics would reduce error rates in forensic science and other areas. It also suggests first, the potential of "epistemic systems design", which employs the techniques of economic systems design to address issues of veracity, rather than efficiency, and second, the value of "experimental epistemology", which employs experimental techniques in the study of science. Research of the sort described here puts evolutionary epistemology into practice by seeking to find the proper design principles for error-correcting social institutions.

Subjectivism plays a fundamental role in many of the leading alternative schools in economics. This work explores major methodological issues in the area of radical subjectivism and includes contributions from Jorg Bibow, Peter Boettke, Maurizio Caserta, Steven Horwitz, Brian J. Loasby, Steven Parsons, Steve Sullivan and Carlo Zappia.