IP_346 Model of Economic Transformation

Relevance of Economic Systems for Growth

Basic Readings:

• Robert Higgs: "Our Economic Past: The Rise of the West"

lecture notes

Theory and classification of economic systems

Basic Readings:

• Bastiat, Fréderic: "What is seen and what is not seen"
• Reed, Leonard: "I, Pencil"

Supplementary Readings:

• van Dun, Frank: "The Science of Law and Legal Studies - Concepts, Methods, and Values"
• van Dun, Frank: "Reconciling Freedom and Order"
• van Dun, Frank: The Pure Theory of Natural Law
• Buchanan, James: What Should Economists Do?
• Stigler, George: Economics or Ethics?
• Klein, Daniel: A Plea to Economists Who Favour Liberty: Assist the Everyman

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Intellectual sources of Socialism

Basic Readings:

• Lipka, David - Šíma, Josef: "Socialism"
• Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels: The Manifesto of the Communist Party

Supplementary Readings

• Bryan Caplan - The Museum of Communism
• Murray Rothbard: "Karl Marx: Communist as Religious Eschatologist"

• Tom Bethell: "How Private Property Saved the Pilgrims"

• North, Gary: "The Marx Nobody Knows" in Maltsev, Yuri: Requiem for Marx    MP3
• Karl Kautsky: Communism in Central Europe in the Time of the Reformation Ch. 2
• Ludwig von Mises: Socialism, chap. 17
• People in History: Utopian Society Writers, Dreamers, and Thinkers
• Godwin, William: AN ENQUIRY CONCERNING POLITICAL JUSTICE, AND ITS INFLUENCE ON GENERAL VIRTUE AND HAPPINESS
• William Bradford: Of Plymouth Plantation
• Peter J. Boettke: "The Soviet experiment with pure Communism" in idem. Calculation and Coordination, chap. 6
• Peter J. Boettke: "The political economy of utopia: Communism in Soviet Russia, 1918–21" in idem. Calculation and Coordination, chap. 7
• Morelly, Code de la nature
• Von Kuehnelt-Leddhin, Erik: Leftism Revisited

lecture notes

The true reality of socialist countries - why economic transformation was required

Basic Readings:

• TIME magazine - Tomorrow is Three Suits, 1964

Supplementary Readings:

• Political and Economic History of Ghana
• Comecon
• Country studies - CEE countries selected chapters
• Rummel, R. J.: Death by Government, website
• Robert Higgs: Crisis and Leviathan: The Trick that Works Every Time MP3
• Paul Craig Roberts: "My Time with Soviet Economics"
• Cultural revolution in China Wikipedia
• Great Leap Forward Wikipedia
• Chinese holocaust memorial
• Boettke, Peter: "Soviet Venality" in idem. Calculation and Coordination (ch. 8)
• Von Kuehnelt-Leddhin, Erik: Leftism Revisited
• Mises, Ludwig von: Planned Chaos, ch. 7, ch. 8
• Kornai, Janos: "Understanding the Soft Budget Constraint"

lecture notes

Did socialism have to fail?

Basic Readings:

• Hayek, Friedrich: "The Use of Knowledge in Society"

Advanced Readings:

• Salerno, Joseph, "Why a Socialist Economy is 'Impossible'",
• Eugen von Bohm-Bawerk: "Unresolved Contradiction in the Marxian Economic System"
• Reisman, George: Capitalism, c. 8
• Hans-Hermann Hoppe: "Marxist and Austrian Class Analysis"
• Reisman, George: "Classical Economics vs. The Exploitation Theory"
• Boettke, Peter: "Towards a History of the Theory of Socialist Planning"
• MacKenzie, D. W.: "Oskar Lange and the Impossibility of Economic Calculation"
• Caplan, Bryan: "Economic Calculation, Quantitative Laws, and the "Impossibility" of Socialism"
• Boettke, Peter - Leeson, Peter: "Socialism: Still Impossible After All These Years"

lecture notes

Where to go?

Basic Readings:

• John Williamson: What Washington Means by Policy Reform

Advanced Readings:

• Harold Demsetz: "Information and Efficiency: Another Viewpoint" Journal of Law & Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 12(1), pages 1-22, April.
• Joseph Stiglitz: "More Instruments and Broader Goals: Moving Toward the Post-Washington Consensus"
• Daniel Mitchell: "The Historical Lessons of Lower Tax Rates"
• Václav Klaus: Systemic Change The Delicate Mixture Of Intentions And Spontaneity

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Overview of Czech transition

Basic Readings:

• Jan Hanousek, Evžen Kočenda, Lubonír Lízal: Tale of The Czech Transition: Understanding The Challenges Ahead

Advanced Readings:

• David Lipka: "Could we have done Better?"
• Development Centre Studies The World Economy Volume 2: Historical Statistics: HS-3: A. EASTERN EUROPE AND FORMER USSR
• Šíma, Josef; Šťastný Daniel: "A Laissez-Faire Fable of the Czech Republic"

lecture notes

Privatization

Basic Readings:

• Jan Hanousek, Evžen Kočenda, Lubonír Lízal: Tale of The Czech Transition: Understanding The Challenges Ahead

Advanced Readings:

• Hanousek, Jan; Filer, Randall K.: "LANGE AND HAYEK REVISITED: LESSONS FROM CZECH VOUCHER PRIVATIZATION"
• Andrei Shleifer: "State versus Private Ownership"
• Vladimír Dlouhý; Jan Mládek: "Privatization and Corporate Control in the Czech Republic"

lecture notes

Labor market and social policy

Basic Readings:

• Jan Hanousek, Evžen Kočenda, Lubonír Lízal: Tale of The Czech Transition: Understanding The Challenges Ahead

Advanced Readings:

• Andrei Shleifer; Robert Vishny: "Politicians and Firms"

lecture notes

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