Discussion paper

DP91 The Theory and Measurement of Macroeconomic Disequilibrium in Centrally Planned Economies

The paper considers issues in recent research on macroeconomic equilibrium in centrally planned economies. I defend the explicit aggregative, macroeconomic approach in theory, institutional relationships and measurement. It has offered a fresh, coherent framework for the analysis of many Centrally Planned Economies phenomena, opened up a range of possibilities for empirical investigation, and generated several important spinoffs: work on planners' behaviour; insights into CPE policy problems of the 1970s and early 1980s, which centred on macroeconomic equilibrium and threats to it; and some developments in market economy macro theory and econometrics. The quantity-rationing macro model and disequilibrium econometrics give a more useful as well as a more nuanced view of macroeconomic reality in CPEs than the conventional wisdom characterizing them as perpetual "shortage economies".

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Citation

Portes, R (1986), ‘DP91 The Theory and Measurement of Macroeconomic Disequilibrium in Centrally Planned Economies‘, CEPR Discussion Paper No. 91. CEPR Press, Paris & London. https://cepr.org/publications/dp91