The Best of the OLL No. 20: Jean-Baptiste Say, “Of the Demand or Market for Products” (1819) (Indianapolis: Liberty Fund, 2013).

This is part of “The Best of the Online Library of Liberty” which is a collection of some of the most important material in the OLL. This essay is by the French political economist Jean-Baptiste Say who argued in what later became known as “Say’s Law of Markets” that “the mere circumstance of the creation of one product immediately opens an opportunity for the sale of other products”.

The Best of the OLL No. 19: Israel Kirzner, “Entrepreneurial Activity and the General Market Process” (1963) (Indianapolis: Liberty Fund, 2013).

The Best of the OLL No. 18: Friedrich Hayek, “Kinds of Order in Society” (1964) (Indianapolis: Liberty Fund, 2013).

This is part of “The Best of the Online Library of Liberty” which is a collection of some of the most important material in the OLL. This essay is by the Austrian economist Israel Kirzner who is best known for his pioneering work on the role of the entrepreneur. In this section from a chapter Kirzner provides an excellent summary of the 4 different ways in which entrepreneurs can take advantage of common disequilibrium conditions and thus bring about better coordination in the market.

The Best of the OLL No. 17: Milton Friedman, “Capitalism and Freedom” (1961) (Indianapolis: Liberty Fund, 2013).

This is part of “The Best of the Online Library of Liberty” which is a collection of some of the most important material in the OLL. This essay is by the Austrian economist and social theorist Friedrich Hayek in which he gives one of the most concise explanations of the difference between “constructed” orders and “spontaneous” orders. He focuses on the example of the division of labor as one of the key institutions of the free market which is a complex order not designed by any individual person.

This is part of “The Best of the Online Library of Liberty” which is a collection of some of the most important material in the OLL. This essay is by the American economist Milton Friedman in which he makes the case that political and economic liberties are intimately linked. As a “19th century classical liberal” Friedman argues that modern day liberals are mistaken to think that political liberties are more important than economic liberties and that in a fully socialist society there would be no political liberties as well.

Market Theory and the Price System. Edited and with an Introduction by Peter J. Boettke and Frédéric Sautet (Indianapolis: Liberty Fund, 2011).

The second volume in Liberty Fund’s The Collected Works of Israel M. Kirzner series, Market Theory and the Price System was published in 1963 as Kirzner’s first (and only) textbook. This volume presents an integrated view of Austrian price theory. The basic aim of Market Theory is to utilize the tools of economic reasoning to explain the market process. The unique framework Kirzner develops for microeconomic analysis, following Mises and Hayek, examines errors in decision-making, entrepreneurial profit, and competition as a process of discovery and learning.