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During the socialist calculation debate, Ludwig von Mises and F. A. Hayek made a positive argument regarding the impossibility of economic calculation under socialism. In this study, I argue that the arguments made by Mises and Hayek have normative implications for capitalism. I do so by drawing an analogy between an Austrian account of the market process and a neo-Aristotelian account of human flourishing. Neither economic calculation follows passively from implementing a set of profit-maximizing rules nor does human flourishing follow passively from following a set of universal moral norms (be they of utilitarian, deontological, or natural law inspiration). Both economic calculation and human flourishing are inherently based on individual acts of knowledge creation, actualized only by self-directed individuals. In both cases, the creation of such knowledge is both contextual and specific to the unique circumstances of each individual of a particular time and place. Therefore, to assume that such knowledge exists ex ante, and is objective and transpersonal across time, place, and institutional context renders both economic calculation and human flourishing into a technological problem of given means and given ends, in essence defining both activities out of existence. The possibility of economic calculation and human flourishing are therefore dependent upon a political/legal order that protects the possibility of self-directed knowledge creation in both the economic and moral realms, that is, to say an institutional framework of private property rights.

The purpose of this paper is to clarify the presuppositions implied in a recent debate about the possibility of economic planning using computing models and to provide additional arguments relevant to the economic calculation debate.

Recalling the fundaments of the classical debate on economic calculation (L. von Mises in 1990, O. Lange in 1936, 1937) and using Cantor's theorem from the set theory the arguments proposed by Robert R. Murphy are reformulated and refined, sustaining the thesis that, in an economic system based on collective forms of property, the central planner must necessarily resort to an infinite uncountable list of prices.

The paper provides additional arguments supporting the thesis that computation in a planned economy implies computation with infinite uncountable domains. In addition, this paper rejects the objections raised by some earlier researchers in 2007 in response to Murphy's theses.

The possibility of computation and calculation in an economic system is of great practical importance. Institutional settlements and policies are not indifferent to the economic calculation problem. Different institutional settings can hinder the very possibility of economic calculation and rational allocation of resources. From this perspective, the conclusions of economic calculation debate are crucial. The economist's and philosopher's criteria used to define institutions and policies must take into account this important question of the possibility of computation and calculation in an economic system.

The paper is of value in providing additional argumentation concerning the economic calculation debate.

This chapter offers the first full translation from Russian to English of the Balance of the National Economy of the USSR, 1924–26’s first chapter. Involving 12 authors and composed of 21 chapters, the Balance is a collective work published in June 1926 in Moscow by the Soviet Central Statistical Administration under the scientific supervision of its former director, Pavel Illich Popov (1872–1950). In this first chapter, titled ‘Studying the Balance of the National Economy: An Introduction’, Popov set the theoretical foundations of what might be considered as the first modern national accounting system and paved the way to multisector macroeconometric modelling.

This paper applies the logic of economic calculation to the actions of autocrats. We model autocrats as stationary bandits who use profit-and-loss calculations to select institutions that maximize their extraction rents. We find in many cases autocrats achieve rent maximization through creating and protecting private property rights. This in turn yields high levels of production, with expropriation kept low enough to incentivize continued high production. Importantly, while this leads to increasing quantities of available goods and services over time, it does not lead to true development; that is, the coordination of consumer demand with producer supply through directing resources to their highest-valued uses. We apply our model to the authoritarian governments of Singapore and the United Arab Emirates, showing how they function as quasi-corporate governance organizations in the business of maximizing appropriable rents.

In the original history of the socialist calculation debate (e.g., Bergson, 1948), Oscar Lange proved that bureaucrats can find the equivalent of equilibrium prices through trial and error. In the revised history of this debate (e.g., Caldwell, 1997; Lavoie, 1985), Lange proposed an erroneous solution to the calculation problem. Dynamic entrepreneurial rivalry moves prices toward equilibrium. Lange and other “Market Socialists” allies thought only in terms of a static competitive market equilibrium that excludes the role entrepreneurs play in adjusting prices.

Since the late 1970s there have been a number of articles devoted to re‐evaluating the issues and arguments involved in the debate concerning comparative economic systems. The present state of this continuing debate is evaluated with regard to modern theories of planning, bureaucracy, motivation and property rights. It appears that the debate has not been settled yet.

This chapter explores the question – where is the economy? In taking up this question, I explore the action of economists in making the economy, framed in the place of ‘place’ in the economy and how the politics of economic data and calculation and boundaries make economies. In this way, I argue for a performative understanding of regional economics where the economy can be said to be made, often out of real things such as hospitals, factories, shops and schools, and infrastructure, but also out of social practices that echo out of the field of economics into institutions and ways of thinking calculatedly.

To make this case of this approach, and to grasp the slippery fish of where the economy is, I introduce autoethnographic materials from my experience of being a regional economic commentator, holding forth on the Waterford economy. These empirics relay the everyday methods of economic analysis as a material and political practice, alighting on the data, calculations and boundaries that go into making the economy. Here the curious relationship between the economist and their economy, the dancer and the dance come into view and how people, including myself, call an economy into being.

All of the above proposals are realities in Western Europe, and it is suggested that the adoption of such “reforms” would substantially reduce the transaction costs of providing compensation to deserving plaintiffs, improve the efficiency of the tort system, and provide manufacturers and service providers with greater predictability and “fairness” in potential tort damages in the United States.

The purpose of this paper is to present an innovative approach for the development of a methodology to systematically assess the economic performance and for the assessment of the economic sustainability of a building, through the calculation of an economic sustainability index, within the sustainability framework according to the rules defined in EN 16627.

The methodology follows the principle of modularity, where aspects and impacts that influence the economic performance of the building during the phases of its life cycle are assigned to levels. It presents a model based on the construction costs of the building. The methodology in centered in the before use phase and restricted to residential buildings.

Definition of a model for assessing the economic performance and calculation of an economic sustainability index.

The methodology is focused only in the before use phase of the buildings, assuming they have the same functional equivalent. It can be expanded to include the other phases of the building life cycle.

The developed methodology will allow the selection of construction procedures, based on economic sustainability, contributing to more rational and support decisions.

Contributing to a more sustainable society.

The European framework of EN 15643 and EN 16627 for the assessment of building sustainability is new and, as such, not implemented in most practical tools. Also, economic sustainability is not usually considered in detail in existing models. This paper presents a methodology following the framework and, simultaneously, possible to integrate in existing approaches.

F. A. Hayek's contribution to economic science is broadly remembered as relating to the “use of knowledge in society” but his contribution to economics of knowledge are often summarized differently. We emphasize the contextual nature of the knowledge. Hayek says the market economy is capable of eliciting and utilizing in the process of coordinating economic activities. There is, however, a double meaning of context that we explore. Hayek developed his argument about the use of knowledge in the context of the socialist calculation debate, and the aspect of knowledge he came to focus on was the contextual nature of knowledge in human action in markets, politics, law, and society. This paper traces out the development of Hayek's focus on the epistemic foundations of the complex coordination in an advanced market economy and shows that his critique of classical and market socialism led to a refined, subtle approach to understanding spontaneous order. Furthermore, it is precisely Hayek's focus on the role of institutions in creating the conditions for the utilization and transference of knowledge through the price system that continues to shape the progressive research programs in economic science and public policy analysis that is his legacy.