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Hayek and Market Socialism: Science, Ideology and Public Policy

Hayek and Market Socialism: Science, Ideology and Public Policy. Peter J. Boettke George Mason University Hayek Memorial Lecture London School of Economics 19 October 2004. Basic Argument. Hayek’s critique of socialism was grounded in his scientific understanding of economics

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Hayek and Market Socialism: Science, Ideology and Public Policy

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  1. Hayek and Market Socialism: Science, Ideology and Public Policy Peter J. Boettke George Mason University Hayek Memorial Lecture London School of Economics 19 October 2004

  2. Basic Argument • Hayek’s critique of socialism was grounded in his scientific understanding of economics • Hayek’s ideological position was a consequence of his science, and not the other way around • Hayek’s position in this debate had direct policy relevance during his life, and it still has lasting relevance today for public policy • His position is appreciated more today as an ideology than as a scientific proposition, but if his scientific contributions were understood economics as a discipline would be transformed in its theoretical and empirical orientation

  3. Some Basic Background for Understanding Hayek Substantive Political Economy • Menger’s contribution to economics • Subjectivism and Spontaneous Order • Wieser’s contributions to economics • Opportunity costs and imputation theory • Mises’s contribution to economics • Business cycle theory • Problems with socialism

  4. Hayek and Mises: Intertwined Research Programs, Separate Professional Fates • The best way to understand Hayek is to see him as follow up on the questions that Mises first posed, clarifying those questions and providing more subtle answers to those questions. • Business Cycle research • Problems of Socialism • Different political and economic systems

  5. Hayek’s Research Program • Economics as a Coordination Problem • Dovetailing of plans • Complexity of the economic order as it unfolds through time • Economics and Knowledge • Use of knowledge in society • Discovery and learning by economic actors • Liberal Institutions and Economic Activity • Predictability of the framework • Rule of law and generality • Learning environment

  6. Hayek’s contribution to the economics of socialism • Starting state is the acceptance of Mises’s calculation argument • Recognition that despite the truth of Mises’s argument it was not going to deter attempts by (a) economists to answer Mises in theory and (b) the ideological inspired to realize socialism in practice. • Theory --- essays on knowledge and competition as a discovery procedure (1935a, b, 1937, 1940, 1945) • Practice --- The Road to Serfdom (1944).

  7. Progression of the Argument • Private Property Rights • Incentives • Scarce resources • Prices • Information • Relative prices • Profit and Loss • Innovation • New opportunities for mutual benefit • Politics • Infrastructure • Power and predation

  8. The LSE Contribution --- The Counter Reaction to Hayek, or Beyond Lange to Lerner and Durbin • Lionel Robbins, The Economic Problem in Peace and War (1947) “An individualist who recognizes the importance of public goods, and a collectivist who recognizes the desirability of the maximum of individual freedom in consumption will find many points of agreement in common. The biggest dividing line of our day is, not between those who differ about organization as such, but between those who differ about the ends which organization has to serve.”

  9. Consumer sovereignty in the “Market” Socialist Model • Dobb’s rejection of the Dickinson/Lange model of market socialism • Pricing system is inconsistent with the socialist aspiration to abolish commodity production and transcend alienation • Lerner • Pricing system in consumer goods is essential to ensuring that the maximum freedom of the individual is realized • Durbin • “We are socialist in our economics because we are liberals in our philosophy”

  10. Hayek’s Challenge to His Colleagues and His Intellectual Frustration • Unintended consequences • Failure of the market for consumer goods to provide by implication the value of producer goods • Problem with the preoccupation with General equilibrium • The Abuse of Reason Project • Methodological • Formalism and Positivism • Aggregation as masking underlying economic relationships • Ideological • Constructivism

  11. What is the Relevance of Hayek Today? • Science • Epistemic/Cognition direction in economics • North, Kuran, Smith • Entrepreneurial theory of the market process • Baumol, Kirzner, etc. • Public Policy • Emphasis on Institutions and Institutional Capacity • Constructivist versus Ecological Rationality • Simple Rules for Complex World • Ideological Vision • Radical liberalism as an answer in a post-9/11 world • Kukuthas, etc. on toleration and religious and ethnic minorities

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