Back in the 1990s there was a fascinating debate carried on among various Austrians, mostly in the pages of the Review of Austrian Economics (RAE), on the issue of socialism, the economic calculation problem, and the “knowledge” argument advanced by Hayek and various Hayekians.
The debate was kicked off by some provocative comments by Misesian-Rothbardian Joseph Salerno, first in his Postscript to a 1990 reprint of Mises’s great 1920 article on the socialist calculation problem, and followed by Salerno’s 1993 article kicking off the Mises-Hayek “dehomogenization” debate.
I’ve compiled below a chronological listing of these pieces, and a few other works, with links to online versions, where available, for those who feel like reading up on this interesting issue. This is basically a (skeletal) ebook.
If anyone is aware of any significant material I have omitted, please let me know.
Update: I’ve combined most of the “main debate” and “additional materials” files into a single PDF.
Background:
- Ludwig von Mises, The Equations Of Mathematical Economics And The Problem Of Economic Calculation In A Socialist State [1938]; Economic Calculation in the Socialist Commonwealth (1920); Human Action (1949 [1940]), esp. Ch. 16, Secs. 1, 2, and 3
- F.A. von Hayek, The Use of Knowledge in Society (1945)
Main modern debate:
- Joseph T. Salerno, Postscript [1990], to Mises, Economic Calculation in the Socialist Commonwealth [1920]
- Don Lavoie, Critique of the Standard Account of the Socialist Calculation Debate, JLS, Vol. V, No. 1 (Winter 1981)
- Israel Kirzner, The Economic Calculation Debate: Lessons for Austrians, RAE, Vol. 2 (1988)
- Salerno, Ludwig von Mises as Social Rationalist, RAE, Vol. 4 (1990)
- Murray N. Rothbard, The End of Socialism and the Calculation Debate Revisited, RAE, Vol. 5, No. 2 (1991)
- Jeffrey M. Herbener, Ludwig von Mises and the Austrian School of Economics, RAE, Vo. 5, No. 2 (1991)
- Salerno, Mises and Hayek Dehomogenized, RAE, Vol. 6, No. 2 (1993)
- Larry Eshelman, Ludwig von Mises on Principle, RAE, Vol. 6, No. 2 (1993)
- Leland B. Yeager, Mises and Hayek and Calculation and Knowledge, RAE, Vol. 7, No. 2 (1994)
- Salerno, Reply to Leland B. Yeager on Mises and Hayek on Calculation and Knowledge, RAE, Vol. 7, No. 2 (1994)
- Hans-Hermann Hoppe, Socialism: A Property or Knowledge Problem?, RAE, Vol. 9, No. 1 (1996)
- Herbener, Calculation and the Question of Arithmetic, RAE, Vol. 9, No. 1, (1996)
- Jörg Guido Hülsmann, Knowledge, Judgment, and the Use of Property, RAE, Vol. 10, No. 1 (1997)
- Yeager, Calculation and Knowledge: Let’s Write Finis, RAE, Vol. 10, No. 1 (1997)
- Peter J. Boettke, “Economic Calculation: The Austrian Contribution to Political Economy,” Advances in Austrian Economics, Vol. 5, pp. 131–58, 1998
Subsequent debate and other commentary:
For an example of an application of some of these views to legal and economic issues, see Kinsella, Knowledge, Calculation, Conflict, and Law (review essay of Randy E. Barnett, The Structure of Liberty), Winter 1999, Quarterly Journal of Austrian Economics.
