Boris Brutzkus and the Socialist Calculation Debate

Pencho Penchev ()

Ikonomiceski i Sotsialni Alternativi, 2014, issue 2, 111-128

Abstract: The paper discusses the contribution of the Russian economist Boris Brutzkus to the socialist calculation debate during the 1920s and 1930s. He was among the first economists to prove that the socialist economy could not be organized on a rational basis, because under common ownership of the means of production economic calculation is impossible. In his published theoretical works in Russian and in English Brutskus debunks some of the basic ideas of Marxism and in doing this he uses arguments that others (far more famous) critics of the socialist economic system (Ludwig von Mises and Friedrich Hayek) reached much later. Among the main contributions of Brutzkus are his views on the role of entrepreneurs in a market economy and the inability central authority to collect and process the huge amount of data required for allocation of production between different industries.

Keywords: Boris Brutzkus; socialism; economic calculation; theory (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: B30 P20 P26 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2014
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nwe:iisabg:y:2014:i:2:p:111-128

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