Don Lavoie

Who was Don Lavoie?

Donald Charles "Don" Lavoie was an Austrian school economist. He worked at the Cato Institute. He wrote two books on the problem of economic calculation. His first book on this subject was Rivalry and Central Planning. This book stressed the importance of the process of competitive rivalry in markets. His second book was National Economic Planning: What Is Left?. This book dealt with the problem of non-comprehensive planning. He was influenced by Friedrich Hayek, Michael Polanyi and Ludwig Lachmann.

Among his students, there are a number of "contemporary Austrian" economists: Peter Boettke, David Prychitko, Steven Horwitz, Thomas Rustici, Mark Gilbert, Ralph Rector, Emily Chamlee-Wright, Howie Baetjer and Virgil Storr.

Don Lavoie was co-founder of the interdisciplinary unit known as the Program on Social & Organizational Learning at George Mason University which offers a Master's degree in Organizational Learning.

Lavoie was awarded a Ph. D. in economics from New York University in 1981 for thesis entitled Rivalry and central planning : a re-examination of the debate over economic calculation under socialism.