JANOS KORNAI AND HIS MEMORABLE WORK

Abstract

Janos Kornai is the foremost economist of the socialist and post-socialist countries in the last 50 years. He was a world-famous scientist, who left behind the great legacy of works published in more than 20 languages. His theory of system anti-equilibrium in the centrally planned economy, the concept of soft and hard budget constraints, and the economic deficit had revolutionary significance for the scientific explanation of the production processes and distribution and deepening of capital in the state socialist economics. His contribution to the political economy of socialism, which he taught at Harvard University was particularly significant. In practice, Kornai was satisfied with the descriptive approach analysing of the socialist system whereas, in works published after 1989 he drew attention to normative economics, proposing the ways of structural reform, institutional constructions, and economic policy in the post-socialist transition stage. His last book, in which anti-equilibrium characterized by deficits under socialism compared with the anti-equilibrium specific to the overflows under capitalism is essential. The evolution of the academic thought of this eminent economist and its influence on real economic processes was analyzed. Polemical comments about the interpretation of economic and social processes, which takes place in China are added.