Ludwig von Mises’ Argument Against the Possibility of Socialism: Early Concepts and Contemporary Relevance

Ludwig Van Den Hauwe

A chapter in The First Socialization Debate (1918) and Early Efforts Towards Socialization, 2019, pp 191-222 from Springer

Abstract: Abstract Disagreements regarding the Socialist Calculation Debate (SCD) persist to this day and focus on interpretative issues and on its conclusiveness. This paper argues that both camps have largely been talking past one another and reviews 1. the early argument of Mises and predecessors; 2. the development of an “orthodox line” and its subsequent challenge by the emergence of a revisionist account; 3. the persistence of the standard account under the influence of both Friedrich von Wieser and Joseph Schumpeter; 4. lessons of the SCD for the theory of the firm; 5. the questionable relevance of Mechanism Design Theory for correctly understanding the SCD; and 6. the relevance of Gödel’s Incompleteness Phenomenon in the context of computable economics.

Keywords: Socialist calculation debate; Market socialism; Mathematical solution; Mechanism design theory; Computable economics; Calculation argument; Incentives; Information; B13; B14; H11; P16; P26; P51 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:euhchp:978-3-030-15024-2_13

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DOI: 10.1007/978-3-030-15024-2_13

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