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Socialist growth revisited: insights from Yugoslavia

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  • Kukić, Leonard
Abstract
Beyond the recent past, and beyond the Soviet Union, we know little about the performance of Eastern European economies. This paper fills the knowledge void by analyzing socialist Yugoslavia using a diagnostic tool that identifies the mechanisms that drive economic growth - business cycle accounting. The analysis provides novel findings. During the “Golden Age" of economic growth, total factor productivity became gradually more important in sustaining economic growth. Distorted labour incentives were a major constraint on growth since the mid-1960s, and explain the slowdown of the economy during the 1980s. Socialist growth was primarily handicapped by poor incentives to work, rather than by poor incentives to innovate or to imitate. In an attempt to liberalise the economy, economic power was delegated to the labour-managed firms. These firms were maximising income per worker, which I hypothesise hindered the ability of Yugoslavs to work.

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  • Kukić, Leonard, 2017. "Socialist growth revisited: insights from Yugoslavia," Economic History Working Papers 85079, London School of Economics and Political Science, Department of Economic History.
    • Handle: RePEc:ehl:wpaper:85079
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    Cited by:

    1. Leonard Kukić, 2020. "Origins of regional divergence: economic growth in socialist Yugoslavia," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 73(4), pages 1097-1127, November.
    2. Leonard Kukić, 2021. "The Nature Of Technological Failure: Patterns Of Biased Technical Change In Socialist Europe," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 35(3), pages 895-925, July.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    economic growth; economic history; Yugoslavia; socialism;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • N14 - Economic History - - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics; Industrial Structure; Growth; Fluctuations - - - Europe: 1913-
    • O47 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Growth and Aggregate Productivity - - - Empirical Studies of Economic Growth; Aggregate Productivity; Cross-Country Output Convergence
    • P27 - Political Economy and Comparative Economic Systems - - Socialist and Transition Economies - - - Performance and Prospects

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