Comparative Economics After the Transition

Abstract

The intimation that the two main objects of comparative economics, capital-ism and socialism, might be replaced by a single system to which both might converge, was first stated by Jan Tinbergen. An intermediate, optimal regime—Tinbergen argued—would best serve the needs of economies whose structures were seen as in a process of convergence (an underlying trend, much broader than output and growth rates convergence across countries and currently investigated in economic literature). Thus capitalist economies would be moving towards indicative planning with a growing state enterprise sector and welfare state, while Soviet-type economies would replace direct controls with economic decentralization through market mechanisms and introduce state enterprise autonomy, some private property and enterprise.

Published in Economic Systems, 23, 2, 1999, pp. 155-159. Reproduced with the permission of Elsevier.