IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/cer/papers/wp166.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Lange and Hayek Revisited: Lessons from Czech Voucher Privatization

Author

Listed:
  • Jan Hanousek
  • Randall K. Filer

Abstract

A fundamental question in economics since the 1930s has been whether an administrative price system could simulate the results of perfect competition even without a true market for the means of production. The theoretical possibility of such a system has been known since the introduction of market socialism by Oskar Lange. We have used the artificial bidding market involved in the Czech voucher privatization process to test whether a sequential process of trial-and-error can set administrative prices close to equilibrium. It would appear from this natural experiment that Robbins and Hayek were correct in doubting the real-world feasibility of market socialism.

Suggested Citation

  • Jan Hanousek & Randall K. Filer, 2000. "Lange and Hayek Revisited: Lessons from Czech Voucher Privatization," CERGE-EI Working Papers wp166, The Center for Economic Research and Graduate Education - Economics Institute, Prague.
    • Handle: RePEc:cer:papers:wp166
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.cerge-ei.cz/pdf/wp/Wp166.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Jan Hanousek & Eugene Kroch, 1998. "The two waves of voucher privatization in the Czech Republic: a model of learning in sequential bidding," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 30(1), pages 133-143.
    2. Egon Neuberger, 1973. "The Plan and the Market: The Models of Oskar Lange," The American Economist, Sage Publications, vol. 17(2), pages 148-153, October.
    3. Hingorani, Archana & Lehn, Kenneth & Makhija, Anil K., 1997. "Investor behavior in mass privatization: The case of the Czech voucher scheme," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 44(3), pages 349-396, June.
    4. Jan Svejnar & Miroslav Singer, 1994. "Using vouchers to privatize an economy: the Czech and Slovak case," The Economics of Transition, The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, vol. 2(1), pages 43-69, March.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Belev, Boyan, 2003. "Institutional investors in Bulgarian corporate governance reform: obstacles or facilitators?," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 38(4), pages 361-374, November.
    2. Tomas Jandik & Craig G. Rennie, 2008. "The Evolution of Corporate Governance and Firm Performance in Transition Economies: The Case of Sellier and Bellot in the Czech Republic," European Financial Management, European Financial Management Association, vol. 14(4), pages 747-791, September.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Nandini Gupta & John C. Ham & Jan Svejnar, 2000. "Priorities and Sequencing in Privatization: Theory and Evidence from the Czech Republic," William Davidson Institute Working Papers Series 323, William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan.
    2. Anderson, James H. & Korsun, Georges & Murrell, Peter, 2003. "Glamour and value in the land of Chingis Khan," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 31(1), pages 34-57, March.
    3. Lyn, Esmeralda O. & Zychowicz, Edward J., 2003. "The performance of new equity offerings in Hungary and Poland," Global Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 14(2), pages 181-195, July.
    4. Hingorani, Archana & Lehn, Kenneth & Makhija, Anil K., 1997. "Investor behavior in mass privatization: The case of the Czech voucher scheme," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 44(3), pages 349-396, June.
    5. Evžen Kočenda & Jan Hanousek, 2012. "State ownership and control in the Czech Republic," Economic Change and Restructuring, Springer, vol. 45(3), pages 157-191, August.
    6. Charness, Gary & Kuhn, Peter, 2011. "Lab Labor: What Can Labor Economists Learn from the Lab?," Handbook of Labor Economics, in: O. Ashenfelter & D. Card (ed.), Handbook of Labor Economics, edition 1, volume 4, chapter 3, pages 229-330, Elsevier.
    7. Jan Hanousek & Evžen Kočenda, 2008. "Kontrolní potenciál státu nad zprivatizovanými podniky [Control potential of the state in privatized firms]," Politická ekonomie, Prague University of Economics and Business, vol. 2008(4), pages 467-483.
    8. Mohd Hassan Che Haat & Rashidah Abdul Rahman & Sakthi Mahenthiran, 2008. "Corporate governance, transparency and performance of Malaysian companies," Managerial Auditing Journal, Emerald Group Publishing, vol. 23(8), pages 744-778, September.
    9. Jan Bena & Jan Hanousek, 2008. "Rent Extraction by Large Shareholders: Evidence Using Dividend Policy in the Czech Republic," Czech Journal of Economics and Finance (Finance a uver), Charles University Prague, Faculty of Social Sciences, vol. 58(03-04), pages 106-130, May.
    10. Iwasaki, Ichiro & Kočenda, Evžen, 2017. "Are some owners better than others in Czech privatized firms? Even meta-analysis can’t make us perfectly sure," Economic Systems, Elsevier, vol. 41(4), pages 537-568.
    11. Jan Hanousek & Evžen Kočenda & Jan Svejnar, 2007. "Origin and concentration," The Economics of Transition, The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, vol. 15(1), pages 1-31, January.
    12. Bruce Kogut & Andrew Spicer, 2000. "Institutional Technology and the Chains of Trust: Capital Markets and Privatization in Russia and the Czech Republic," William Davidson Institute Working Papers Series 335, William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan.
    13. Viktor Kvĕtoň & Aleš Bĕlohradský & Jiří Blažek, 2020. "The variegated role of proximities in acquisitions by domestic and international companies in different phases of economic cycles," Papers in Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 99(3), pages 583-602, June.
    14. Jan Hanousek & Evžen Kočenda, 2011. "Learning by investing," The Economics of Transition, The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, vol. 19(1), pages 125-149, January.
    15. Jan Hanousek & Evžen Kočenda & Jan Svejnar, 2009. "Divestitures, privatization and corporate performance in emerging markets," The Economics of Transition, The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, vol. 17(1), pages 43-73, January.
    16. Jan Svejnar & Evzen Kocenda, 2002. "The Effects of Ownership Forms and Concentration on Firm Performance after Large-Scale Privatization," William Davidson Institute Working Papers Series 471, William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan.
    17. Claessens, Stijn & Djankov, Simeon, 1999. "Ownership Concentration and Corporate Performance in the Czech Republic," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 27(3), pages 498-513, September.
    18. Jarko FIDRMUC & Matus SENAJ, 2014. "Income, Schooling and Housing Wealth during Economic Reforms," Czech Journal of Economics and Finance (Finance a uver), Charles University Prague, Faculty of Social Sciences, vol. 64(2), pages 160-176, March.
    19. Atanasov, Vladimir, 2005. "How much value can blockholders tunnel? Evidence from the Bulgarian mass privatization auctions," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 76(1), pages 191-234, April.
    20. Jones, Steven L. & Megginson, William L. & Nash, Robert C. & Netter, Jeffry M., 1999. "Share issue privatizations as financial means to political and economic ends," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 53(2), pages 217-253, August.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    JEL classification:

    • P00 - Political Economy and Comparative Economic Systems - - General - - - General
    • P22 - Political Economy and Comparative Economic Systems - - Socialist and Transition Economies - - - Prices

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:cer:papers:wp166. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Lucie Vasiljevova (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/eiacacz.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.