En The Austrian Economists están debatiendo sobre cómo se mide el éxito de un economista austriaco. Peter Boettke opina que un buen economista austriaco debería aspirar a una plaza de profesor titular en una buena universidad, artículos y ensayos en revistas académicas mainstream, y libros publicados por editores de prestigio. Si un economista austriaco no consigue sobresalir en el ámbito académico debería achacarse más a su falta de talento que a la discriminación del sistema. La hipótesis de Boettke es, en pocas palabras, que las aportaciones originales y significativas a la ciencia económica llevan al triunfo académico tarde o temprano, pese a los obstáculos en el camino.
Joe Salerno discrepa de la tesis de Boettke. Considera que es ingenuo o falso pensar que un economista austriaco que haga aportaciones importantes tendrá éxito en el ámbito académico mainstream. Greg Ransom menciona los ejemplos de Mises y Hayek, que a pesar de su talento y la relevancia de sus aportaciones no llegaron a ser profesores titulares de universidades de máximo prestigio.
Boettke niega que Hayek y Mises no tuvieran reconocimiento académico mainstream, argumenta que varias circunstancias personales explican que no fueran profesores titulares en universidades americanas de prestigio, y cree que hoy en día sí ocuparían esas plazas.
Copio debajo el comentario de Boettke, Would Mises and Hayek Get Tenure Today?
First, lets remember what awards were received by these individuals during their life-time. Nobel Prize, Distingusihed Fellow of the AEA, etc. How about the publishers of their works -- Yale University Press for Mises; University of Chicago Press for Hayek. How about their teaching appointments: Vienna, Geneva, and NYU for Mises; LSE, Chicago, and Freiburg for Hayek, as well as others. We know Mises spurned offers from the New School, UCLA, and even Johns Hopkins. We know Hayek turned down at one point an opportunity at Princeton to stay at LSE. How about wide recognition in their lifetime? When Human Action was published it was reviewed in the NYT --- how many theoretical works in economics get reviewed in the NYT? The Road to Serfdom was internationally known and hotly debated --- what more do you want to achieve as a public intellectual?
Second, on the tenure issue today. Well, it is true that Mises and Hayek wrote books and the economics profession rewards articles, not books. But both wrote articles which transformed our discipline and published them in leading outlets. Mises's 1920 article on socialist calculation was published in the leading German social science journal and it led to rigorous debate in German language journals, and later in the English language journals. The problem Mises posed influenced at least two generations of economic thinkers. How about Hayek's Use of Knowledge in Society? The essay was published in the AER, and is still on reading lists in PhD core classes. And these were not their only articles in top flight journals and the citation pattern (stronger for Hayek, but not insignificant for Mises) demonstrates their influence as economists.
Finally, if Mises and Hayek were so influential then why did they have particular problems in their careers. First, it is the rare individual who has no bumps in the road throughout their career. Even Milton Friedman had to leave U of Wisc. Buchanan and his group were treated poorly at UVa. Especially when you put forth controversial ideas, the smooth ride is an unrealistic expectation. Second, in both cases there were additional circumstances that produced the bumpy ride. As for Mises we are told by multiple sources that he was a strident liberal, he was Jewish, and he was personally (at times) aggressive (bordering on obnoxious). The argument goes that you could survive and perhaps thrive academically in Vienna with 2, but not will all 3 characteristics. There is also the matter of age. Had Mises never left Geneva, he would have lived out his career a chaired professor. Mises was 60 when he came to the US -- retirement was 65 at most universities. NYU hired him as a Visiting Professor. The private money to support his professorship came in later, not for the first 5 years. Hayek, for personal reasons, left a chaired professorship at the LSE. Had those personal reasons not been a factor, he would have stayed at the LSE throughout his career most likely.
En los comentarios a la entrada de Salerno y Boettke participan otros pesos pesados de la escuela austriaca actual (Rizzo, Block, Horwitz, Murphy etc.). Vale la pena a quienes os interese el debate sobre la relación o el encaje de la escuela austriaca en el maisntream.
