History

The Institute situates itself in the direct intellectual lineage descending from the pioneeing 19th century economist Carl Menger's theories of marginal utility and subjective value. Our Institute has also been influenced by the subsequent expansion and reenvisioning of Menger's theories into praxeology by Ludwig von Mises in particular.

Beyond the natural-rights centrism of Murray Rothbard, the Institute illuminates markets and voluntary exchange as the pinnacle of human cooperation, without recourse to moral codes, ethical frameworks, or inherent righthood. Our perspective underscores the self-sufficiency of market phenomena, affirming their normative independence from external moral scaffolding or predetermined ethical constructs. In other words, we act and gain; not because we are bound by artificial imperatives—but because we are human.

In capturing market phenomena in its fullest scope, the Carl Menger Institute adopts a more intellectually-fertile exploration of juridical, ethical, and social parameters mediated by individual action in the marketplace, as what we call, “praxeonomy.”

In 2024, Prof. Djerdjian sought to transcend the status quo in both academia and economic thought: namely, by establishing the Carl Menger Institute with his protegés and former students, Peter H. Vartanian and Ethan Akimoto. The Institute aims to advance a truly many-sided "science of markets" capable of analytically grappling with the full dynamism, complexity, and ingenuity inherent in all economic processes.