caa a22 4500 445360186 CHVBK 20180317142912.0 cr unu---uuuuu 170323e20110601xx s 000 0 eng 10.1007/s11138-011-0141-9 doi (NATIONALLICENCE)springer-10.1007/s11138-011-0141-9 Horwitz Steven Department of Economics, St. Lawrence University, 13617, Canton, NY, USA aut Theory, history, and the great recession [Elektronische Daten] [Steven Horwitz] This paper honors Don Lavoie's work on the relationship between theory and history in Austrian economics by using the current recession as an example of many of the ideas found in his paper on the "Interpretive Dimension of Economics.” More specifically, I start from the premise that all history comes from theory because it is theory that guides what we count as "facts” or "data.” From Menger onward, a core element of the Austrian approach has been to see the purpose of theory as rendering human action and its unintended consequences intelligible. We do that by telling historical narratives where theory is the logical glue that holds the story together. I look at the Austrian story of the Great Recession in light of these ideas. What the Great Recession demonstrates is that the core theoretical elements of Austrian business cycle theory are narrower than we might think, but that consciously recognizing the contingent elements gives the theory additional flexibility to explain more of various real-world crises when augmented by additional ideal typifications properly used. Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, 2011 Austrian economics nationallicence Methodology nationallicence Business cycles nationallicence Great Recession nationallicence The Review of Austrian Economics Springer US; http://www.springer-ny.com 24/2(2011-06-01), 171-184 0889-3047 24:2<171 2011 24 11138 https://doi.org/10.1007/s11138-011-0141-9 text/html Onlinezugriff via DOI 1 research-article jats NATIONALLICENCE 856 40 https://doi.org/10.1007/s11138-011-0141-9 text/html Onlinezugriff via DOI NATIONALLICENCE 100 1- Horwitz Steven Department of Economics, St. Lawrence University, 13617, Canton, NY, USA aut NATIONALLICENCE 773 0- The Review of Austrian Economics Springer US; http://www.springer-ny.com 24/2(2011-06-01), 171-184 0889-3047 24:2<171 2011 24 11138 Metadata rights reserved Springer special CC-BY-NC licence nationallicence BK010053 XK010053 XK010000 NATIONALLICENCE NATIONALLICENCE NL-springer