ABSTRACT OF PAPER
Title: Institutions, Incentives and Human Motivations: Ludwig von Mises on Capitalism and Socialism
Author: Rodrigues João
The main goal of this article is to show that in the case against socialism, put forward by Ludwig von Mises, there is a crucial and irreplaceable role for incentives without which the famous calculation argument cannot be put forward in a meaningful way. We further argue that the role incentives play in Mises’s argument is not without consequences for his seemingly open and influential definition of rational action as purposeful individual action in a means-ends framework, in which all types of motivations can in principle be accommodated. Our point here is that behind this tremendous influential definition of rational action, there is an implicit adherence, at least when discussing the institutional advantages of capitalism over socialism to an implicit, and sometimes explicit, defence of the existence of relatively more enduring motivations commanding individuals’ behaviour. These enduring motivations are mainly related to the relentless pursuit of the highest amount of net monetary benefits that they can possibly obtain for themselves. This is followed by a defence that only the institutions of capitalism are capable of supplying the pecuniary incentives individuals need to pursue their presumed rational egoistic goals.
Registred web users only can download this paper - Go back
Please note that files available for download have not been checked for viruses. These files have been submitted by authors of the conference to this web site. Conference organisers can't accept any responsibility for damages caused to users by downloading such files.