In this collection of writings, Nobel laureate Friedrich A. Hayek discusses topics from moral philosophy and the methods of the social sciences to economic theory as different aspects of the same central issue: free markets versus socialist planned economies. First published in the 1930s and 40s, these essays continue to illuminate the problems faced by developing and formerly socialist countries.

F. A. Hayek, recipient of the Medal of Freedom in 1991 and winner of the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics in 1974, taught at the University of Chicago, the University of London, and the University of Freiburg. Among his other works published by the University of Chicago Press is The Road to Serfdom, now available in a special fiftieth anniversary edition.

CONTENTS:

I: Individualism: True and False
II: Economics and Knowledge
III: The Facts of the Social Sciences
IV: The Use of Knowledge in Society
V: The Meaning of Competition
VI: "Free" Enterprise and Competitive Order
VII: Socialist Calculation I: The Nature and History of the Problem
VIII: Socialist Calculation II: The State of the Debate (1935)
IX: Socialist Calculation III: The Competitive "Solution"
X: A Commodity Reserve Currency
XI: The Ricardo Effect
XII: The Economic Conditions of Interstate Federalism

AUTHOR:

F. A. Hayek (1899–1992), recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1991 and co-winner of the Nobel Prize in Economics in 1974, was a pioneer in monetary theory and a leading proponent of classical liberalism in the twentieth century. He taught at the University of London, the University of Chicago, and the University of Freiburg.