14th International Vernon Smith Prize

The winners of the 14th Vernon Smith Prize are:

1st Prize:
David McMillan (UK)
Essay: “Economics Set Free: In Defense of Hayek”

2nd Prize:
Niels Behrmann (D)
Essay: “The Arrogation of Knowledge and its Consequences”

3rd Prize:
Mateusz Michnik (PL)
Essay: “The Pretense of Knowledge as an Unsuccessful Method of Governance: The Polish Case”

The 14th International Vernon Smith Prize was an essay competition for the advancement of Austrian Economics – sponsored and organized by ECAEF – European Center of Austrian Economics Foundation, Vaduz (Principality of Liechtenstein). Topic of 2021:

The Pretense of Knowledge as a Method of Governance

“I am the wisest man alive, for I know one thing, and that is that I know nothing.” **Socrates**

Due to the fact that it is not immediately obvious why governments should not imitate the methods of the so-called hard sciences to design the perfect policies or practices of governance, politicians and their advisors became captivated with the advancement of science and the enormous processing power of computers. As a result, they were persuaded to confuse the precision of mathematical models and their collected piles of quantifiable data with their factually rather limited knowledge about how societies work. Fooled into believing that statistics based on stored data are the most critical, governments are busy to rearrange them, compute averages or draw erudite charts in order to propose their solutions. However, as people demand results, politicians eager to satisfy the public often conspicuously announce their ‘scientifically’ looking solutions that often worsen the problems. Overconfidence in the methods of the hard sciences to control society can easily turn democracies into tyrannies and will lead to the destruction of a free society, which is the result of human action, but not of human design.
This ‘Pretense of Knowledge’ is not only a serious threat to individual freedom and democracy as it alludes to a pretended competence to design and execute a centrally planned society. It is also dangerous for both methodological and policy reasons. However, societies of free people are a living, changing, moving web of disparate actions and entities. And as long as individuals remain free every law, every institution and every human action is composed of countless subjective judgments and motivations of independent individuals interacting with one another without coercion.

– 1st Prize: €4,000 –
– 2nd Prize: €3,000 –
– 3rd Prize: €2,000 –

An international jury did judge the essays and the three winners are now invited to present their papers at a special virtual event on 7 February, 2022. Due to Corona restrictions, the organisers did again choose the virtual option.

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All entries must meet the following 5 requirements:

1: Entries may be submitted by individuals of up to 30 years (in 2021).
2: Entries may not exceed 12 pages, including a full bibliography and a 1/2 page summary; 1.5 spacing; left/right margins no less then 1 inch.
3: Entries must be submitted in English in electronic form (PDF) to krl@ecaef.li and must include a current CV with Date of Birth.
4: Entries must be received on or before 22 November, 2021.

It is mandatory that all prizewinners participate in the award ceremony in Vaduz (Principality of Liechtenstein) in 7 February 2022.

Prizes are not transferable and will be awarded on the basis of originality, grasp of subject, and the logical consistence of the argument. An international jury will judge the essays and the winners will be invited to present their papers at a special event in Vaduz, Principality of Liechtenstein on 7 February, 2022.

The International Vernon Smith Prize has been established in 2008 by ECAEF for the advancement of Austrian Economics. It is named after Professor Vernon Lomax Smith (born on January 1, 1927). He is professor of economics at Chapman University’s Argyros School of Business and Economics and School of Law in Orange, California, a research scholar at George Mason University Interdisciplinary Center for Economic Science, and a Fellow of the Mercatus Center, all in Arlington, Virginia. Smith shared the 2002 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences with Daniel Kahneman. He is also the founder and president of the International Foundation for Research in Experimental Economics, a Member of the Board of Advisors for The Independent Institute, and a Senior Fellow at the Cato Institute in Washington D.C.

15th Vernon Smith Prize (2022): …if thought corrupts language, language can also corrupt thought.

14th Vernon Smith Prize (2021): The Pretense of Knowledge as a Method of Governance

13th Vernon Smith Prize (2020): Is the Public Interest really in the public’s interest?

12th Vernon Smith Prize (2019): When the People fear their Government, there is Tyranny. When the Government fears the People, there is Liberty

11th Vernon Smith Prize (2018): Obscured by Fake News: The Politics, Morals, and Limits of Genetic Engineering

10th Vernon Smith Prize (2017): Does Tolerance become a crime when applied to evil?

9th Vernon Smith Prize (2016): Direct Democracy versus Representative Democracy. Cost and Benefits for the Citizenry!

8th Vernon Smith Prize (2015): Edward J. Snowden – Hero or Villian?

7th Vernon Smith Prize (2014): Trusting politicians with our money is like leaving a cat in charge of a cream jug.

6th Vernon Smith Prize (2013): Public Debt? Cheat the Citizen!

5th Vernon Smith Prize (2012): “A Government which robs Peter to pay Paul can always depend on the support of Paul.” – George Bernhard Shaw

4th Vernon Smith Prize (2011): The Rule of Law in Decline – “It seems clear that a nominally unlimited (sovereign) representative assembly must be progressively driven into a steady and unlimited extension of the powers of government.” – Friedrich A. von Hayek

3rd Vernon Smith Prize (2010): Concurrent Currencies: A Choice in Money to Solve the Crisis?

2nd Vernon Smith Prize (2009): “This process of Creative Destruction is the essential fact about capitalism. It is what capitalism consists in and what every capitalist concern has got to live in.” – Joseph A. Schumpeter

1st Vernon Smith Prize (2008): Nation, State, and Liberty – At the occasion of the 2nd. edition of Ludwig von Mises’ German original “Nation, Staat und Wirtschaft” ECAEF invited papers on this topic.