On the meaning of aggregate excess supply and demand for consumer goods in Soviet-type economies

Abstract

This paper discusses the policy relevance of a pure macroeconomic approach towards the problem of disequilibrium on the consumer good market in the traditional Soviet-type economies. It is argued that, when fixed distorted relative prices create both excess demands and excess supplies on the micromarkets, and if such a situation must absolutely be characterized in terms of aggregate excess supply, excess demand, or equilibrium, then, in view of the possible policy implications of this characterization, it is generally in the interest of the consumers that the planners perceive it as a situation of aggregate excess demand. Copyright 1990 by Oxford University Press.