bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
The Problem of Accuracy of Economic Data
Authors: Bagus Philipp 
Published: March 2021

In his classic book On the Accuracy of Economic Observation Oskar Morgenstern deals with a common, yet widely neglected problem with which economic historians are faced, namely the quality of economic data. For the economic historian in the Austrian tradition, the quality of economic data is of utmost importance, since false data or belief in inaccurate data can lead the economic historian to faulty interpretations of the past.
The quality of economic data is at least as important for economists who adhere to positivism in economics, since they use economic data to confirm or falsify their models.
Likewise, Morgenstern’s insights are relevant for mathe-matical economists, as it makes sense to perform computations and solve a system of mathematical equations only if one has reliable data.
Morgenstern’s sample equations show the significance of a small error in the observation. Yet, in more complex equations with extensive mathematical operations the extent of error due to unreliable data may increase (or, depending on the equation, the errors may cancel out). It is indeed surprising to note how much the problem of accuracy in economic data has been neglected.
This is not so in the physical sciences. There the error of observation is always explicitly mentioned. Yet in economics there is simply no error estimate. This means that we do not know the accuracy of the economic data presented to us. This is even more troubling when we consider that in social or economic data there are more possible sources of error than in the physical sciences. We therefore face the question of why the problem of accuracy of economic data is rarely mentioned or passed over in silence in economics, while in the physical sciences this problem is widely acknowledged.
La labor de tasación de la propiedad inmobiliaria en tiempos de crisis
Authors: Sarte Ángel Sanz , Alonso Miguel A. , Seifert Alejandro Ruiz-Ayucar 
Published: March 2021

En los últimos ocho años hemos vivido lo que muchos consideran la «época dorada» del mercado inmobiliario español. Tiempos en los que el precio de la vivienda ha crecido de manera ininte-rrumpida en torno a ritmos del 15% anual. En estos años, la totalidad de los agentes que han intervenido o influido de una forma u otra en el sector inmobiliario (bancos centrales, bancos comerciales, constructoras, promotores inmobiliarios, tasadores de inmuebles y familias), han participado activamente en este crecimiento desmesurado del sector. Todos hemos contribuido a «inflar la burbuja inmobiliaria».1
Después de examinar el contexto macroeconómico que indu-jo a la creación de la burbuja inmobiliaria a finales de la década de los noventa y primeros años del siglo XXI, el presente traba-jo trata de analizar el comportamiento de uno de los agentes que intervienen en los procesos de compraventa de inmuebles: los tasadores inmobiliarios, tanto en la fase de «exuberancia irra-cional» de los últimos años, como en los actuales tiempos de crisis surgidos tras el reventón de la burbuja de precios en el sector de la construcción. Igualmente, pretende determinar qué instru-mentos requiere el tasador inmobiliario para, con el ejercicio de su profesión, favorecer el buen funcionamiento y la transparen-cia del mercado inmobiliario, eliminando por otro lado algunos de los procedimientos que han contribuido a inflar la burbuja de precios de la propiedad residencial en los últimos años.
La curva de Phillips de pendiente positiva y la crisis de 2008
Authors: Ravier Adrián 
Published: March 2021

Abstract: Mainstream economics is in crisis. Both in the Keynesian revolution (which emerged in response to the crisis in the Classical approach) and in the neoclassical counterrevolution (spurred from failures of Keynesianism), there have been significant contributions to the study of the relationships known as the Phillips curve. This paper advances an Austrian approach, rooted particularly in the writings of Friedrich Hayek, to the study of the Phillips curve. The relative superiority of the Austrian approach to account for the current crisis, within the study of the Phillips curve, is analyzed. Only a positive slope of a Phillips Curve can explain this massive destruction of employment all over the world.
Key words: Phillips curve, inflation, unemployment, business cycles, crisis of 2008.
JEL Classification: B25; E24; E32; E58; N12.
Resumen: El paradigma dominante está en crisis. Tanto en la revolución keynesiana (que surge como respuesta a la crisis del enfoque clásico), como en la contrarrevolución neoclásica (que emerge como resultante de la crisis del keynesianismo), han habido aportes significativos en el estudio de la Curva de Phillips. Aquí proponemos un enfoque alternativo al neoclásico, basado en la tradición de la Escuela Austriaca —y en particular en los escritos de Friedrich A. Hayek—. La relevancia del estudio se observa en la utilidad para comprender los acontecimientos de la crisis actual. Sólo una Curva de Phillips de pendiente positiva puede explicar esta destrucción masiva de empleo en todo el mundo.
Palabras clave: Curva de Phillips, inflación, desempleo, ciclos económicos, crisis de 2008.
Clasificación JEL: B25; E24; E32; E58; N12.
Los desarrollos teóricos de la Escuela Austriaca de Economía inspirados en la Escuela de Salamanca. Validez en el estudio de problemas contemporáneos
Authors: Restrepo Carlos Arturo Gómez 
Published: March 2021

This paper studies the theoretical contributions of both The School of Salamanca and The Austrian School regarding the theory of value, capital theory and monetary theory. This study permits to understrud the failure of the economic analysis of the mainstream based on the equilibrium, simmetric information, and the narrow concepts of perfect competion and rationality, among others.
Key words: School of Salamanca, Austrian School, free market, theory of capital and interest, value theory, monetary theory.
JEL codes: B11, B25, B53.
Resumen: En este artículo se muestran los concurrentes desarrollos teóricos de la Escuela de Salamanca y de la Escuela Austriaca de Economía, que para efectos de su análisis se agrupan en tres teorías enmarcadas dentro de la concepción del libre mercado: La teoría del valor, la teoría del capital y del interés, y la teoría monetaria, y que permiten evidenciar los fallos del análisis económico de problemas actuales, realizado por la denominada «corriente principal», y desarrollados a partir de los supuestos de mercado en equilibrio, información simétrica, competencia perfecta, y racionalidad económica, entre otros.
Palabras clave: Escuela de Salamanca, Escuela Austriaca de Economía, libre mercado, teoría del capital y del interés, teoría del valor, teoría monetaria.
Códigos JEL: B11, B25, B53.
Destruction and reconstruction of the capital structure
Authors: Rallo Juan Ramón 
Published: March 2021

One of the entrepreneurial strategies that, according to Schumpeter, is responsible for the capitalistic process of Creative Destruction is the introduction of a new method of production (Schumpeter 2003, 83).
Austrian economics characterizes a «method of production» as a set of capital goods and original factors of production inserted into an entrepreneurial plan, which is directed to satisfy consumer needs. Therefore, we could say that capital goods do not work in isolation, but as parts of two structures: they develop a role in the individual plan of the entrepreneur and also in the spontaneous social order that unintentionally results from the coordination of the different entrepreneurial plans.
In this context, the introduction of a new method of production implies that at least one entrepreneur tries to modify his plan either by rearranging his combination of capital goods and original factors of production (due to a change in consumer preferences or due to the appearance of some new technology) or by using new capital goods or new original factors of production (due to the discovery of a new technology or due to an increase in savings). Thus, both cases require the entrepreneur to disrupt not only his previous plan, but also the existing links with other plans in the incumbent capital structure.
This obviously raises the question of whether these disruptions lead to a progressive and sustained capital accumulation or if, on the contrary, they cause a necessary destruction of some capital goods.
At least since Cantillon and Turgot economists have taught that progress and growth depend partially on the quantity of capital, which tends to increase gradually with the level of savings. However, Schumpeter’s claim —that the introduction of a new method of production implies a Creative Destruction process— seems to suggest that some capital will be lost with the new investments. We would have, on the one hand, more capital by means of the creation of new plans but, on the other, less capital because of the disruption of the existing plans.
Although this approach may be initially shocking, only by departing from the erroneous idea that all capital goods are homogeneous one could consistently claim that new methods of production do not destroy any capital at all, i.e., only supposing that capital goods combinations and structures are irrelevant in relation to their final output, the view of a non-disturbable capital accumulation could be held. Once heterogeneity of capital goods comes into the picture, it is no longer possible to believe in such a hypothesis.
The economics and ethics of Celtic Ireland
Authors: Canny Brian Gerard 
Published: March 2021

For thousands of years the Gaelic speaking territories of north-western Europe were home to a polycentric legal order that has been of great interest to Austro-libertarian theorists in the field of free-market legal reform (Rothbard, For a New Liberty, 1970). This ancient legal system, known as «Brehon law» after the caste of professional judges called Brehons who wrote and upheld the laws, was best preserved on the island of Ireland where it remained in place from pre-history up until the 17th century.
To understand the economics and ethics of this early Irish legal system one must first detach oneself from the modern setting of ultra-individualistic liberal-socialist Europe. It is impossible to explain Brehon law without simultaneously introducing the reader to the social, political and cultural set-up within which the system of Brehon law existed or what Prof von Mises would have called its thymology.2 For example, there were multiple competing legal schools co-existing in ancient Ireland, a point that might instantly confuse many readers unless one explains how such institutions were radically different in both theory and practice from their modern counterparts. The Brehon legal system also advanced a scholarly oral tradition and a unique legal language of its own which took over seven years to master. As a result there are few surviving legal texts so I shall be drawing heavily upon manuscripts from the 14th-16th centuries detailing the period from the 7th-8th centuries. These texts include wisdom texts, sagas, praise-poetry, saints’ lives, and monastic rules which were recorded and preserved by a class of professional poets who held the most powerful position in Irish society at the time.
Let me first introduce the political setting of the period in question. The basic territorial area in ancient Ireland was the túath which may best be understood as the tribal lands of an extended family. There was on average approximately 150 kings or chieftains who ruled their respective túatha. Some kings were the subjects of other kings in a system of over-lordship but many kingdoms formed trade and, as we shall see, rights granting treaties with each other. Although there were at times powerful kings who held whole provinces under their authority, no king ever became the Ard Rí or «high king» of all Ireland. During this time the Irish population hovered around 400,000 inhabitants and the size of each kingdom was typically 3,000 people. Ireland was densely forested until after the English conquest of Ireland and the on-set of the industrial revolution and the population during the reign of Brehon law was largely rural with exceptions for the many monasteries and the occasional Viking settlements in later periods.
Capital Budgeting and business cycles
Authors: Fuller Edward W. 
Published: March 2021

Every investment project is aimed at achieving some future goal. This goal can only be attained by employing scarce resources, like time. Every investment project entails foregoing other investment projects. It is impossible to undertake all investment projects simultaneously because resources are scarce. This means each investment project is subject to cost. The investment project may be unsuccessful in achieving the future goal and the entrepreneur may suffer a loss. On the other hand, investment projects are only undertaken because they are perceived as more valuable than their costs. Every investment project undertaken implies the possibility of earning a profit.
Investment projects take time. An investment project can be represented by a time line. Time A represents the beginning of the production process. Time B is the end of the production pro-cess. Line AB is called the period of production.
Present goods are scarce resources that can be consumed im-mediately. On the other hand, future goods cannot be consumed immediately. Future goods are only expected to be consumer goods at some point in the future. An investment project entails making an investment at time A and receiving a present good at time B.
All else equal, present goods are more valuable than future goods.1 Any good at time A is more valuable than the same good at time B. This is called time preference. Money is the present good par excellence. Therefore, future goods can be called future cash flows. All else equal, present money is more valuable than future money. This is called the time value of money.
The interest rate is the price of present goods in terms of future goods. The interest rate is the price which equates the amount of present goods provided by savers with the amount of present goods demanded by investors. Like all prices, the interest rate is determined by supply and demand. Savers are suppliers of present goods. The supply curve (S) is the quantity of present goods supplied at each interest rate. Factor owners (investors) are the demanders, or buyers, of present goods. The demand curve (D) is the quantity of present goods demanded at each interest rate. The intersection of the supply and demand curve determines the interest rate. The interest rate is determined by the supply and demand for present goods:2
La usura, ¿sigue siendo inmoral el préstamo con intereses?
Authors: Rato Antonio Pancorbo de 
Published: March 2021

La condena moral de la usura no ofrece muchos problemas. A nadie se le escapa que no es una práctica moralmente sana cobrar intereses absolutamente desproporcionados (de acuerdo con el riesgo que se asume y las condiciones de mercado), más cuando el deudor acepta el préstamo por encontrarse en una situación angustiosa, por ignorancia, inexperiencia o deficiencia mental. Sin embargo, ha sido doctrina explícita de la Iglesia Católica la condena no solo del cobro de intereses usurarios o leoninos, sino del cobro de cualquier interés en el dinero prestado. «Dinero no cría dinero», se decía, por lo que no habría banco ni prestamista que no practicara la usura.
La última condena explícita en un documento del Magisterio a la práctica del préstamo con interés se encuentra en la encíclica Vix pervenit (1745) que Benedicto XIV dirigió a los obispos italia-nos. En ella se declara pecado de usura el cobro de intereses en el contrato de mutuo. No hubo ninguna corrección posterior de esta doctrina. Todo lo contrario, el Santo Oficio la declaró en 1836 aplicable a toda la Iglesia (aunque esta declaración no le da a Vix pervenit carácter de doctrina infalible) ¿Sigue vigente, entonces, la doctrina «tradicional» sobre la usura? ¿Ha habido alguna recti-ficación oficial sobre esta doctrina, más allá del que «quien calla otorga»?
La usura y el interés conviven juntos en una cierta indefinición moral que puede que requiera una aclaración del Magisterio. O puede que no. Para algunos tal aclaración sería una exageración innecesaria. El cobro de intereses hoy es una práctica comercial común y perfectamente lícita. Además, dada la constante infla-ción y pérdida de poder adquisitivo que sufre el dinero fiduciario desde que su creación es responsabilidad exclusiva de los pode-res públicos, sería impensable el préstamo sin intereses. La Igle-sia no necesita aclarar lo que es evidente. Pero para otros el dine-ro sigue sin criar dinero. Siguen pesando las condenas de los papas y los concilios, y aunque hoy el Magisterio tolere el cobro de inte-reses por la dureza de nuestro corazón, en el principio las cosas no eran así. El tema claramente no está zanjado.
La usura es un tema moralmente apremiante y el Magisterio no permanece callado. El Catecismo (n. 2.269) nos recuerda que «los traficantes cuyas prácticas usurarias y mercantiles provocan el hambre y la muerte de sus hermanos los hombres, cometen in-directamente un homicidio. Este les es imputable». Juan Pablo II (audiencia general de 22 de noviembre de 2000) ya hizo llama-mientos a combatir el «preocupante fenómeno de la usura» y a ayudar a las víctimas de esta «plaga social en expansión», salir al paso de todos aquellos que se encuentran atrapados en esta red de injusticia y de graves sufrimientos. Alzó su voz para exigir «un generoso compromiso en el combate contra este despiadado abuso de la necesidad de los demás».
Giffen goods, backward bending supply curves, price controls and praxeology; or, who’s afraid of the big bad boogie man of giffen goods and backward bending supply curves? Not us
Authors: Block Walter , Barnett William 
Published: March 2021

What is the status of claims about the effects of minimum wage laws? Empirical or praxeological? We claim the latter. How can the effect of such legislation be best analyzed under the assumption of mis-behaving supply (backward bending) and demand (positively sloped, based on positing Giffen goods) curves? In the usual manner: resource misallocation still occurs. But this is only arguendo. More radically, such curves are themselves problematic. Even more radically, this, too, applies to «well behaved» supply and demand curves as well.
Key words: Backward Bending Supply Curves, Price Controls, Praxeology, Giffen Goods, Logical Positivism.
JEL Classification: D0.
Resumen: ¿Cuál es el status del análisis sobre los efectos de las leyes de salario mínimo? ¿Empírico o praxeológico? Nosotros defendemos lo se gundo. ¿Pueden analizarse mejor los efectos de dichas leyes suponiendo curvas de oferta y demanda anómalas (como las de los bienes Giffen)? Como en el nálisis tradicional se produce una mala asignación de recursos. En todo caso, tanto tales curvas, como las tradicionales son muy problemáticas.
Palabras clave: Control de precios, praxeología, bienes de Giffen, positivismo lógico.
Clasificación JEL: D0.
Multiplicando la pobreza agrícola: cómo la política agraria común de la Unión Europea está estrangulando la recuperación
Authors: Caithnia Brian O’ 
Published: March 2021

The Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) has been the pride of European integrationism since its inception. It has been the crowning glory of technocracy and the ultimate statement of unity in post-war Europe. For decades however, the CAP has also come under a significant amount of cri-ticism from economists for consuming a disproportionate share of the EU budget, introducing market distortions, wasting government funds and con-tributing to rural inequities. In this article I shall briefly bring the reader up to speed with how the CAP got to where it is today, how it has exacerbated the tumbling edifice of European dynamism in a sick continent, and why an educated electorate is essential if we wish to bring the CAP‘s wealth destroying capabilities to an end.
Key words: Common Agricultural Policy, Economic Crisis, Reform, Agricultural Subsidies, Intervention.
JEL Classification: Q, Q01, Q18, Q28, Q57, Q58.
Resumen: La Política Agraria Común (PAC) ha sido el orgullo del integracio-nismo europeo desde su concepción. Ha sido la máxima distinción de la tecnocracia y la última proclama de unidad de la posguerra europea. Durante décadas, sin embargo, la PAC también ha sido blanco de un núme-ro significativo de críticas por parte de muchos economistas debido a que consume una parte desproporcionada del presupuesto europeo, genera dis-torsiones en el mercado, dilapida fondos públicos y contribuye a generar desigualdades rurales. En este artículo intentaré transmitirle al lector cómo es que la PAC llegó a estar donde está hoy, cómo ha exacerbado el edificio tambaleante del dinamismo europeo en un continente enfermo y por qué un electorado educado es esencial si deseamos terminar con la habilidad para destruir riqueza que la PAC posee.
Palabras clave: Política Agraria Común, Crisis Económica, Reforma, Sub-sidios Agrícolas, Intervención.
Clasificación JEL: Q, Q01, Q18, Q28, Q57, Q58.
Una aproximación a las intervenciones discrecionales del Estado como fuente de inestabilidad financiera
Authors: Rato Antonio Pancorbo de 
Published: March 2021

Many have called for the design of the present financial system —one capable of causing the global crisis currently assailing us— to be overhauled. Yet few feel that the State’s active and discretionary role needs to be changed so as to promote, safeguard and shore up financial stability. This article aims to act as a catalyst in this debate. On the assumption that State discretionary actions are an endogenous factor capable of upsetting the system as a whole and prompting systemic crises, the article makes a case for re-designing the main monetary and financial institutions (money, monetary authorities, banking business model, inter alia) to eliminate such discretionary intervention. State conduct would be confined to ensuring that diffuse market forces act freely and responsibly, observing the law, property rights and con-tracts. The article concludes with the potential effects this institutional redesign would have on financial stability. Tentatively, these effects would be beneficial, suggesting this avenue of research should be pursued.
Key words: Financial Stability, State Intervention, Banking, Money.
JEL Classification: E42, E52, E58, G21.
Resumen: Son muchas las voces que reclaman una revisión del diseño del sistema financiero actual, capaz de provocar una crisis mundial como la que ahora vivimos. Sin embargo, pocas de estas voces ven necesario que se revise el papel activo y discrecional del Estado para fomentar, salvaguardar y recobrar la estabilidad financiera. Este artículo pretende ser un contrapunto en este debate. Desde la hipótesis de que las actuaciones discrecionales del Estado son una causa endógena con capacidad para desorientar al sistema en su conjunto y provocar crisis sistémicas, el artículo apunta de forma intro-ductoria el rediseño necesario de las principales instituciones monetarias y financieras (dinero, autoridades monetarias, modelo de negocio bancario, entre otras) que elimine dicha intervención discrecional. La actuación del Estado quedaría limitada a asegurar que las fuerzas dispersas del mercado actúen libre y responsablemente respetando la ley, la propiedad y los con-tratos. El artículo concluye con los posibles efectos que tendría dicho rediseño institucional para la estabilidad financiera. Desde esta primera aproximación, estos efectos serían beneficiosos lo que animan a continuar esta línea de investigación.
Palabras clave: Estabilidad Financiera, Intervención del Estado, Banca, Dinero.
Clasificación JEL: E42, E52, E58, G21.