Hayek's Tensions

F. A. Hayek, a prominent 20th-century political economist in the Austrian tradition,won the Nobel Prize in Economics in 1974 for his pioneering work on the theory ofmoney and economic fluctuations and on comparative institutional analysis. Hayek'sresearch highlights the importance and dispersed nature of knowledge, advancingan interdisciplinary approach to understanding human behavior. Like any great andproductive scholar, he left behind a body of work that includes tensions, flaws, andinconsistencies that must be confronted by scholars looking to engage, critique, andadvance his distinctive project in political economy.Hayek's work is important but also open for contestation and improvement. Hayek'sTensions: Reexamining the Political Economy and Philosophy of F. A. Hayek presentsa critical assessment of Hayek's research and ideas and identifies sources of tensionwithin his writing. The contributions to this edited volume include original chapters byeminent scholars of complexity theory, of Austrian economics, and of Hayek himself.The book's key takeaway is that the research program Hayek developed continues asan open-ended project, both as a social-scientific approach and as a classical liberalvision of a free society, rather than as a static dogma or set of theories from a bygoneera. Taken as a whole, this volume identifies important questions and areas for futureresearch by the next generation of political economists.