IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/jeborg/v206y2023icp243-250.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Economic Calculation in Light of Advances in Big Data and Artificial Intelligence

Author

Listed:
  • Lambert, Karras J.
  • Fegley, Tate

Abstract

In his 1920 essay “Economic Calculation in the Socialist Commonwealth,” Ludwig von Mises argued that economic calculation is impossible in a socialist system absent private property and exchange in the means of production. Without the social appraisement process by which the actions of consumers and entrepreneurs produce a money price structure, the commensurate cardinal numbers necessary to engage in capital accounting are not available. We argue that any claims regarding how advances in computer technology can solve the problem of economic calculation are based on an insufficient understanding of Mises' original argument. We restate Mises’ argument in consideration of recent developments in big data and artificial intelligence and argue that Mises’ original argument concerning the impossibility of economic calculation absent the institutional prerequisites of private property and monetary exchange in goods of all orders remains unrefuted.

Suggested Citation

  • Lambert, Karras J. & Fegley, Tate, 2023. "Economic Calculation in Light of Advances in Big Data and Artificial Intelligence," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 206(C), pages 243-250.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jeborg:v:206:y:2023:i:c:p:243-250
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jebo.2022.12.009
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0167268122004528
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.jebo.2022.12.009?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Steven Horwitz, 1996. "Money, money prices, and the socialist calculation debate," Advances in Austrian Economics, in: Advances in Austrian Economics, pages 59-77, Emerald Group Publishing Limited.
    2. Herbener, Jeffrey M, 1996. "Calculation and the Question of Arithmetic," The Review of Austrian Economics, Springer;Society for the Development of Austrian Economics, vol. 9(1), pages 151-162.
    3. Steven Horwitz, 1996. "Money, money prices, and the socialist calculation debate," Advances in Austrian Economics, in: Advances in Austrian Economics, pages 59-77, Emerald Group Publishing Limited.
    4. Salerno, Joseph T, 1993. "Mises and Hayek Dehomogenized: Review Essay," The Review of Austrian Economics, Springer;Society for the Development of Austrian Economics, vol. 6(2), pages 113-146.
    5. Salerno, Joseph T, 1994. "Mises and Hayek on Calculation and Knowledge: Reply," The Review of Austrian Economics, Springer;Society for the Development of Austrian Economics, vol. 7(2), pages 111-125.
    6. Bruce Caldwell, 1997. "Hayek and Socialism," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 35(4), pages 1856-1890, December.
    7. Yeager, Leland B, 1996. "Salerno on Calculation, Knowledge, and Appraisement: Rejoinder," The Review of Austrian Economics, Springer;Society for the Development of Austrian Economics, vol. 9(1), pages 137-139.
    8. Yeager, Leland B, 1997. "Calculation and Knowledge: Let's Write Finis," The Review of Austrian Economics, Springer;Society for the Development of Austrian Economics, vol. 10(1), pages 133-136.
    9. Yeager, Leland B, 1994. "Mises and Hayek on Calculation and Knowledge," The Review of Austrian Economics, Springer;Society for the Development of Austrian Economics, vol. 7(2), pages 93-109.
    10. Salerno, Joseph T, 1996. "A Final Word: Calculation, Knowledge, and Appraisement," The Review of Austrian Economics, Springer;Society for the Development of Austrian Economics, vol. 9(1), pages 141-142.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Gutierrez-Lythgoe, Antonio, 2023. "Movilidad urbana sostenible: Predicción de demanda con Inteligencia Artificial [Sustainable Urban Mobility: Demand Prediction with Artificial Intelligence]," MPRA Paper 117103, University Library of Munich, Germany.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Lopes, Tiago Camarinha, 2022. "Humans, technology and control: An essay based on the metalanguage of economic calculation," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 204(C), pages 631-642.
    2. Göcen, Serdar, 2015. "F. A. Hayek'in Bilgisizlik Teorisi Çerçevesinde Piyasa, Denge ve Planlama [Market, Equilibrium, and Planning within the Framework of F.A. Hayek's Theory of Ignorance]," MPRA Paper 66811, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    3. Salerno Joseph T., 1995. "War And The Money Machine: Concealing The Costs Of War Beneath The Veil Of Inflation," Journal des Economistes et des Etudes Humaines, De Gruyter, vol. 6(1), pages 153-174, March.
    4. Stringham, Edward Peter & Zywicki, Todd J., 2011. "Hayekian anarchism," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 78(3), pages 290-301, May.
    5. Stavros Ioannides, 2000. "Austrian Economics, Socialism and Impure Forms of Economic Organisation," Review of Political Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 12(1), pages 45-71.
    6. Moreno-Casas, Vicente & Espinosa, Victor I. & Wang, William Hongsong, 2022. "The political economy of complexity: The case of cyber-communism," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 204(C), pages 566-580.
    7. Art Carden, 2023. "Economic planning must be polycentric, not monocentric: Introduction to a symposium on Mises and Hayek on socialism and knowledge," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 89(3), pages 647-656, January.
    8. Daniel Finn, 2003. "The moral ecology of markets: on the failure of the amoral defense of markets," Review of Social Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 61(2), pages 135-162.
    9. Octavian-Dragomir Jora & Mihai-Vladimir Topan & Radu Cristian Musetescu & Matei-Alexandru Apavaloaei, 2015. "“Corporate Scene Investigation”: A Praxeological Attempt to Sketch the Profile of the Entrepreneur in Modern Business," The AMFITEATRU ECONOMIC journal, Academy of Economic Studies - Bucharest, Romania, vol. 17(38), pages 456-456, February.
    10. Mehrdad Vahabi, 1999. "From Walrasian General Equilibrium to Incomplete Contracts: Making Sense of Institutions," Post-Print halshs-03704424, HAL.
    11. Harper David A., 2002. "Money and Alertness," Journal des Economistes et des Etudes Humaines, De Gruyter, vol. 12(2), pages 1-17, June.
    12. David.W Versailles, 1999. "Évolution, individualisme et auto-organisation chez Hayek," Cahiers d'Économie Politique, Programme National Persée, vol. 35(1), pages 63-88.
    13. Stefan Kolev & Nils Goldschmidt & Jan-Otmar Hesse, 2020. "Debating liberalism: Walter Eucken, F. A. Hayek and the early history of the Mont Pèlerin Society," The Review of Austrian Economics, Springer;Society for the Development of Austrian Economics, vol. 33(4), pages 433-463, December.
    14. Sandye Gloria-Palermo, 2002. "Continuité dans la pensée hayekienne. Une résistance planifiée contre l'interventionnisme," Recherches économiques de Louvain, De Boeck Université, vol. 68(3), pages 313-333.
    15. Mark Nolan, 2013. "Hayek’s 1945 Finlay Memorial Lecture: Tracing the origins and evolution of his ‘true’ individualism," The Review of Austrian Economics, Springer;Society for the Development of Austrian Economics, vol. 26(1), pages 53-71, March.
    16. Dic Lo & Russell Smyth, 2004. "Towards a re-interpretation of the economics of feasible socialism," Cambridge Journal of Economics, Cambridge Political Economy Society, vol. 28(6), pages 791-808, November.
    17. François Facchini, 2004. "La théorie autrichienne des cycles : une théorie de la récurrence des erreurs collectives d’anticipation," Université Paris1 Panthéon-Sorbonne (Post-Print and Working Papers) hal-01286790, HAL.
    18. Matthew McCaffrey & Nicolai J. Foss & Peter G. Klein & Joseph T. Salerno, 2023. "Breaking out of the Kirznerian box: A reply to Sautet," The Review of Austrian Economics, Springer;Society for the Development of Austrian Economics, vol. 36(3), pages 1-21, September.
    19. Yahya Madra & Fikret Adaman, 2013. "Neoliberal reason and its forms:Depoliticization through economization," Working Papers 2013/07, Bogazici University, Department of Economics.
    20. Gary Scott, 2000. "Equal Educational Opportunity and the Significance of Circumstantial Knowledge," Education Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 8(3), pages 197-208.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    artificial intelligence; big data; Cyber-Communism; economic calculation; Ludwig von Mises;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • B25 - Schools of Economic Thought and Methodology - - History of Economic Thought since 1925 - - - Historical; Institutional; Evolutionary; Austrian; Stockholm School
    • B53 - Schools of Economic Thought and Methodology - - Current Heterodox Approaches - - - Austrian
    • P10 - Political Economy and Comparative Economic Systems - - Capitalist Economies - - - General
    • P22 - Political Economy and Comparative Economic Systems - - Socialist and Transition Economies - - - Prices
    • P51 - Political Economy and Comparative Economic Systems - - Comparative Economic Systems - - - Comparative Analysis of Economic Systems

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:jeborg:v:206:y:2023:i:c:p:243-250. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/jebo .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.