Heterogeneous Capital, Entrepreneurship, and Economic Organization
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Kirsten Foss
One of Israel Kirzner’s less wellknown contributions is to the theory of capital. In this paper, we link the Austrian theory of capital and the theory of economic organization. Our starting point is the key Austrian notion of capital heterogeneity which we interpret in terms of attributes. Most capital assets are multi-attribute in nature, and many attributes may not be known to entrepreneurs. This fosters a need for experimenting with capital combinations. Because there are costs of measuring attributes, this process has implications for economic organization. Thus, we argue that novel implications for the understanding of ownership and the existence and boundaries of firms may be teased out of such a perspective.La théorie du capital représente une des contributions les moins connues d’Israel Kirzner. Dans cet article, nous établissons le lien entre la théorie autrichienne du capital et la théorie de l’organisation économique. Notre point de départ est la notion autrichienne fondamentale d’hétérogénéité du capital que nous interprétons en termes d’attributs. De par leur nature, la plupart des biens capitaux possèdent plusieurs attributs qui peuvent demeurer inconnus aux entrepreneurs. Ceci accroît la nécessité d’expérimenter des combinaisons capitalistiques. Etant donné les coûts qu’entraîne la mesure des attributs, ce processus a des implications quant à l’organisation économique. Ainsi, cette perspective permet de tirer de nouvelles implications pour notre compréhension de la propriété, de l’existence et de la taille des firmes.
©2011 Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co. KG, Berlin/Boston
Artikel in diesem Heft
- Article
- Introduction
- What is Alertness?
- Asymmetric Interpretations
- On Neglected Opportunities And Entrepreneurial Discovery
- Wieser, Hayek and Equilibrium Theory
- Entrepreneurship, Exogenous Change and the Flexibility of Capital
- Heterogeneous Capital, Entrepreneurship, and Economic Organization
- Kirznerian Entrepreneurship and The Nature of The Firm
- Owners, Managers, and Entrepreneurship in The Corporate Firm
- Kirznerian Entrepreneurship and The Economics of Science
- Kirznerian Economics: Some Policy Implications and Issues
- The Role of Governments in the Promotion of Competition: The Legacy of Professor Kirzner in Policy Making
- Recent Publications
Artikel in diesem Heft
- Article
- Introduction
- What is Alertness?
- Asymmetric Interpretations
- On Neglected Opportunities And Entrepreneurial Discovery
- Wieser, Hayek and Equilibrium Theory
- Entrepreneurship, Exogenous Change and the Flexibility of Capital
- Heterogeneous Capital, Entrepreneurship, and Economic Organization
- Kirznerian Entrepreneurship and The Nature of The Firm
- Owners, Managers, and Entrepreneurship in The Corporate Firm
- Kirznerian Entrepreneurship and The Economics of Science
- Kirznerian Economics: Some Policy Implications and Issues
- The Role of Governments in the Promotion of Competition: The Legacy of Professor Kirzner in Policy Making
- Recent Publications
