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Indexing: Web of Science (ESCI), Scopus (CiteScore: 1.2)
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Dispute on Efficiency and Sustainability with COVID Crisis: Bureaucratic Government Coaction vs Spontaneous and Flexible Social Coordination (Spanish Case)

Jesús Huerta de Soto 1, Antonio Sánchez-Bayón 2,* and Philipp Bagus 1
1
Department of Applied Economics I, History and Economic Institutions and Moral Philosophy, Social and Legal Sciences Faculty, Rey Juan Carlos University, 28033 Madrid, Spain
2
Department of Business Economics (ADO), Applied Economics II, and Fundamentals of Economic Analysis, Legal and Social Sciences School, Rey Juan Carlos University, 28033 Madrid, Spain
*
For correspondence.
Academic Editor:
Highlights of Sustainability, 2025, 4(4), 205–215.
Received: 7 May 2025    Accepted: 24 September 2025    Published: 17 October 2025
Abstract
This paper reviews the efficiency and sustainability of the management model during the COVID-19 crisis and beyond. There is a comparison between the centralized bureaucratic management versus the agile market alternative or spontaneous and flexible social coordination. This is a study of Political Economy, Management, and Health Economics from the perspective of Austrian economics, with special attention to the Spanish case. The analysis is based on Mises theorem about the impossibility of economic calculation under centralized coactive systems, and other economic principles. In this context, we also pay attention to collateral problems of the centralized and coactive management. Finally, we propose a solution based on dynamic efficiency and the constitutions of wellbeing economics based on digitalization.
Keywords
Copyright © 2025 Huerta de Soto et al. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use and distribution provided that the original work is properly cited.
Funding
This research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.
Cite this Article
Huerta de Soto, J., Sánchez-Bayón, A., & Bagus, P. (2025). Dispute on Efficiency and Sustainability with COVID Crisis: Bureaucratic Government Coaction vs Spontaneous and Flexible Social Coordination (Spanish Case). Highlights of Sustainability, 4(4), 205–215. https://doi.org/10.54175/hsustain4040013
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