Was Mises Right?

by Peter J. Boettke and Peter T. Leeson

Peter J. Boettke and Peter T. Leeson. Was Mises Right?. Review of Social Economy 64.2 (2006).

Abstract: This paper argues that Mises’s methodological position has been misunderstood by both friends and foes alike. On the one hand, Mises’s critics wrongly characterize his position as rejecting empirical work. On the other hand, his defenders wrongly interpret his stance as rejecting empirical analyses on the grounds that they contradict apriorism and push economics towards historicism. We show that Mises’s methodological position occupies a unique place that is at once both wholly aprioristic and radically empirical.