Discovery Factors of Economic Freedom: Respondence, Epiphany, and Serendipity
UNCERTAINTY AND ECONOMIC EVOLUTION: ESSAYS IN HONOR OF ARMEN ALCHIAN, John R. Lott, Jr., ed., London: Routledge, 1997
Posted: 24 Feb 2004
Abstract
Economists place a heavy emphasis on equilibrium model building, and this emphasis leads them to think of economic freedom as the freedom to choose in a neatly characterized setting. Three other facets of economic freedom, facets that tend to be eclipsed by model building, are the freedom to respond flexibly to opportunities (which I associate with Coase), the freedom to discover opportunities by epiphany (associated with Kirzner), and the freedom to discover opportunities by serendipity (associated with Alchian). Neglect of these discovery factors tends toward an under-appreciation of freedom.
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Daniel B. Klein (Contact Author)
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