Cybernetics in Economics

Kyn, Oldrich and Pelikan, Pavel (1965): Cybernetics in Economics. Published in: Czechoslovak Economic Papers No. 5 (1965)

Abstract

In 1965 Kyn and Pelikan published in Czechoslovakia the book “Kybernetika v Ekonomii” (Cybernetics in Economics). This article, which was published in Prague in English gives the summary and discusses some more important ideas of that book. The book was quite successful and influenced significantly the way economists were at that time looking at the centrally planned economic system imported from the Soviet Union. The main ideas were: a) the crucial role of information in coordination of economic activities; b) the requirements of the appropriate decision making rules; c) the refutation of the prevailing negative views of randomness and spontaneity; d) the role of “natural selection” for processes of self-organization in economic systems. This provided an implicit critique of the over-centralized command economy and indicated the necessity to revive the market economy.

• Item Type: MPRA Paper
• Language: English
• Keywords: Economic Cybernetics; Information; Decission-making; Planning; Selforganization
• Subjects: P - Economic Systems > P2 - Socialist Systems and Transitional Economies > P29 - Other; P - Economic Systems > P2 - Socialist Systems and Transitional Economies > P21 - Planning, Coordination, and Reform