This is one of the classical essays of Friederich A. von Hayek. Perhaps the one that has had the greatest influence on subsequent thought. Essentially, the idea is that the knowledge necessary for economic development is not something that is given beforehand but rather is discovered in the framework of free competition. The market is, therefore, a mechanism of extraction and transmission of information that cannot be substituted by planning as without it, it would simply not be available. Estudios Publicos is reprinting this essay as a posthumous homage to Friderich A. von Hayek.