Re: Hayek on reduction to dated quantities of labor

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Response to Neri Salvadori:
     Let me clarify my position on Hayek's and more generally
the Austrian theory of capital, really developed by Bohm-Bawerk.
I did not mean to claim that it was an adequate, complete,
general, or even satisfactory theory.  Indeed I criticized it
on similar grounds to yours in an exchange with Leland Yeager
in _Economic Inquiry_ in 1976 and 1978, as I know you are aware.
     What I claimed and still maintain is that Hayek and the
Austrians were certainly aware of the significance of and very
concerned with the nature and relationships between labor and
capital, even if one does not agree with their approach.  The
emphasis on information only began with Hayek and has received
increasing attention because of Hayek's apparent prescience in
this regard, given the intense current focus on information issues
by Akerlof, Stiglitz, and many others.  I would agree with the
critics who say that Hayek's theory is at least incomplete in
various areas, but not because he had no theory of capital.
Barkley Rosser
James Madison University