Spontaneous Order

This is the translation by the Foundation for Economic Education of Bastiat’s longest and best known work Economic Harmonies. A new translation of this work by Liberty Fund is in progress. See the Summary of the Bastiat Project for… more

A full-length assessment of the contributions to economics of Friedrich Hayek (Nobel Prize 1974). Hayek is unique for a number of reasons: because of his emphasis on the function of institutions in coordinating the various plans of… more

A pioneering work of the Scottish Enlightenment in the field of “philosophical history”, or what we would today call sociology. It deals with the social, political, economic, intellectual, and legal changes which accompanied… more

Mandeville is a witty satirist who used a poem to make the profound economic point that “private vices” (or self-interest) lead to “publick benefits” (such as orderly social structures like law, language, and markets).

Mandeville is a witty satirist who used a poem to make the profound economic point that “private vices” (or self-interest) lead to “publick benefits” (such as orderly social structures like law, language, and markets).

Mandeville is a witty satirist who used a poem to make the profound economic point that “private vices” (or self-interest) lead to “publick benefits” (such as orderly social structures like law, language, and markets).

A volume in the collection Studies in Economic Theory, first published by the Institute for Humane Studies. This is a collection of papers given at a conference on Austrian economics in June 1974. They cover the uniqueness of the… more

The greatest obstacle to rule of law in our time, contends Bruno Leoni, is the problem of overlegislation. In modern democratic societies, legislative bodies are increasingly usurping functions that were and should be exercised by… more

This volume contains the four essays that Spencer published as The Man Versus the State in 1884 as well as five essays added by later publishers. In addition, it provides “The Proper Sphere of Government,” an important early essay by… more

A collection of papers which explores methodoogy, econometrics, social cost, monopoly theory, the supply of money, interest theory, and macroeconomics.

Spencer’s first major work of political philosophy in which he attempts to lay the basis for a limited state on a rigorous development of a doctrine of natural rights. He begins with a defense of his “first principle” ’that every… more

In this vision of a future society, the Belgian laissez-faire economist Molinari suggests how many, if not most, public goods could be provided by the free market or by radically decentralized local governments.

Hume’s first major work of philosophy published in 1739 when he was just 29 yeas old. It is made up of three books entitled “Of the Understanding”, “Of the Passions”, and “Of Morals”. In the book he uses his sceptical rationalism to… more