Distorted world of Soviet - type economies

The Soviet Union and Eastern Europe provide unique examples of large-scale and relatively highly developed centrally planned economies. In recent years, however, economists in both the East and West have focused with increas ingly critical attention on the economies of the Soviet Bloc, in an attempt to explain why they have performed so poorly in comparison with the econ omies of the Western powers and the capitalist countries of South-East Asia. This book, unusual in that its author is equally familiar with both Western and Eastern sources, makes a substantial and innovative contribution to this critical literature. It highlights, in par ticular, a discrepancy between the behaviour of individuals in Soviet-style economies and that expected of agents in a market system. It proceeds to outline how the consequent discordance between micro economic practice and macroeconemic planning generates fundamental economic distortions, which will not be resolved by the sort of piecemeal economic reforms currently being promulgated in these countries.

Jan Winiecki is Associate Professor in the Institute of Labour Research, War saw and Associate Professor, DoE, Katholic University of Lublin.