Assess the Significance of Austrian and Post-Keynsian Criticisms of the Standard Neoclassical View of the Competitive Process.

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Assess the significance of Austrian and Post-Keynsian criticisms of the standard Neoclassical view of the competitive process. Neoclassical theorists are rational agents. Their view of the competitive process focuses on the industry as a whole as oppose to just the individual and their behaviour. One of their main basic assumptions is the model of perfect competition when price is equal to marginal costs and firms are profit maximisers. This is based on an equilibrium being created with a given set of resources, perfect information and price taking firms. They also argue that a competitive equilibrium will be reached based on a given set of resources under the condition of Pareto optimal where 'no one can be made better off without making someone else worse off'. A competitive equilibrium is efficient, in production and consumption and welfare is maximised. (Carlton and Perloff 2005, pg. 69) In this essay I will use both the Austrian School of Thought and Post-Keynsian theory to criticise the Neoclassical Theory. I will then go on to analyse how valid these criticisms are. The Austrian School of thought began in the late 19th century but the work of Mises and Hayek in the 1930's separated the theory away from mainstream Neoclassical economics. (Kirzner 1997, pg. 61) Their main line of criticism of standard theory is that it doesn't explain the processes of what happens in market economies. Austrian School criticises the neoclassical assumption the the market reaches an equilibrium by firstly recognising that it isn't true that market conditions are at all times in equilibrium and that they fail to explain the process by which the equilibrium is reached. They aim to demote perfect competition as a dominant assumption of modern Neoclassical theory. (Kirzner 1997, pg. 64) Mises and Hayek, Austrian School theorists, argue that it is entrepreneurial discovery

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