Israel Kirzner Quotes

Israel Meir Kirzner is a British-born American economist closely identified with the Austrian School. Wikipedia  

✵ 13. February 1930
Israel Kirzner photo
Israel Kirzner: 1   quote 0   likes

Israel Kirzner Quotes

“A piece of knowledge about boat-building, about whose correctness Crusoe has no doubts at all, will not be seen as a hunch and will be valued according to Menger's Law. It may be said that Crusoe is well aware that he possesses this kind of information; he will deploy and value it in the same way as he may be imagined to deploy and value other resources he believes are definitely at his disposal. But concerning Crusoe's hunches and his visions in the face of a changing, uncertain environment, it cannot be said at all that Crusoe knows he has a hunch or a vision of the future. He does not act by deliberately utilizing his hunch about the future; instead, he finds that his actions reflect his hunches…In other words, it turns out, the essence of entrepreneurial vision, and what sets it apart from knowledge as a resource, is reflected in Crusoe's lack of self-consciousness concerning it…Crusoe may…gradually come to be aware of his vision. When he does, that vision ceases to be entrepreneurial and comes to be a resource. Moreover, Crusoe's realization that he possesses this definite information resource may itself be entrepreneurial. As soon as he 'knows' that he possesses an item of knowledge, that item ceases to correspond to entrepreneurial vision; instead, as with all resources, it is Crusoe's belief that he has the resources at his disposal that may now constitute his entrepreneurial hunch.”

Israel Kirzner, (1979: 168-169); as cited in: " Israel Kirzner's Entrepreneurship http://www.constitution.org/pd/gunning/subjecti/workpape/kirz_ent.pdf" by the Constitution Society, May 31, 2004

Similar authors

Thomas J. Sargent photo
Thomas J. Sargent 10
American economist
Paul A. Samuelson photo
Paul A. Samuelson 47
American economist
Theodore Schultz photo
Theodore Schultz 15
American economist
Douglass C. North photo
Douglass C. North 18
American Economist
Paul Krugman photo
Paul Krugman 106
American economist
Jan Tinbergen photo
Jan Tinbergen 21
Dutch economist
John Maynard Keynes photo
John Maynard Keynes 122
British economist
Kenneth Arrow photo
Kenneth Arrow 37
American economist
Wassily Leontief photo
Wassily Leontief 10
Russian economist
James Tobin photo
James Tobin 22
American economist