Entrepreneurial discovery and the competitive market process: an Austrian approach

The aiithlor is deeply grateful to Mario Rizzo, Peter Boettke, andc1 Yat Nyarko, for exte.tsive and helpful comm7ents o an earlier draft Firther helpful coniiiiienit.s were provided by Joseph T Salernio, and by othier iaiemiibers of the Aiustriani Economizics Colloquiumi71 at New York UniverOity. Several anioniymtouis referee.s provided m1anzy additionial valiuable suggestions. The auithlor is gr-atefiul to the Sarah Scaife Foundation for researchi support. I THE AUSTRIAN TRADITION is represented in modern economics by a very vocal, feisty and dedicated subset of the economics profession (Karen Vaughn 1994, p. xi). Much of the work of this group of scholars is devoted to the most fundamental problems of microeconomics.1 This Austrian work, therefore, differs in character and content from a good deal of neoclassical theory which, despite widespread and growing awareness of its limitations, continues to serve as the analytical core of main