Centrally planned economies tend to be less efficient than economies in which agents are free to choose their output targets, as well as the means to meet them. This paper presents a simple model of planner-manager interactions and shows how planned economies can end up in a low-effort,...

It was always maintained by Soviet theorists that the distinguishing feature of the Soviet socialist or Communist economy would be centralized economic planning. This was their sine qua non and all discussions over the Soviet economic model revolved around two questions: what should be the...

This paper examines credit origins of the business cycle in the former Czechoslovakia. Industrial production is found to be cointegrated with various measures of bank credit during 1976-90 and it is shown that noninvestment credits are Granger-causing industrial production and that a feedback...

Since the economic calculation debate of the 1920-30s, it is known that it is impossible to create a coherent balanced plan that equates supply and demand of millions of goods and services in the national economy, not to speak about the optimal plan. It is not well understood, though, how the...

Preserving the direction of the Chinese Communist Party after the death of Mao Zedong, Deng Xiao Ping has lead a process of economic and structural reforms that led China to open to the outside world and become one of the impelling forces of globalization. China's admission to the WTO, in 2001,...

The ""red files"" revealed. Examining the period from the early 1930s through Stalin's death in 1953?the height of the Stalinist regime?this enlightening book reveals what we have learned from the archives, what has surprised us, and what has confirmed what we already knew. Most of the authors...