The Use of Knowledge in Firms

Austrian economics allows us to identify a number of weak spots in the modern economics of organization that all relate to the treatment of knowledge. Specifically, this body of theory is open to the same kind of objections that HAYEK [1937, 1945] raised against economics, namely that it does not incorporate truly dispersed knowledge, and therefore significantly understates the nature and severity of the coordination problems that confront social systems. However, rather than rejecting the modern economics of organization and opting for an alternative research program, this paper suggests that a combined research effort may be worthwhile.