Tag Archives: book review

Methodological Individualism Meets Math

Adherents of the Austrian school of economic thought are often accused of inability to use mathematical methods. The Austrians themselves often mistrust math applied to economic theory, if it’s anything more complicated than arithmetic or basic algebra, either on the grounds that “utility is not cardinal” or simply because “Mises never used calculus”.
Therefore, it may seem that Theory of Games and Economic Behavior, by mathematician John von Neumann and economist Oskar Morgenstern, is incompatible with Austrian views. Or is it?