Selected reading: Dispersed knowledge, externalities and market power.
Open the source ↗How to study this source
What gives something value?
Compare price formation with and without the competitive assumptions of your initial example.
Ideas and questions
Read background definitions when a term blocks the argument. Then return to the source and reconstruct its claim in your own words.
Read alongside, read against
Principles of Economics
Carl Menger. Compare assumptions, evidence and scope with the source above. These are editorial companions, not necessarily direct responses.
The Use of Knowledge in Society
Friedrich Hayek. Compare assumptions, evidence and scope with the source above. These are editorial companions, not necessarily direct responses.
Value and Capital
John Hicks. Compare assumptions, evidence and scope with the source above. These are editorial companions, not necessarily direct responses.
Microeconomic Theory
Mas-Colell, Whinston · Green. Compare assumptions, evidence and scope with the source above. These are editorial companions, not necessarily direct responses.
Misbehaving
Richard Thaler. Compare assumptions, evidence and scope with the source above. These are editorial companions, not necessarily direct responses.