Annexe 1. L’évolution du niveau des contributions scientifiques et de la réputation de l’école autrichienne

Source : Kirzner (2001)

Period A : The era of subjectivism without process. This is the period of Menger, Böhm-Bawerk and Wieser. There was nothing about process in their teaching.

Period B : The Austrians took over the world. In 1932, L. Robbins published his Essay on the Nature and Significance of Economic Science in order to introduce the Austrian Economics to the British audience. He opened the way to Mises and Hayek. 1930 constitutes the peak for the reputation of Austrian Economics, but is then followed by its fantastic decline. But, as the reputation of Austrian Economics was declining dramatically, the level of scientific contributions of Austrian Economics was growing. In the 1930s Mises and Hayek weren’t aware that they were doing something different from mainstream economics. At the beginning Hayek thought he was doing equilibrium theory.

Period C : the lowest level of Austrian Economics. It was embarrassing to mention that you were an Austrian. At that time, everybody thought that Austrian Economics had died with the first world war.

Point J is a point of take off in the flux of Austrian Economics History.

Period D : At that time Mises and Hayek could say that their teaching was different from the neoclassical teaching. We can observe that the level of contribution was growing whereas the level of reputation was declining dramatically. Mises and Hayek were reacting to their contributors in the calculation debate. They began to realize that they no longer pertained to the mainstream. At the same time, the profession didn’t understand what they were doing. Moreover, the development of macroeconomics and the rise of demand for interventionism can explain the decline of the reputation of Austrian Economics.

Period E : Since the 1970s, Austrian Economics have left their marks on the profession. But there is a debate about the reason why students have followed this line of thought.