Lindbeck, Assar () (Research Institute of Industrial Economics (IFN))
Abstract
The publication of János Kornai’s memoirs, By Force of Thought, provides an excellent opportunity to remind ourselves of Kornai’s great contributions to economic research. This paper discusses both his basic research strategy and some of his main research results. Kornai has usually dealt with great, system-oriented issues, and he has been more inspired by real-world observations than by scholarly work by others. The paper also emphasizes that Kornai’s two most celebrated characterizations of real world socialist economies – "shortage economies" and production units with "soft budget constraints" – are analytically closely connected. Kornai also, in his more recent works, regards the centralized political system during communism as the basic explanation for the centralized nature of the economic system in these countries.
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Publisher Info
Paper provided by Research Institute of Industrial Economics in its series Working Paper Series with number
724.
Length: 9 pages Date of creation: 03 Dec 2007 Date of revision: Handle: RePEc:hhs:iuiwop:0724
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Find related papers by JEL classification: B24 - Schools of Economic Thought and Methodology - - History of Economic Thought since 1925 - - - Socialist; Marxist; Scraffian B31 - Schools of Economic Thought and Methodology - - History of Thought: Individuals - - - Individuals L10 - Industrial Organization - - Market Structure, Firm Strategy, and Market Performance - - - General P20 - Economic Systems - - Socialist Systems and Transition Economies - - - General
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