The Sphere of Economic Calculation
3 May 2008 at 3:42 pm Peter G. Klein 1 comment
| Peter Klein |
Today’s Weekend Article from the Mises Institute is “The Sphere of Economic Calculation,” an excerpt from chapter 12 of Mises’s Human Action. (Check out the super-cool graphic!) The article expands on Mises’s pathbreaking 1920 paper on the need for prices in any system that aims at a rational allocation of resources.
Mises’s theory of factor pricing and its role in cost accounting — what he calls the problem of “economic calculation” — is near and dear to my heart, having written one of my first published articles on the subject. It’s also received a bit of attention here at O&M (1, 2, 3, 4, 5).
Entry filed under: - Klein -, Austrian Economics, Theory of the Firm.
Organizations and Markets 
1.
Toke Reichstein | 20 May 2008 at 4:13 pm
I hate to point out the obvious. But in case Prof. Kline refers to the black and white self-reflection of Mises in a glass ball as being the cool graphics, then I would like to draw attention to the picture as being a copy of the famous drawing by M. C. Escher, a Dutch graphics artist mostly recognized for spatial illusions. His work is often in the form of impossible constructions, but also his illustrations of repeated geometric patterns, his word carving work and lithography’s deserves mentioning. His work is interestingly discussed and put into perspective by Douglas R. Hofstadter in his Pulitzer prize winning publication: “Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid”. An intriguing book on what he calls strange loops.
I otherwise agree with Prof. Kline that the publication from the Mises Institute is worth a read.