“THE FIRST BOOK WRITTEN BY SOMEONE LIVING BEHIND THE IRON CURTAIN TO BE OPENLY CRITICAL OF SOVIET-STYLE EONOMICS”
KORNAI, Janos. Overcentralization in Economic Administration. A Critical Analysis Based on Experience in Hungarian Light Industry. London: Oxford University Press, 1959. Octavo, original red cloth, original dust jacket.
First edition in English of Kornai’s compelling indictment of Eastern European command economies written from inside the Soviet Bloc, translated by John Knapp, inscribed by economist János Kornai to renowned economist Terence Gorman: “To Professor Gorman with my kindest greetings, Dr. J. Kornai. 11th June, 1969,” and also with Gorman’s pencil owner signature.
János Kornai began his career in economics with an appointment as economics editor at the largest daily newspaper in Hungary. There, he quickly learned about the inner workings of a socialist economy through first-hand observation. By 1955, he had entered Hungary's newly founded Institute of Economics of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. Just one year later, he would publish the work in his native language; it was his PhD thesis. It was, however, also the first work critical of communist economics to be written from inside the Iron Curtain. Kornai had taken an almost unparalleled risk. Overcentralization in Economic Administration was skewered inside of Hungary, but Western economists recognized its economic genius. The Kornai-Lipták theory on two-level planning enthralled mathematical economists. Kornai's career took off outside Hungary's borders and the slow cultural change that had begun with the 1956 Hungarian Revolution (which Kornai and other intellectuals and revolutionaries helped to spark) allowed Kornai to seek out his peers abroad. In the years that followed, Kornai went back and forth between Harvard and Budapest, opening up the East to capitalist economics and bringing his ideas to the West. Overcentralization in Economic Administration was first published as Kornai's PhD thesis. The first book edition in Hungarian was published in Budapest in 1957. This is the first edition in English. The man to whom this copy is inscribed, and whose signature is present in pencil, is Professor Terence Gorman of Oxford and the London School of Economics, one of the finest economists of the 20th century. "An architect of modern consumer theory, his ideas are so ingrained in modern economics that we use them daily with almost no acknowledgement. He provided a range of important practical and theoretical insights into consumer behaviour, and, for more than 50 years, guided both students and colleagues in how to model economic activities—and how to test those models once formulated" (The Guardian). Gorman made important contributions in areas including the relationship between individual behavior and aggregate outcomes; understanding the decision-making process; and providing methods for comparing income distributions. Gorman was mentioned on page 160 of Kornai's memoirs.
Book fine, dust jacket near-fine with only light rubbing and slight toning to spine. A handsome inscribed copy with a wonderful association. Rare.