No Other Economist in recent times has been so closely identified with the Austrian School of economics as Israel M. Kirzner, professor emeritus of economics at New York University. A leader of the generation of Austrian economists after Ludwig von Mises and F. A. Hayek, Kirzner has been recognized as one of the minds behind the revival of entrepreneurship and market process theory in the twentieth century. Market Theory and the Price System, Kirzner's only textbook, is a cohesive course that moves from the foundations of market theory, such as the conditions under which markets operate, through more complex concepts, such as utility theory and market equilibrium, to a comprehensive model of the general market. Although it covers many of the same topics as other textbooks, Kirzner's book is unique in framing the market as an interactive process rising from the decisions of individuals rather than as a state of affairs. As Kirzner explains in chapter 1, The free interplay of individual decisions in the marketplace constantly generates new forces modifying and shaping the delicate, sensitive, and interlocking decision network that makes up the system.

It is the task of market theory to trace the consequences of these market forces, paying particular attention to the degree in which they constrain independently made decisions into mutually corresponding and concordant systems. Students and general readers alike will find in this book a clear, unified treatment of microeconomics consistent with Austrian school insights on entrepreneurship and on economics as the study of human action. Book jacket.