The Legacy of Janos Kornai

"Janos Kornai was one of the foremost economic thinkers in the world. It is a great pity that his work didn’t receive quite as much attention as it deserved. I am delighted that Professor Mehrdad Vahabi has written this beautiful book about the importance of Kornai's contributions. We have reason to be grateful to him."

- Amartya Sen (Nobel Laureate 1998, Harvard University)

“Janos Kornai was the world’s leading scholar on the differences between socialist and capitalist economies, and no one knows his work better than Mehrad Vahabi.  In this volume, Professor Vahabi collects many of his important papers on Kornai’s contributions and offers an introduction that ties them all together. The book will be of great value to anyone seeking a deep understanding of Kornai’s legacy.”

- Eric Maski (Nobel Laureate 2007, Harvard University)

This book examines the intellectual legacy of economist Janos Kornai and explores his unique contribution to economics. It addresses the key themes within Kornai’s work and shows how his ideas relate to the leading figures within economics. After highlighting the influence of Marx and Hayek on Kornai, his major contribution to comparative economics and analysis of capitalist and socialist economic systems is examined. How they fed into his conceptualization of hard and soft budget constraints and complemented his work on economic theory, in particular debates around Walrasian and Marshallian equilibrium theory, is also discussed.

This book offers insight into the work of Janos Kornai and his impact upon economics. It will be of relevant to students and researchers interested in the history of economic thought and comparative economics.

Mehrdad Vahabi is Professor of Economics at University Sorbonne Paris Nord.