Kaštų sampratos vieta austrų ekonomikos teorijoje ir gamybos gėrybių bei kaštų analizėje

Abstract

Austrų ekonomikos mokykla, parodžiusi, kad į vertę nebeturi būti žiūrima kaip į valdomą praeities išteklių kaštų, bet kaip į vertinimų, susijusių su ateities naudingumu, tenkinant vartotojo norus, išraišką, po XIX a. pabaigoje ekonomikos teorijoje įvykusios subjektyvistinės revoliucijos įsivyravusį „ekonominį subjektyvizmą“ susiejo su „alternatyvių kaštų požiūriu“. Straipsnio autorių nuomone, problema ta, kad austrų ekonomikos mokykla, kurdama ribinio naudingumo teoriją, ignoravo gamybos proceso analizę, vis dėlto ji buvo priversta tirti gamybos išlaidas, kurias verslininkas privalo įvertinti. Spręsdami šią problemą austrų maržinalistai sukūrė gamybos gėrybių teoriją, kuria pamėginta psichologizuoti gamybos kaštus ir traktuoti juos kaip tam tikrą naudingumą. Tada natūraliai kyla klausimas, kiek austrų ekonomistų nuostatos kaštų klausimu atitinka šiandieninės ekonomikos teorijos pozicijas? Taigi straipsnio tikslas – išsiaiškinti kaštų sampratos poziciją austrų ekonomikos teorijoje ir gamybos gėrybių bei kaštų analizėje. Siekiant šio tikslo pirmiausia išanalizuota austriškoji alternatyviųjų kaštų samprata. Toliau išnagrinėta gamybos gėrybių teorija austrų ekonomikos mokykloje. Straipsnis baigiamas austriškosios gamybos gėrybių bei kaštų analizės aptarimu. Jis parengtas taikant sisteminės mokslinės literatūros, bendrosios ir loginės analizės, lyginimo ir apibendrinimo bei abstrakcijos metodus.

An essential part of the methodology of the Austrian school of economics is the purely subjective concept of cost. For them, cost is a subjective value that an actor attributes to goals that he abandons when he decides to follow a particular course of action. The Austrian school of economics has shown that value should no longer be seen as something managed according to the cost of past resources, but should be estimated as a measure for assessments of future usefulness in meeting consumer demand. At the end of the 19th century, after the subjective revolution in economic theory, this school linked the prevailing ‘economic subjectivism’ to an ‘alternative cost approach’. But, according to the authors of this article, the problem is that the Austrian school of economics ignored the analysis of the production process in developing the theory of marginal gain. Still, they were forced to examine production costs, which are important to any entrepreneur. In order to address this problem, the Austrian marginalists developed a theory of production goods, in which they attempted to psychologise production costs, and treat them as a kind of value. Then the question naturally arises, to what extent do the attitudes of Austrian economists towards costs correspond to today’s economic theory? Therefore, the aim of this article is to find the place of the concept of costs in the theory of Austrian economics, and in the analysis of production goods and costs. To answer these questions, first the Austrian concept of alternative costs is analysed. As far as Austrian economists are concerned, one of F. von Wieser’s greatest contributions to economic theory is his alternative cost theory. It is clear that the concept of alter- native cost only makes sense if existing possibilities are fixed, or if access to them is limited: when faced with constraints, people are forced to make choices. Still, many economists considered that most theoretical innovations, including the alternative costs proposed by F. von Wieser, and introduced by scholars in the Austrian tradition, were fully included in a standard neoclassical economic theory as early as in the 1930s. Second, the theory of production goods in the Austrian school of economics is examined. The Austrian mar- ginalists developed a theory of production goods in which they attempted to psychologise production costs, and treat them as a kind of utility. The article concludes by discussing the Austrian analysis of production goods and costs. The Austrian analysis of production costs is based on C. Menger’s fundamental theory, in which causal links are derived from the final product back to its costs. The price of the final goods depends on their marginal utility, and the price of factors of production depends on the utility of the final product. The Austrian marginalists argued that rational entities formulate their own assessments of marginal utility only on the basis of goods that are directly related to their needs, i.e. on consumables. Individuals are not capable of estimating factors of production that are distant from them, or, in Austrian terminology, factors that are related to production goods. The article has been prepared by applying the systematic analysis of scientific li- terature, and methods of general and logical analysis, comparison, generalisation and abstraction techniques.