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From market to non-market: An autonomous agent approach to central planning1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 December 2007

DAN GREENWOOD
DAN GREENWOOD
Affiliation:
Centre for the Study of Democracy, University of Westminster, 32–38 Wells Street, London W1T 3UW, UK; e-mail: [email protected]
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Abstract

In the longstanding debate in political economy about the feasibility of socialism, the Austrian School of Economists have argued that markets are an indispensable means of evaluating goods, hence a prerequisite for productive efficiency. Socialist models for non-market economic calculation have been strongly influenced by the equilibrium model of neoclassical economics. The Austrians contend that these models overlook the essence of the calculation problem by assuming the availability of knowledge that can be acquired only through the market process itself. But the debate in political economy has not yet considered the recent emergence of agent-based systems and their applications to resource allocation problems. Agent-based simulations of market exchange offer a promising approach to fulfilling the dynamic functions of knowledge encapsulation and discovery that the Austrians show to be performed by markets. Further research is needed in order to develop an agent-based approach to the calculation problem, as it is formulated by the Austrians. Given that the macro-level objectives of agent-based systems can be easily engineered, they could even become a desirable alternative to the real markets that the Austrians favour.

Type
Articles
Information
The Knowledge Engineering Review , Volume 22 , Issue 4 , December 2007 , pp. 349 - 360
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2007

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