Lynne Kiesling
I have a new paper that may be of interest to KP readers, since the subject of the paper is the same as the name of this site: Knowledge Problem. I am honored to have been invited to contribute this paper to the forthcoming Oxford Encyclopedia of Austrian Economics (Peter Boettke and Chris Coyne, eds.). Here’s the abstract:
Hayek’s (1945) elaboration of the difficulty of aggregating diffuse private knowledge is the best-known articulation of the knowledge problem, and is an example of the difficulty of coordinating individual plans and choices in the ubiquitous and unavoidable presence of dispersed, private, subjective knowledge; prices communicate some of this private knowledge and thus serve as knowledge surrogates. The knowledge problem has a deep provenance in economics and epistemology. Subsequent scholars have also developed the knowledge problem in various directions, and have applied it to areas such as robust political economy. In fact, the knowledge problem is a deep epistemological challenge, one with which several scholars in the Austrian tradition have grappled. This essay analyzes the development of the knowledge problem in its two main categories: the complexity knowledge problem (coordination in the face of diffuse private knowledge) and the contextual knowledge problem (some knowledge relevant to such coordination does not exist outside of the market context). It also provides an overview of the development of the knowledge problem as a concept that has both complexity and epistemic dimensions, the knowledge problem?s relation to and differences from modern game theory and mechanism design, and its implications for institutional design and robust political economy.
In this paper I analyze the development of the two categories of the knowledge problem — the complexity knowledge problem and the contextual knowledge problem — and explore both the history of the development of these concepts and their application in robust political economy and new institutional economics. As is the hallmark of a good research project, I think on balance I learned more than I created in the process of writing this paper.
One other thing I made sure to include was a discussion of how the knowledge problem and its development relates to game theory and mechanism design, through the work of Oskar Morgenstern (and then through some of the work of Herb Simon and Vernon Smith, among others).
Tying together economics, institutional design, history of thought, and epistemology, I hope you find this paper informative and useful! I’ll also make sure to update when the full volume is available.