Information and Economics
نویسندگان
چکیده
In a series of recent writings we have sought to re-open a debate over the economics of socialism. We have argued that the collapse of the Soviet system does not necessitate the conclusion that all forms of socialist economy are doomed to inefficiency. Updating and extending a line of reasoning found in Lange (1967) and Johansen (1977),1 we have claimed that modern information technology permits the construction of a form of planned economy that is both equitable and efficient.2 We mention these points to place the present piece in context; we shall not, however, attempt to justify them here. Our present object is more specific, namely to rebut the criticisms of socialist economic planning put forward by Hayek in his 1945 article “The Use of Knowledge in Society.” We should make the following points clear: We are aware that Hayek’s arguments are not the only ones that have to be met by anyone attempting to defend socialist economics; and further, the arguments in “The Use of Knowledge in Society” are not the only relevant ones advanced by Hayek himself. (In other writings he emphasized the question of incentives, but we shall have little to say on that matter here.) That said, we believe that Hayek’s arguments concerning economic knowledge or information— the locus classicus of which is the article we have chosen to discuss—have been very influential, and that a plausible response to these would itself be of some significance. As one index of the role of Hayek’s arguments concerning information and planning, consider the recent book by Joseph Stiglitz, Whither Socialism (1994). Stiglitz is critical of socialist economics, but his critique is almost entirely directed against market socialism. As for a centrally planned economy, he says only that “Hayek had rightly criticized” the Marxian project, “arguing that the central planner could never have the
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