János Kornai’'s Contributions to Economic Analysis

Arbeitspapier

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.

Object Details

• Language: Englisch

References and Relationships

• Bibliographic citation: Series: IFN Working Paper ; No. 724

Classification and Topics

• Classification: Wirtschaft ; History of Economic Thought since 1925: Socialist; Marxist; Sraffian ; History of Economic Thought: Individuals ; Market Structure, Firm Strategy, and Market Performance: General ; Socialist Systems and Transitional Economies: General
• Subject: Socialism ; Soft Budget Constraints ; Shortage Economy ; Economic Centralization ; Sozialismus ; Zentrale Wirtschaftsplanung ; Budgetrestriktion ; Übergangswirtschaft ; Dogmengeschichte

Contributors, Places and Time

• Event: Geistige Schöpfung
• (who): Lindbeck, Assar
• Event: Veröffentlichung
• (who): Research Institute of Industrial Economics (IFN)
• (where): Stockholm
• (when): 2007

Further information

• Handle: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/81186
• Last update: 10.03.2025, 11:44 AM CET