Printable format for Hayek, The Use of Knowledge in Society _ Library of Economics and Liberty英文资料.pdfVIP

A selected essay reprint Printable format for FAQ: Print Hints http:// / library/ Essays/ hykKnw1.html The Use of Knowledge in Society Hayek, Friedrich A . (1899-1992) C E E The Use of Knowledge in Society AER, 1945 I H .1 What is t he problem we wish to solve when we t ry to const ruct a rat ional economic order? On certain familiar assumpt ions t he answer is simple enough. If we possess all t he relevant informat ion, if we can start out from a given system of preferences, and if we command complete knowledge of available means, t he problem whic h remains is purely one of logic . T hat is, t he answer to t he quest ion of what is t he best use of t he available means is implic it in our assumpt ions. T he condit ions whic h t he solut ion of t his opt imum problem must sat isfy have been fully worked out and can be stated best in mat hemat ical form: put at t heir briefest, t hey are t hat t he marginal rates of subst it ut ion between any two commodit ies or factors must be t he same in all t heir different uses. H .2 T his, however, is emphat ically not t he economic problem whic h soc iety faces. And t he economic calc ulus whic h we have developed to solve t his logical problem, t hough an important step toward t he solut ion of t he economic