Wirtschaftswissenschaft

Etienne Farvaque, Alexander Mihailov, Alireza Naghavi

The Grand Experiment of Communism: Discovering the Trade-Off between Equality and Efficiency

Jahrgang 174 () / Heft 4, S. 707-742 (36)

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This paper examines how the interplay between economic incentives and social preferences transmitted by ideology plays a role in the rise and fall of communism. We introduce inequality-averse and inefficiency-averse agents and model their conflict in ideology, triggered by envy. The socioeconomic dynamics generate a pendulum-like switch from markets to a centrally planned economy abolishing private ownership, and back to restoring market incentives. The grand experiment of communism is thus characterized as leading to the discovery of a trade-off between equality and efficiency. The model also derives conditions under which the two systems converge and become stable.
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Etienne Farvaque Keine aktuellen Daten verfügbar.

Alexander Mihailov Keine aktuellen Daten verfügbar.

Alireza Naghavi Keine aktuellen Daten verfügbar.