|Peter Boettke|

The greatest living scholar of the Austrian School of Economics, and its most accomplished practitioner in the contemporary era turned 90 yesterday. His classic work Competition and Entrepreneurship has garnered over 10k in citations, and his JEL survey of contemporary Austrian economics has close to 5k. Moreover, through his teaching and organizational efforts at NYU and beyond, he was personally responsible to carving out a scholarly place for the next generation of economists and political economists to work in developing the ideas of Menger, Bohm-Bawerk, Mises, and Hayek in their own unique way.

He was the advisor of my advisor -- Don Lavoie -- whose these Rivalry and Central Planning met with professional acclaim and had such a significant impact on my own career path. I had the good fortunate to basically begin my academic career as an Assistant Professor at NYU working alongside of Professor Kirzner and Professor Mario Rizzo. It took me a year of his insisting that I call him Israel before I ever did, he was, and has always remained PROFESSOR Kirzner to me. He is a professors Professor, and simply one of the most humble, hard working, and generous scholars one can ever meet. A special scholar and a wonderful man. I never could thank him enough for the opportunity he gave me at NYU, and the joy I have received from wrestling with his work over the years.

In 2019, the final volume of the 10 volume Collected Works was published. Fred Sautet and I viewed that project with Liberty Fund as a pure pleasure and a great honor to be able to make available the full corpus of Kirzner publications. In the last volume, we include a comprehensive bibliography of his writings which Rosolino Candela so adeptly accomplished building on earlier efforts by us and others. Please download that bibliography and share with your interested colleagues and students, and dig into the amazing insights that this great scholar has to offer in methodology of economics, analytical economics of the market process, the ethical and moral dimensions, and the history of political economy. There are so many extensions of his work possible, as well as opportunities for critical engagement that is at the center of the scholarly quest for improved understanding.

Here is a talk he gave at GMU from 2016 on the history and importance of the Austrian School of Economics. Please take some time and watch and celebrate this great scholars 90th birthday.