Israel Meir Kirzner (also Yisroel Mayer Kirzner ; born February 13, 1930) is a British-born American

economist An economist is a professional and practitioner in the social sciences, social science discipline of economics. The individual may also study, develop, and apply theories and concepts from economics and write about economic policy. Within this ...

historian A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human species; as well as the ...

rabbi A rabbi (; ) is a spiritual leader or religious teacher in Judaism. One becomes a rabbi by being ordained by another rabbi—known as ''semikha''—following a course of study of Jewish history and texts such as the Talmud. The basic form of t ...

, and Talmudist closely identified with the

Austrian School The Austrian school is a Heterodox economics, heterodox Schools of economic thought, school of economic thought that advocates strict adherence to methodological individualism, the concept that social phenomena result primarily from the motivat ...

Early life and education

The son of a well-known

and Talmudist, Kirzner was born in London and reached the United States by way of South Africa. After studying at the

University of Cape Town The University of Cape Town (UCT) (, ) is a public university, public research university in Cape Town, South Africa. Established in 1829 as the South African College, it was granted full university status in 1918, making it the oldest univer ...

, South Africa in 1947–48, and with the University of London External Programme in 1950–51, Kirzner received his B.A. '' summa cum laude'' from

Brooklyn College Brooklyn College is a public university in Brooklyn in New York City, United States. It is part of the City University of New York system and enrolls nearly 14,000 students on a campus in the Midwood and Flatbush sections of Brooklyn as of fall ...

in 1954, and an MBA in 1955 and Ph.D. in 1957 from

New York University New York University (NYU) is a private university, private research university in New York City, New York, United States. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded in 1832 by Albert Gallatin as a Nondenominational ...

, where he studied under Ludwig von Mises.

Economics

Kirzner is

emeritus ''Emeritus/Emerita'' () is an honorary title granted to someone who retires from a position of distinction, most commonly an academic faculty position, but is allowed to continue using the previous title, as in "professor emeritus". In some c ...

professor of economics at New York University and a leading authority on Ludwig von Mises's thinking and

methodology In its most common sense, methodology is the study of research methods. However, the term can also refer to the methods themselves or to the philosophical discussion of associated background assumptions. A method is a structured procedure for bri ...

in economics. Kirzner's research on entrepreneurship economics is also widely recognized. His book, ''Competition and Entrepreneurship'' criticizes neoclassical theory for its preoccupation with the model of

perfect competition In economics, specifically general equilibrium theory, a perfect market, also known as an atomistic market, is defined by several idealizing conditions, collectively called perfect competition, or atomistic competition. In Economic model, theoret ...

, which neglects the important role of the entrepreneur in economic life. Kirzner's work integrating entrepreneurial action into neoclassical economics has been more widely accepted than nearly any other Austrian idea of the late twentieth century. In 2006, Kirzner received the Global Award for Entrepreneurship Research "for developing the economic theory emphasizing the importance of the entrepreneur for economic growth and the functioning of the capitalist process." While Kirzner's ideas have greatly impacted the field of entrepreneurship studies, he has mainly been associated with the opportunity discovery view. However, a careful reading of Kirzner's work would suggest that his work on entrepreneurship can be split into two camps, one focusing on discovery and the other on creation. Like Joseph Schumpeter, Kirzner's work can arguably be divided into Kirzner Mark I and Kirzner Mark II. Kirzner's major work is in the economics of knowledge and entrepreneurship and the ethics of markets. Kirzner has said that he agrees with Roger Garrison's statement that Kirzner's work takes the middle ground, as opposed to the recent, more extreme position of some Austrian School economists who deny the relevance of market equilibrium. Universidad Francisco Marroquín granted him an Honorary Doctorate Degree for his contributions to economic theory. Honorary Doctoral Degrees at Universidad Francisco Marroquín UFM also named its Kirzner Entrepreneurship Center in his honor.

Publications

Liberty Fund Liberty Fund, Inc. is an American nonprofit foundation headquartered in Carmel, Indiana, that promotes the libertarian views of its founder, Pierre F. Goodrich, through publishing, conferences, and educational resources. The operating mandat ...

is currently publishing Israel Kizner's Collected Works in ten volumes under the supervision of Peter Boettke and Frederic Sautet. The first volume, ''The Economic Point of View,'' came out in December 2009, the second volume, ''Market Theory and the Price System,'' in May 2011 and the third volume, ''Essays on Capital,'' in June 2012. The fourth volume, ''Competition and Entrepreneurship,'' came out in 2013, which will also be the year of the 40th anniversary of the publication of the book. Some of his works on economics include: Books * ''Market Theory and the Price System''. Van Nostrand, 1963. * ''An Essay on Capital''. A.M. Kelley, 1966. * ''Competition and Entrepreneurship''. Chicago, 1973. . * ''Perception, Opportunity and Profit: Studies in the Theory of Entrepreneurship''. Chicago, 1973.
''The Economic Point of View: An Essay in the History of Economic Thought''
Kansas City: Sheed and Ward, 1976. * ''Discovery and the Capitalist Process''.

University of Chicago Press The University of Chicago Press is the university press of the University of Chicago, a Private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois. It is the largest and one of the oldest university presses in the United States. It pu ...

, 1985. . * ''Discovery, Capitalism and Distributive Justice''. Basil Blackwell, 1989. * ''The Meaning of Market Process''.

Routledge Routledge ( ) is a British multinational corporation, multinational publisher. It was founded in 1836 by George Routledge, and specialises in providing academic books, academic journals, journals and online resources in the fields of the humanit ...

, 1992. . * ''The Driving Force of the Market''. Routledge, 2000. . Articles * "Fifty Years of FEE – Fifty Years of Progress in Austrian Economics". '' The Freeman'', Vol. 46, No. 5, May 1996
Archived
fro
the original.Full issue available.
* "Reflections on the Misesian Legacy in Economics". '' The Review of Austrian Economics'', Vol. 9, No. 2, 1996, pp. 143–154. . . . * "Entrepreneurial Discovery and The Competitive Market Process: An Austrian Approach". '' Journal of Economic Literature'', Vol. 35, No. 1, March 1997, pp. 60–85. . * "Human Action, 1949: A Dramatic Episode in Intellectual History". '' The Freeman'', Vol. 59, No. 7, September 2009, pp. 8–11
Archived
fro
the original.Full issue available.

Judaic scholar

Kirzner is also an ordained rabbi and

Talmud The Talmud (; ) is the central text of Rabbinic Judaism and the primary source of Jewish religious law (''halakha'') and Jewish theology. Until the advent of Haskalah#Effects, modernity, in nearly all Jewish communities, the Talmud was the cen ...

ic scholar and serves as the rabbi of the congregation once headed by his father in

Brooklyn, New York Brooklyn is a Boroughs of New York City, borough of New York City located at the westernmost end of Long Island in the New York (state), State of New York. Formerly an independent city, the borough is coextensive with Kings County, one of twelv ...

. He is one of the most famous disciples of Rabbi Isaac Hutner, the late dean of the Yeshiva Rabbi Chaim Berlin, where he studied for many years during the same time that he obtained his academic training. Kirzner is an authority on Hutner's writings and is one of the few official editors of all sources that Hutner quotes. Kirzner is a friend a former chavrusa of Rabbi Aharon Feldman, the Rosh Yeshiva of Yeshivas Ner Yisroel.

References

* * Ebeling, Richard M.
"Happy 90th Birthday, Professor Israel Kirzner,"
American Institute for Economic Research, February 18, 2020

External links

Israel Kirzner's Faculty Page

First volume of Israel M. Kirzner's Collected Works edited by Peter Boettke and Frederic Sautet published in 2009 by Liberty Fund

Causa Liberal's Collection of Kirzner essay links

An Interview with Israel M. Kirzner: ''Between Mises and Keynes''
* Articl
"Azione e funzione imprenditoriale: Kirzner e i suoi critici", by Adriano Gianturco Gulisano
, ''Nuova civilità delle macchine. Liberalismo e anarcocapitalismo'', n° 1–2, 2011, pp. 371–396. (in Italian) * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Kirzner, Israel 1930 births Living people 20th-century American male writers 20th-century American non-fiction writers 20th-century American rabbis 20th-century British rabbis 21st-century American male writers 21st-century American non-fiction writers 21st-century American rabbis 21st-century British rabbis Alumni of University of London Worldwide Alumni of the University of London American economics writers American libertarians American Orthodox Jews American Orthodox rabbis American people of English-Jewish descent Austrian School economists British classical liberal economists British emigrants to the United States British libertarians category:British male non-fiction writers British Orthodox rabbis Brooklyn College alumni Historians of economic thought Jewish American economists Jewish American historians Jewish American non-fiction writers Member of the Mont Pelerin Society New York University alumni New York University faculty New York University Stern School of Business alumni