| By: |
Brigitte Granville;
Judith Shapiro |
| Abstract: |
Robbins’s central contribution to the debate on market versus plan links with
identification of economics as science of how societies handle scarcity, a
central contribution of the Essay. This was not a narrow focus on static
efficiency; inflation was a key part of Robbins’s conception of (mis)handling
scarcity. The irony that transition to the market led to movement away from
the market in economics is analysed, highlighting the obscured role of
macroeconomics, and questioning a new conventional wisdom that Russia should
have followed the Chinese path of gradual and Pareto-improving institutional
development. A conclusion is that the demise of the Washington Consensus
should not lead to a new dogma: the neoclassical paradigm is not being
replaced but extended. |
| Keywords: |
Transition, Lionel Robbins, socialist calculation debate, Russia, inflation |
| JEL: |
P21 B31 |
| Date: |
2008–05 |
| URL: |
http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cgs:wpaper:11&r=cis |