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Soviet growth and American textbooks: An endogenous past

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  • Levy, David M.
  • Peart, Sandra J.

Abstract

Between 1960 and 1980 American economics textbooks overestimated Soviet growth. They held that the Soviet economy was growing faster than the US economy and yet they kept the ratio of Soviet–US output constant over two decades. The textbooks downplayed any uncertainty associated with such growth estimates. We offer evidence that the optimistic portrait of the Soviet economy in the textbooks was in part driven by an assumption of efficiency and abstraction from institutional concerns.

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  • Levy, David M. & Peart, Sandra J., 2011. "Soviet growth and American textbooks: An endogenous past," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 78(1), pages 110-125.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jeborg:v:78:y:2011:i:1:p:110-125
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jebo.2010.12.012
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    Blog mentions

    As found by EconAcademics.org, the blog aggregator for Economics research:
    1. Quotation of the Day…
      by Don Boudreaux in Cafe Hayek on 2012-09-20 16:38:08
    2. Paul Samuelson, the Gullible and Unrepentant Socialist
      by Pedro H. Albuquerque in Incentives Matter on 2012-09-20 17:02:00

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    10. Crafts, Nicholas & O’Rourke, Kevin Hjortshøj, 2014. "Twentieth Century Growth*This research has received funding from the European Research Council under the European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013) / ERC grant agreement no. 249546.," Handbook of Economic Growth, in: Philippe Aghion & Steven Durlauf (ed.), Handbook of Economic Growth, edition 1, volume 2, chapter 6, pages 263-346, Elsevier.
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Soviet growth; Textbooks; Samuelson; Tarshis; Nutter; PPF; Ideology; Second-best;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • A20 - General Economics and Teaching - - Economic Education and Teaching of Economics - - - General
    • P17 - Political Economy and Comparative Economic Systems - - Capitalist Economies - - - Performance and Prospects
    • P27 - Political Economy and Comparative Economic Systems - - Socialist and Transition Economies - - - Performance and Prospects

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