Soviet growth and American textbooks: An endogenous past

David Levy and Sandra J. Peart

Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, 2011, vol. 78, issue 1, 110-125

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.

Keywords: Soviet growth; Textbooks; Samuelson; Tarshis; Nutter; PPF; Ideology; Second-best (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: A20 P17 P27 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2011
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (19)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:jeborg:v:78:y:2011:i:1:p:110-125

DOI: 10.1016/j.jebo.2010.12.012

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