Papie Papier n#176; 68 - ifs.u-strasbg.fr.pdf

Laboratoire de Recherche en Gestion LARGE LARGE Economie Papier Papier n° 68 On the Backwardness in Macroeconomic Performance of European Socialist Economies Laurent Weill Faculté des sciences économiques et de gestion September, 2004 PEGE 61, avenue de la Forêt Noire 67085 STRASBOURG Cedex Tél. : (33) 03 90 24 21 52 Fax : (33) 03 90 24 21 51 www-ulp.u-strasbg.fr/large On the Backwardness in Macroeconomic Performance of European Socialist Economies Laurent Weill¤+ Université Robert Schuman, LARGE Abstract: This paper aims to compare the macroeconomic performance of three European socialist economies (Hungary, Poland, Yugoslavia) with developing and developed countries during the eighties. Using panel data for 87 countries, we measure macroeconomic performance with two frontier efficiency techniques: the stochastic frontier approach, and the time-varying WITHIN model proposed by Cornwell, Schmidt and Sickles (1990). We conclude in favor of the underperformance of socialist countries in relation to developed countries but also to developing countries, which may be explained by the features of the socialist economic system. Keywords: productivity analysis, socialist system, stochastic frontier approach, growth. JEL Classification : C21, C23, O4, P20. ¤ Corresponding author: Laurent Weill, Université Robert Sc