Austrian Economics Advances in the QJAE

New developments in Austrian economics appear regularly in the Quarterly Journal of Austrian Economics. The QJAE is one of the top international outlets for scholarly research within the Austrian School of economics, publishing high-quality papers on a range of topics within the Austrian School. The QJAE is available online without a paywall and is listed in the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) for expanded reach and impact.

Recently published in the QJAE:

A Simple Model of the Demand for Money and the Demand for Secondary Media of ExchangeKristoffer J. Mousten Hansen

The existence and importance of secondary media of exchange (close substitutes for money) can be considered a proxy for the quality of money.

Mises put the theory of money on a sound basis by integrating it with marginal utility theory and clearly explaining its value in these terms. One of Mises’s important conclusions is that demand for money is always demand to hold—that is, money’s value comes from being held, not from being exchanged. …We aim… to clarify some points in this model [and] try to extend that model to incorporate close substitutes for money.

Sequestered Capital: An Overlooked Lacuna in the Capital StructureJames E. McClure

Building on the work of Friedrich Hayek and Roger Garrison, James McClure extends Austrian scholarship into “sequestered capital,” which is capital that is hidden or unseen by the market, such as research and development or new goods in production. Sequestered capital should be given more attention as a part of Austrian capital theory, says McClure.

Integrating sequestered capital into Austrian capital theory and Austrian business cycle theory would improve the ability of Austrian scholars to defend free-market capitalism from criticisms that investment is driven by animal spirits (John Maynard Keynes), speculative orgies (John Kenneth Galbraith), and irrational exuberance (George Akerlof, J. Bradford DeLong and Andrei Shleifer, Robert Shiller, Richard Thaler, etc.).

The Development and Application of the Disutility of Labor in Marginalist TheoryJonathan Yen, Ryan Turnipseed, and Guriy Borodkin

Mises’s thoughts on the disutility of labor changed from Jevons-like to one similar to Wicksteed and Green’s. But both are at odds with Mengerian marginal analysis, say this paper’s authors.

Within the Austrian school, labor economics is among the topics least emphasized, so that crucial concepts such as the disutility of labor and opportunity cost are divorced from their original contexts. This article examines the origins and evolution of the disutility of labor postulate and analyzes how this concept affected the thinking of major Austrian theorists such as Ludwig von Mises.

Controversy on COVID-19 Models of Communication and Management: Visible Fist (Bureaucratic Coaction) versus Invisible Hand (Social Coordination)Jesús Huerta de Soto, Antonio Sánchez-Bayón, Philipp Bagus, and Miguel Ángel Alonso-Neira

Economic analysis of the controversy over COVID-19 models of communication and management illuminates the problems of interventionism. Comparing mainstream and heterodox models, the paper uses Mises’s theorem about the impossibility of economic calculation in interventionism to assess political economy, communications, and public health management from the perspective of Austrian economics. 

The Use and Abuse of Equilibrium Analysis: A Response to Jonathan NewmanPrzemysław Rapka

Przemysław Rapka argues that Jonathan Newman’s critique of the concept of sticky prices and monetary disequilibrium abuses the concepts of the plain state of rest and total demand analysis. Newman’s criticisms were published last year in the QJAE: “A Note on ‘Desired Money Balances’ and Menu Costs,” and “There Ain’t No Such Thing as a Sticky Price.” 

Book Review: Austrian Theory of Capital and Business Cycle: A Modern ApproachPaul F. Cwik

How do old controversies inform our understanding of the impact of new technologies? Paul Cwik reviews Pavel Potuzak’s new book, finding it useful but on the wrong side of a debate between Menger and Böhm-Bawerk on the formation of interest rates.

Austrian Theory of Capital and Business Cycle: A Modern Approach should be read by all Austrian economists attracted to capital, interest, and business cycle theory. The book is well-reasoned and easy to read, the diagrams are inventive and insightful, and the general story is very similar to mainstream Austrian analysis. …Ultimately, he ends with the paradoxical conclusion that the discovery of new productive techniques can lead an economy into a recession.

Submit your scholarship on Austrian economics to the QJAE: 

The Quarterly Journal of Austrian Economics is a peer-reviewed open-access journal publishing research in Austrian economics. Formerly the Review of Austrian Economics, founded by Murray Rothbard, the journal is one of two peer-reviewed academic journals published by the Mises Institute (the other is the Journal of Libertarian Studies). The QJAE is edited by Joseph Salerno, with book reviews edited by Mark Thornton. Associate editors include Timothy Terrell, Per Bylund, Jeffrey Herbener, David Howden, and Matthew McCaffrey. Daniella Bassi serves as managing editor.

The QJAE is accepting submissions for a special issue commemorating the centennial of the Austrian Institute for Business Cycle Research, founded in 1927. Guest edited by Per Bylund and Jonathan Newman, the issue will be published in the first quarter of 2027. For more about this issue, please see the Call for Papers. The deadline for submission to this special issue is June 30, 2026. Authors wishing to submit their work to a regular issue should go here.