Conjecture

Information and incentive cannot be separated, and this is Part I's genuine addition to Hayek rather than a restatement of him. Knowledge of the peculiar circumstances of time and place can only be unlocked and used with the active cooperation of the person holding it, so without an incentive to act on it or to pass it to a planner, that information is inaccessible and its value is destroyed. Hayek's examples are the mundane and valuable kind: knowing of a machine not fully employed, of somebody's skills that could be better used, of a surplus stock to draw on during an interruption of supply, each as socially useful as knowing a better technique. Part I draws the conclusion that bites: under central planning, without sufficient incentive people do the bare minimum, because why spend effort improving an outcome you receive no part of.

Coordination architecture