Hayek makes a very strong argument that no centrally planned economy could ever match an open market because even an incredibly knowledgeable central planner would only have access to small quantity of the information that, in an open market, would be pushing the price in one direction or another. Hayek makes an impassioned argument that the price mechanism alone (which called a "marvel" and argues is vastly under-appreciated both academically and more broadly) represents and reflect knowledge and that price fluctuations in an open market are the best possible means of representing the aggregate knowledge of all market participants. Plans for these planned economies called for the aggregation of statistical information to a central authority who could them manage economic activity in an orderly way. The article is framed largely as a response to Oskar Lange and a number of other economic advocations for centrally planned economies - especially in regards to socialism. The use of knowledge in Society is a classic economic text by the Austrian-school economist Friedrich Hayek and represents what is perhaps the classic text from that school and a fundamental text in economics more broadly. ( RSS) knowledge ( RSS), society ( RSS), economics ( RSS) Internet Archive Scholar (search for fulltext): The use of knowledge in society Hayek (1945) The use of knowledge in society.
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