On October 15 and 16, 2010, the Wirth Institute for Austrian and Central European Studies of the University of Alberta mounted its third biennial conference on the Austrian School of Economics, this time at the Harbourfront Centre in Vancouver, B.C., in co-operation with Simon Fraser University.
The "Austrian School" is a heterodox school of economic thought that emphasizes the spontaneous organizing power of the price mechanism. Its name derives from its founders and supporters, who were all citizens of the old Austrian Empire: Carl Menger (1840-1921), Friedrich von Wieser (1851-1926), Eugen von Böhm-Bawerk (1851-1914), Ludwig von Mises (1881-1973) and Friedrich Hayek (1899-1992). The term "Austrian" was originally applied contemptuously by German economists but became a badge of pride when the "Austrian" perspective ultimately triumphed over its German rivals.
For the Wirth Institute's 2010 conference on the subject, scholars from all over North America gathered to discuss "Austrian Views on Experts and Epistemic Monopolies." Austrian economics has offered compelling reasons why experts, often in the employ of the state apparatus, propose solutions to problems that can best be dealt with by economic agents themselves. It is not always a good idea to hand things over to an expert.
Adopting the potentially embarrassing posture of experts on experts, conferees examined when and whether experts can improve outcomes in complex social systems. Conferees considered expertise of entrepreneurs, forensic scientist, and economists themselves.
Considering scholars as experts, keynote speaker Sandra Peart of the University of Richmond imagined a world in which germs could sponsor medical research. Germ-influenced science would be "factional science." But if social agents can sponsor social science, then we should not be surprised if economic science is factional. Imaging that germs could sponsor medical research helps us to see the importance of the market for expertise. Monopoly experts may be less reliable than competing experts.
Forensic scientists, central bank economists, and development officials are often monopoly experts and their expertise is often married to government power. This hierarchical arrangement of knowledge production and distribution contrasts with the "stigmergic" organization (a word used by Austrian economists to signify the spontaneous emergence of coherent, systematic activity) of market economies. Stigmergic organization lets anthills and markets respond adaptively to more contingencies than ants or people can individually.
The network structure of the Internet may represent an alternative to markets and hierarchy. While each node in the web is one among many, there may be a spontaneous and partial hierarchy among nodes that is neither the flat plane of market organization nor the pyramid of a uniform hierarchy. The participating experts on experts agreed on the importance of expertise if, perhaps, little else.
As has been the case with previous conferences in the series, Emerald Books will publish the proceedings of this conference as part of its "Advances in Austrian Economics" series. The next conference is scheduled to take place in Banff, Alberta, in the fall of 2012. Anyone interested in attending should contact the Wirth Institute at wirth.institute@ualberta.ca, or by phone at 780-492-1444.