Unseen bridge between Austrian Economics
and Logical Empiricism

Index numbers and choice: Haberler’s unseen bridge between Austrian Economics and Logical Empiricism

Executive Summary

This paper examines Gottfried Haberler’s early theoretical work on index numbers as a unique point of convergence between the Austrian School of Economics and the tradition of Logical Empiricism. While these schools are often seen as methodologically opposed – the former grounded in subjectivism and praxeology, the latter in formal logic and empirical verification – Haberler’s 1927 habilitation thesis Der Sinn der Indexzahlen exemplifies a productive synthesis of their core principles. The paper begins by outlining the epistemological and methodological foundations of the Austrian School, with emphasis on its subjective theory of value and skepticism toward aggregate measurement. It then summarizes key tenets of Logical Empiricism, particularly its insistence on observable phenomena, operational definitions, and formal rigor. Against this backdrop, Haberler’s analysis of price indices is shown to combine the Austrian emphasis on individual choice and subjectivity with the logical empiricist demand for formal discipline and observational grounding.. The result is a methodological hybrid that both anticipates and complicates later debates over the role of formalism and empiricism in economic theory. By recovering this underappreciated moment of methodological cross-pollination, the paper contributes o a more nuanced understanding of 20th-century economic thought.

Read the material here: IREF_Index_Numbers_And_Choice

This material is a result of a new collaboration between the Institute for Research in Economic and Fiscal Issues (IREF) and the European Center for Austrian Economics Foundation (ECAEF), focused on publishing a series of articles on economic and fiscal topics. It emphasizes our commitment to independent thought, academic freedom, and critical inquiry. The original was published here: https://en.irefeurope.org/category/publications/online-articles/