The institutional framework and agricultural development: Implications of the economic calculation debate

Abstract

Perestroika and other central planning initiatives ignore or heavily discount the importance of the political and institutional framework. In the economic calculation debate that occurred more than 50 years ago, the issue was whether rational economic calculation is possible in a centrally directed economy. This debate is summarized and the implications discussed for the transition of socialist economies to market systems in Eastern Europe. It is shown why collectivism will predictably fail as an efficient means of coordinating economic activity and it is argued that the institutional framework warrants more attention by agricultural economists. Copyright 1992 by Oxford University Press.