The search for alternatives to capitalism and the problem of comparative assessment of the performance of socialist and capitalist systems have inspired one of the richest and most remarkable episodes in the history of economic thought. By the mid 20th century an entire field had emerged, conceptualizing, theorizing, monitoring, and analyzing the largest and most consequential social and economic natural experiment in human history: Real-life Socialism. This research review focuses on the fundamental literature associated with the comparative study of socialist and capitalist systems. It features both a well-rounded inquiry of the modern history of economic thought, as well as a vibrant and critical disentanglement of the role of the economic system from the role of environment and policy decisions, as determinants of economic performance. This review will be an interesting and invaluable research resource for academics and students alike.

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Contents: Acknowledgements Introduction Paul Dragos Aligica and Peter J. Boettke PART I COMPARATIVE FRAMEWORKS AND APPROACHES 1. David Conn (1978), ‘Economic Theory and Comparative Economic Systems: A Partial Literature Survey’, Journal of Comparative Economics, 2 (4), December, 355–81 2. Avner Ben-Ner, John Michael Montias and Egon Neuberger (1993), ’Basic Issues in Organizations: A Comparative Perspective’, Journal of Comparative Economics, 17 (2), June, 207–42 3. William Duffy and Egon Neuberger (1972), ‘Toward a Decision-Theoretic Approach to the Study of Economic Systems’, Jahrbuch der Wirtschaft Osteuropas – Yearbook of East-European Economics, 3 (1), 67–85 4. Leonid Hurwicz (1979), ‘Socialism and Incentives: Developing a Framework’, Journal of Comparative Economics, 3 (3), September, 207–16 5. Raaj Kumar Sah and Joseph E. Stiglitz (1986), ‘The Architecture of Economic Systems: Hierarchies and Polyarchies’, American Economic Review, 76 (4), September, 716–27 6. Benjamin Ward (1988), ‘LEP: An Alternative Criterion for Socio-Economic Valuation’, Journal of Economic Issues, XXII (3), September, 763–80 PART II PROBLEMS OF MEASUREMENT AND ASSESSMENT 7. Robert W. Campbell (1959), ‘Problems of United States-Soviet Economic Comparisons’, in Comparisons of the United States and Soviet Economies: Papers Submitted by Panelists Appearing Before the Subcommittee on Economic Statistics: Part I, 86th Congress: 1st Session, Washington, DC, USA: United States Government Printing Office, 13–30 8. G. Warren Nutter (1958), ‘Industrial Growth in the Soviet Union’, American Economic Review: Papers and Proceedings, 48 (2), May, 398–411 9. Evsey D. Domar (1967), ‘An Index-Number Tournament’, Quarterly Journal of Economics, LXXXI (2), May, 169–88 10. Simon Kuznets (1962), ‘Inventive Activity: Problems of Definition and Measurement’, in Universities-National Bureau Committee for Economic Research and Committee on Economic Growth of the Social Science Research Council (eds), The Rate and Direction of Inventive Activity: Economic and Social Factors, Part I, Chapter 1, Princeton, NJ, USA: Princeton University Press, 19–51 11. Abram Bergson (1987), ‘Comparative Productivity: The USSR, Eastern Europe, and the West’, American Economic Review, 77 (3), June, 342–57 12. Abram Bergson (1992), ‘Communist Economic Efficiency Revisited’, American Economic Review: Papers and Proceedings, 82 (2), May, 27–30 13. Steven Rosefielde (2003), ‘The Riddle of Post-war Russian Economic Growth: Statistics Lied and Were Misconstrued’, Europe-Asia Studies, 55 (3), May, 469–81 PART III CASES, SYSTEMS, AND INTERPRETATIONS 14. Gregory Grossman (1963), ‘Notes for a Theory of the Command Economy’, Soviet Studies, XV (2), October, 101–23 15. Eugenia Belova and Paul Gregory (2002), ‘Dictator, Loyal, and Opportunistic Agents: The Soviet Archives on Creating the Soviet Economic System’, Public Choice, 113 (3–4), December, 265–86 16. Walter Eucken (1948), ‘On the Theory of the Centrally Administered Economy: An Analysis of the German Experiment: Part I’, trans. by T. W. Hutchison, Economica, 15 (58), May, 79–100 17. Walter Eucken (1948), ‘On the Theory of the Centrally Administered Economy: An Analysis of the German Experiment: Part II’, trans. by T. W. Hutchison, Economica, 15 (59), August, 173–93 18. Frederic L. Pryor (1988), ‘Corporatism as an Economic System: A Review Essay’, Journal of Comparative Economics, 12 (3), September, 317–44 19. Audrey Donnithorne (1972), ‘China’s Cellular Economy: Some Economic Trends Since the Cultural Revolution’, China Quarterly, 52, October, 605–19 20. Steven Rosefielde and Henry Latané (1980), ‘Decentralized Economic Control in the Soviet Union and Maoist China: One-Man Rule versus Collective Self-Management’, in Steven Rosefielde (ed.), World Communism at the Crossroads: Military Ascendancy, Political Economy, and Human Welfare, Chapter 12, Boston, MA, USA: Martinus Nijhoff Publishing, 273–304 21. Benjamin Ward (1958), ‘The Firm in Illyria: Market Syndicalism’, American Economic Review, 48 (4), September, 566–89 22. Jaroslav Vanek (1969), ‘Decentralization Under Workers’ Management: A Theoretical Appraisal’, American Economic Review, 59 (5), December, 1006–14 PART IV FACETS, DYNAMICS, AND STRUCTURAL CHANGE 23. János Kornai (1986), ‘The Soft Budget Constraint’, Kyklos, 39 (1), February, 3–30 24. Gregory Grossman (1981), ‘The “Second Economy” of the USSR’, in Morris Bornstein (ed.), The Soviet Economy: Continuity and Change, Chapter 4, Boulder, CO, USA: Westview Press, 71–93 25. Morris Bornstein (1978), ‘The Administration of the Soviet Price System’, Soviet Studies, XXX (4), October, 466–90 26. Joseph S. Berliner (1978), ‘Innovation and Central Economic Planning’, Il Politico, 43 (1), March, 47–61 27. Nicolas Spulber (1959), ‘The Soviet-Bloc Foreign Trade System’, Law and Contemporary Problems, State Trading: Part II, 24 (3), Summer, 420–34 28. Jan Tinbergen (1961), ‘Do Communist and Free Economies Show a Converging Pattern?’, Soviet Studies, XII (4), April, 333–41 29. Robert C. Stuart and Paul R. Gregory (1971), ‘The Convergence of Economic Systems: An Analysis of Structural and Institutional Characteristics’, Jahrbuch der Wirtschaft Osteuropas – Yearbook of East-European Economics, 2, 425–41 30. Frederic L. Pryor (1970), ‘Barriers to Market Socialism in Eastern Europe in the Mid 1960s’, Studies in Comparative Communism, 3 (2), April, 31–64 31. Peter Murrell and Mancur Olson (1991), ‘The Devolution of Centrally Planned Economies’, Journal of Comparative Economics, 15 (2), June, 239–65 PART V COMPARATIVE ECONOMIC SYSTEMS AND THE NEW COMPARATIVE ECONOMICS 32. Simeon Djankov, Edward Glaeser, Rafael La Porta, Florencio Lopez-de-Silanes and Andrei Shleifer (2003), ‘The New Comparative Economics’, Journal of Comparative Economics, 31 (4), December, 595–619 33. Peter J. Boettke, Christopher J. Coyne, Peter T. Leeson and Frederic Sautet (2005), ‘The New Comparative Political Economy’, Review of Austrian Economics, 18 (3–4), December, 281–304 34. Josef C. Brada (2009), ‘The New Comparative Economics versus the Old: Less Is More but Is It Enough?’, European Journal of Comparative Economics, 6 (1), 3–15 35. Bruno Dallago (2004), ‘Comparative Economic Systems and the New Comparative Economics’, European Journal of Comparative Economics, 1 (1), 59–86 36. J. Barkley Rosser Jr. and Marina V. Rosser (2008), ‘A Critique of the New Comparative Economics’, Review of Austrian Economics, 21 (1), March, 81–97 Index