For Hayek, prices in a market economy are the aggregation of information acquired when the people who own resources are free to use their [[dispersed knowledge|individual knowledge]]. Price then allows everyone dealing in a commodity or its substitutes to make decisions based on more information than he or she could personally acquire, information not statistically conveyable to a centralized authority. Interference from a central authority which affects price will have consequences they could not foresee because they do not know all of the particulars involved. | For Hayek, prices in a market economy are the aggregation of information acquired when the people who own resources are free to use their [[dispersed knowledge|individual knowledge]]. Price then allows everyone dealing in a commodity or its substitutes to make decisions based on more information than he or she could personally acquire, information not statistically conveyable to a centralized authority. Interference from a central authority which affects price will have consequences they could not foresee because they do not know all of the particulars involved. |