ECONOMIC-CRISIS IN A SHORTAGE ECONOMY

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: OSBAND, K
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF POLITICAL ECONOMY
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0022-3808
• DOI: 10.1086/261835
• 发表日期: 1992
• 页码: 673-690
• 关键词: CENTRALLY PLANNED-ECONOMY; REPRESSED INFLATION; resale; GOODS

摘要

It is not unusual for reforming socialist economies to relax wage controls without hardening budget constraints on enterprises or freeing consumer goods prices. This policy can be dangerously destabilizing. While higher wages permit workers to purchase more of some goods, they also tend to exacerbate shortages and to breed waste and corruption. Beyond a certain level, economywide wage hikes will worsen worker welfare. This is true regardless of whether deficit goods are strictly rationed, are sold randomly at official prices to queuing workers, or are offered to workers by insiders only at black-market prices. However, the form of allocation does influence the levels of output and welfare.