Ludwig von Mises School of Economics

Ludwig Heinrich Edler von Mises (1881 – 1973) was an economist, historian, logician, and sociologist. Mises wrote and lectured extensively on the societal contributions of classical liberalism. Mises was born to Jewish parents in the city of Lemberg, Galicia, Austria-Hungary (now Lviv, Ukraine). He is best known for his work on praxeology, a study of human choice and action.

In the years from 1904 to 1914, Mises attended lectures given by Austrian economist Eugen Ritter von Böhm-Bawerk. He graduated in February 1906 (Juris Doctor) and started a career as a civil servant in Austria’s financial administration. After a few months, he left to take a trainee position in a Vienna law firm. During that time, Mises began lecturing on economics and in early 1909 joined the Vienna Chamber of Commerce and Industry. In 1934, Mises left Austria for Geneva, Switzerland, where he was a professor at the Graduate Institute of International Studies until 1940, when he emigrated to the United States. Mises became a visiting professor at New York University and held this position from 1945 until his retirement in 1969. For part of this period, Mises studied currency issues for the Pan-Europa movement, which was led by Richard von Coudenhove-Kalergi, a fellow New York University faculty member and Austrian exile.

The first German edition of Von Mises’ book Theorie des Geldes und der Umlaufsmittel (The Theory of Money and Credit) appeared in 1912. It is discussed by Lawrence S. Moss in The Monetary Economics of Ludwig von Mises. He summarizes Mises’s views as follows:

As a practical matter, Mises favored commodity gold standard whereby each government would have to maintain the convertibility of money in terms of gold. Any policy of inflationism would be short lived in the wake of declining gold reserves, or the state would suffer the diplomatic embarrassment of having to redefine its currency unit in terms of gold. Mises, of course, realized that the resource costs of such a monetary arrangement are high, and the system itself is never totally insured against sudden and sometimes massive changes in the quantity of money that originate from, say, technological innovations in the processing of gold or new mine discoveries. But the virtue of the arrangement is not that it makes it too costly for the size and growth of the money supply to become an object of government policy. Mises preferred the impersonal mechanisms of the market, no matter how imperfect, to the whims and gluttonous excesses of power-hungry politicians. In Mises’ view, the strategy that is currently favored in liberal quarters, that of moving toward a less expensive fiat currency system while urging the monetary authorities to pass parliamentary decrees limiting their own appetities, is as idealistic as expecting a child not to eat candy placed in his hand.Source: Lawrence S. Moss, The Economics of Ludwig von Mises: Toward a Critical Reappraisal, ed. with an Introduction by Laurence S. Moss (Kansas City: Sheed and Ward, 1976).

Lawrence S. Moss in The Monetary Economics of Ludwig von Mises.

Principles of MSE

The Ludwig von Mises School of Economics (MSE) is an activity of the Swiss Chamber of Commerce in The Netherlands, which was formed in 1933 by a group of entrepreneurs and government officials. Inspired by the liberal thoughts of Mises, MSE promotes an economic system based on private property and free markets—or what one might call economic freedom. The key ingredients of this economic freedom are personal choice, voluntary exchange, freedom to compete in markets, and protection of person and property. Institutions and policies are consistent with economic freedom when they allow voluntary exchange and protect individuals and their property.

Mission

It is our mission to utilize multidisciplinary expertise and global reach to train future leaders, provide a comprehensive educational program, and catalyse innovative research, all to address sustainable development in the 21st century.

Postgraduate diploma in sustainable economics

The successful student receives a postgraduate diploma in sustainable economics from the Ludwig von Mises School of Economics of the Swiss Chamber of Commerce in The Netherlands and the National Pedagogical Dragomanov University. It is a postgraduate qualification at the level of a master’s degree. It is good practice to use a post-nominal designation after completing the entire program. Graduates from the Ludwig von Mises School of Economics are entitled to use the post-nominal PGDip EC.

Online learning

Ludwig von Mises School of Economics makes use of Coursera to offer its online courses. Coursera is an American massive open online course provider founded in 2012 by Stanford University computer science professors Andrew Ng and Daphne Koller. Through Coursera we work with universities and other organizations to offer our certification in economics. Using Coursea has several major advantages:

  • Provide for-credit, standalone courses in core curriculum or for honors credit.
  • Enable faculty with supplementary content mapped to their curriculum.
  • Deliver stronger student job outcomes with multi-disciplinary courses.
  • Increase student capacity without increasing infrastructure costs.
  • Accessible with smartphones.

Curriculum

A Bachelor’s or Master’s degree from an accredited university, and completion of the following courses are required before work on the thesis can be started.

  • Microsoft 365 Fundamentals Specialization (Microsoft). This program will help you to become familiar with the apps and services included in a Microsoft 365 subscription. You will improve your word processing, spreadsheet, and presentation skills to take your productivity to the next level. You will learn how to work smarter and more collaboratively with the latest intelligent features of Office 365.
  • Sustainable Business Enterprises (University of Illinois). This course will explore current challenges and opportunities facing firms in the area of environmental sustainability. It will begin with an introduction to sustainability, with a particular focus on how environmental sustainability is relevant to business. Topics such as unsustainable consumption/consumer behaviour, market research on sustainable product design, and sustainable value chains and communications will be covered. The course also covers the bottom-up approach in terms of immersion, emersion, and design as applied to sustainable business enterprises. The course concludes with a summary of insights on global challenges in business, with particular focus on poverty and the environment.
  • Principles of Sustainable Finance (Erasmus University Rotterdam). Throughout this course, you will learn about the UN Sustainable Development Goals, how social and environmental factors should not be regarded as externalities, you will learn more about sustainable banking and asset management, about effective engagement, sustainable scenario analysis and long-term value creation.
  • The Age of Sustainable Development (Columbia University). The Age of Sustainable Development gives students an understanding of the key challenges and pathways to sustainable development – that is, economic development that is also socially inclusive and environmentally sustainable.
  • Strategy and Sustainability (IESE Business School). This Strategy and Sustainability course is based on Rosenberg’s recently published book by Palgrave that encourages learners to filter out the noise and make those choices in a hard-nosed and clear-eyed way. Prof. Rosenberg’s nuanced and fact-based point of view recognizes the complexity of the issues at hand and the strategic choices businesses must make. He blends the work of some of the leading academic thinkers in the field with practical examples from a variety of business sectors and geographies and offers a framework with which senior management might engage with the topic, not (just) to save the planet but to fulfil their short, medium and long-term responsibilities to shareholders and other stakeholders.
  • Become a Sustainable Business Change Agent Specialization (University of Colorado). This specialization is for anyone who would like to improve how their company or organization impacts the environment, people, and communities. We will introduce you to some of the key concepts and tools of sustainable business, then teach you how to be an effective change agent. By the end of the specialization you will have the skills to create an effective sustainability proposal and know who you have to convince, and what they need to be convinced.
  • A peer-reviewed thesis. Normally, the thesis does not exceed 100 pages in length (including title page, abstracts, table of contents, contribution of authors/preface, acknowledgements, bibliography/reference list, and appendices). The thesis must be as succinct as is consistent with the sound scholarly exposition of the subject under investigation and disciplinary norms. There is no page limit, but unnecessarily long theses are viewed negatively since one of the norms of academic scholarship is concision. The peer review is at the heart of the research. It is the gold standard for ensuring the trust and integrity of scholarly communication. In addition, it is a form of collaboration among experts, with critical feedback often improving research and helping propel research forward.

If students need help writing their thesis, we are able to match them with a personal and professional thesis tutor & coach. The thesis tutor helps the student with thesis problems and questions.. Once the student has completed her/his thesis, the Ludwig von Mises School of Economics will publish and promote the thesis.

Accreditation

The individual courses are taught by accredited universities. The thesis will be validated by a professor who teaches at an accredited university. The post-graduate diploma will be issued by the National Pedagogical Dragomanov University, a leading Ukrainian University in Kiev, which has III-IV accreditation level.

Fees

The fees for the Postgraduate Certificate in Economics of the Ludwig von Mises School of Economics are EUR 1.500 Euro plus EUR 331 p/y (subject to price changes by Coursera) for a Coursera Plus subscription for the coursework. Special coaching and advising fees apply in case students need help with their thesis.

MSE offers a fee waiver of the aforementioned EUR 1.500 for individuals from developing countries (as per the World Bank Classification of Low-Lower/Upper-Middle Income Countries). MSE recognizes that these individuals could greatly benefit from the services and information available to MSE members and that the MSE would greatly benefit by including these individuals as members. MSE ‘s mission is to promote sustainable economics and outcomes research excellence to improve decision making for sustainability globally. 

In certain cases, Coursera also offers financial aid to students who could benefit from Coursera’s paid products, but cannot afford to pay the associated fees.

Application

Application is easy through Coursera. In order to issue you a diploma, we’ll need to verify your identity. The application process starts here. Please contact us for further information (mse @ ssl-mail.com).

Management

Bar. Dr. rer. nat. h.c. R.A.U. Juchter van Bergen Quast, LLM | Chief Executive Officer, Swiss Chamber of Commerce in The Netherlands.

Prof. Dr. hab. Dr. phil. V.P. Andrushchenko | Rector, National Pedagogical Dragomanov University in Kiev | Academician, National Academy of Educational Sciences of Ukraine.

Prof. Dr. phil. h.c. Dr. rer. nat. h.c. M. Hunzinger | Honorary Professor in the field of public relations at the National Pedagogical Dragomanov University in Kiev.