The Grand Experiment of Communism: Discovering the Trade-Off Between Equality and Efficiency

NOTA DI LAVORO 70.2011 The Grand Experiment of Communism: Discovering the Trade-off between Equality and Efficiency

By Etienne Farvaque, Equippe - University of Lille 1, Faculté des Sciences Economiques et Sociales, France Alexander Mihailov, University of Reading and University of Warwick, Department of Economics, United Kingdom Alireza Naghavi, University of Bologna, Department of Economics, Italy

Economy and Society Editor: Giuseppe Sammarco

The Grand Experiment of Communism: Discovering the Trade-off between Equality and Efficiency By Etienne Farvaque, Equippe - University of Lille 1, Faculté des Sciences Economiques et Sociales, France Alexander Mihailov, University of Reading and University of Warwick, Department of Economics, United Kingdom Alireza Naghavi, University of Bologna, Department of Economics, Italy

Summary This paper aims to explain the rise and fall of communism by exploring the interplay between economic incentives and social preferences in different economic systems. We introduce inequality-averse and inefficiency-averse agents responding to economic incentives and transmitting their ideology as they are affected by evolving outcomes. We analyze their conflict through the interaction between leaders with economic power and followers with ideological determination. The socioeconomic dynamics of our model generate a pendulum- like switch from markets to a centrally-planned economy abolishing private ownership, and back to restoring market incentives. The grand experiment of communism is thus characterized to have led to the discovery of a trade-o¤ between equality and efficiency at the scale of alternative economic systems.

Keywords: Capitalism, Communism, Inequality, Inefficiency, Ideological Transmission, Economic Transitions

JEL Classification: C72, D31, D63, D74, D83, P51

First draft: January 2011. For useful feedback, we thank Daron Acemoglu, Stephen Broadberry, Mark Casson, Rumen Dobrinsky, John Hartwick, Nigar Hashimzade, Hubert Kempf, Giuseppe Pignataro, the audiences at the annual meetings of the Association for Public Economic Theory (Bloomington), the Canadian Economic Association (Ottawa), the Swiss Society of Economics and Statistics (Lucerne) and seminar participants at Reading, Osaka, and Bologna. Mihailov acknowledges funding from the University of Reading Board for Research in the Social Sciences (Project E3310100, 2010- 2011). Mihailov and Naghavi are grateful to the University of Lille 1 for granting each of them an invited professorship that facilitated the work along the project. The responsibility for any errors and misinterpretations remains our own.

Address for correspondence:

Alireza Naghavi Department of Economics University of Bologna Piazza Scaravilli 2 Bologna 40126 Italy Phone: +39 051 2098873 Fax: +39 051 209 8040 E-mail: [email protected]

The opinions expressed in this paper do not necessarily reflect the position of Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei Corso Magenta, 63, 20123 Milano (I), web site: www.feem.it, e-mail: [email protected]

The Grand Experiment of Communism: Discovering the Trade-o¤ between Equality and E¢ ciency

Etienne Farvaque Alexander Mihailovy Alireza Naghaviz

June 2011x

Abstract

This paper aims to explain the rise and fall of communism by exploring the interplay between economic incentives and social preferences in di¤erent economic systems. We introduce inequality-averse and ine¢ ciency-averse agents responding to economic incentives and transmitting their ideology as they are a¤ected by evolving outcomes. We analyze their con‡ict through the interaction between leaders with economic power and followers with ideological determination. The socioeconomic dynamics of our model generate a pendulum-like switch from markets to a centrally-planned economy abolishing private ownership, and back to restoring market incentives. The grand experiment of communism is thus characterized to have led to the discovery of a trade-o¤ between equality and e¢ ciency at the scale of alternative economic systems.

Key words: capitalism; communism; inequality; ine¢ ciency; ideological transmission; economic transitions

JEL classi…cation codes: C72, D31, D63, D74, D83, P51

Equippe –University of Lille 1, Faculté des Sciences Economiques et Sociales, 59655 Villeneuve d’Ascq Cedex, France; [email protected]. yUniversity of Reading and University of Warwick, Department of Economics, Whiteknights, Reading RG6 6AA, United Kingdom; [email protected]. zCorresponding author: University of Bologna, Department of Economics, Piazza Scaravilli 2, Bologna 40126, Italy; [email protected]. xFirst draft: January 2011. For useful feedback, we thank Daron Acemoglu, Stephen Broadberry, Mark Casson, Rumen Dobrinsky, John Hartwick, Nigar Hashimzade, Hubert Kempf, Giuseppe Pig- nataro, the audiences at the annual meetings of the Association for Public Economic Theory (Bloom- ington), the Canadian Economic Association (Ottawa), the Swiss Society of Economics and Statistics (Lucerne) and seminar participants at Reading, Osaka, and Bologna. Mihailov acknowledges funding from the University of Reading Board for Research in the Social Sciences (Project E3310100, 2010- 2011). Mihailov and Naghavi are grateful to the University of Lille 1 for granting each of them an invited professorship that facilitated the work along the project. The responsibility for any errors and misinterpretations remains our own.

1 The Grand Experiment of Communism 2

February 1848: “The Communists disdain to conceal their views and aims. They openly declare that their ends can be attained only by the forcible overthrow of all existing social conditions. Let the ruling classes tremble at a Communistic revolution. The proletarians have nothing to lose but their chains. They have a world to win.” Karl Marx and Frederick Engels, Manifesto of the Communist Party.1

September 2010: “There were many odd things about my recent Havana stopover [...] but one of the most unusual was Fidel Castro’s level of self- re‡ection. [...] I asked him if he believed the Cuban model was still something worth exporting. ‘The Cuban model doesn’t even work for us anymore,’he said.” Je¤rey Goldberg, “Fidel: ‘Cuban Model Doesn’t Even Work for Us Anymore’,”The Atlantic.2

1 Why Another Fable of the Grand Experiment?

Communism was the grand illusion of the 20-th century. It was also its grand experiment. In terms of utopian vision, radical implementation and socioeconomic impact, communism has left a lasting mark in history. The rise and fall of communism is a com- plex and multi-faceted theme interpreted from di¤erent theoretical and methodological perspectives in social sciences. Works from many disciplines, going beyond politics and economics, have tried to portray or, more ambitiously, explain the various manifesta- tions of communism across the map of the world –from nascent and militant through mature and oppressive into stagnating and decaying. So why another attempt to reconsider the key driving mechanisms behind the genesis of the revolutionary communist project and the gradual mass disillusionment with its realities? The novelty of our approach consists in using economic theory to examine the interactive dynamics of economic incentives and social preferences in a society experimenting with an economic system that has never been implemented before. We focus on the scenario that led to the October Revolution of 1917 and the subsequent establish- ment of the Soviet Union in a big region of the world where capitalism was less developed and, perhaps more importantly, any democratization of the society was avoided or much delayed. Our model also accommodates the alternative scenario explored in Acemoglu and Robinson (2000), where democratic reforms such as the extension of the franchise and the increase of redistribution have enabled Western European countries to avoid the revolutionary advent of communism. In what follows, we build a single model to formalize the socioeconomic process that led to communism via a forced revolution and nationalization of capital, as well as its reversal back to markets. In essence, this grand experiment has led to the discovery of a trade-o¤ between equality and e¢ ciency in terms of productivity at the scale of alternative economic systems.3 Our theoretical account of the rise and fall of communism,

1 Chapter IV. Position of the Communists in Relation to the Various Existing Oppo- sition Parties, translated by Samuel Moore in cooperation with Frederick Engels, 1888, http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1848/communist-manifesto/ch04.htm 2 http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2010/09/…del-cuban-model-doesnt-even- workfor-us-anymore/62602/

3 For instance, Stretton (1976) writes: “Equalities can always be ill-designed, or enforced by oppressive methods. When they are, they may reduce productivity, as well as freedom. Some communist countries Farvaque, Mihailov and Naghavi (June 2011) 3 from the revolutionary enthusiasm of Marx and Engels through the disillusionment of Castro we quoted in the beginning, is framed as a stylized game of class struggle involv- ing economic decisions, transmission of ideology across generations and social learning. This is along the lines of North (2005), who interprets the experience with communism in Russia as “a story of perceived reality beliefs institutions policies altered perceived reality and on and on.” (p. 4).! Aoki (2011)! further describes! the role! of institutions as “social artifacts that cognitively mediate agents’strategic interactions and their individual beliefs in societal games”.4 We model two types of agents, inequality-averse and ine¢ ciency-averse ones, responding to economic incentives and transmitting their values as they are a¤ected by evolving economic outcomes. While the mechanism in Bisin and Verdier (2001) is generally applied to show how intergenerational transmission of attitudes explains the persis- tence of socioeconomic status across generations, we use the transmission and evolution of preferences to shed light on the dynamics of regime switches across economic systems.5 In particular, we …rst show how capital accumulation by the minority elite and the resulting inequality leads to increasing social discontent over time and, eventually, the overthrow of the system. We then show how a centrally-planned system aimed at equality also fades away due to misalignment of individual and aggregate incentives, lower well-being and the gradual redirection of ideas towards a market system.6 The incentive structure under the two economic systems is captured in our model by the (mis)alignment of ownership and control. This is in line with the large literature on the key weaknesses of socialism: one strand dealing with the pervasive problems arising from the ‘soft budget constraints’ of socialist enterprises (e.g., Kornai, 1980) – what Roemer (2009) labels ‘lack of incentives’; another pointing to the overambitious task of central planning, given ‘dispersed and local information’, to ensure better allocative decisions than markets (e.g., von Hayek, 1940, 1945) –what Roemer (2009) labels ‘lack of coordination’. Our approach highlights these two familiar disadvantages of a communist economy at their crucial link, the intertemporal optimization decision, at which the (mis)alignment of ownership and control manifests itself. The choice of consumption and accumulation out of one’sown wealth given the signals of competitive markets and locally relevant information under capitalism sustains e¢ ciency but generates inequality. Delegating this choice to an egalitarian planner forces equality by revolution but erodes economic e¢ ciency, thus making everyone equal in their poverty.7 Combining features of the above literatures, we devise a non-cooperative game be- have ‡attened their margin for skill or hard work too far, with apparently bad e¤ect on economy e¢ ciency.” 4 This view somewhat departs from earlier seminal works on communism versus capitalism, and related studies on the comparative e¢ ciency of the two systems. Among many others, see Lange (1956 [1936]), von Hayek (1940, 1945), Tinbergen (1960), Lancaster (1973), Kornai (1980), Roemer (1980, 1985). 5 See Bisin and Verdier (2010) for a survey of literature. Also recent empirical work in Dohmen et al. (2011) for instance show evidence in the context of attitudes towards trust being passed over generations and how the inertia works against the e¤ect of institutional change that might be expected to change willingness to trust. 6 Doepke and Zilibotti (2008) study the role of the intergenerational transmission of taste for leisure and patience in the success of institutional changes brought about by the industrial revolution. See also Saint-Paul (2010) on the impact of the evolution of beliefs on ideological bias in the society and political reform. 7 Note that we ignore neither that inequalities were de facto existing in communist countries, nor that they were creating resentment (see, e.g., Joo, 2005, for an account). However, considering explicitly the nomenklatura would only complicate the model without changing the substance of the results (in e¤ect, only accelerating the swing back from plan to market). The Grand Experiment of Communism 4 tween agent types that takes place in every period of an overlapping-generations (OLG) framework to demonstrate how the equilibrium strategies drive the long-run socioeconomic dynamics and can generate such pendulum-like switch from markets to an egalitarian economy abolishing private ownership, and back to rebuilding market incentives to sustain society. The economic literature, and the literature on communism or social evolution more generally, has not provided so far a consistent theory on the institutional change experienced by the Soviet Union and its satellite countries in Eastern Europe throughout the 20-th century accounting for both these transitions. In this consists the contribution of our simple and stylized but historically trust-worthy formal analysis of the rise and fall of communism. The paper is organized as follows. In the next section we construct our model, pre- senting the types of agents, their objectives, constraints, ideological con‡ict, and the transmission of their beliefs across generations. Section 3 then solves the optimization problems of the agent types and the von Stackelberg game between them. Section 4 derives the intergenerational dynamics and highlights the resulting economic outcomes. The last section concludes by placing our theory in the context of more discursive inter- pretations of long-run economic changes. The Appendix provides additional derivation details on the within-period von Stackelberg game, itself replayed in each subsequent generation.

2 The Model

2.1 Economic Systems, Agent Types and Con‡ict We consider two economic systems under which society can evolve: one is market- based (capitalist), denoted by M, and the other centrally-planned (communist), denoted by C. True to the historical genesis of communist ideas, our analysis begins with a market-based system founded upon property rights over the means of production and the corresponding private incentives to capital accumulation. Our interest is in a particular region that at some point in time splits apart and experiments with communism. Its total adult population is normalized to 1. There are two types of agents in the initial capitalist society. The large majority are born without inheriting capital: they are the ‘workers’. They are ‘unprivileged’in the sense that they can only sell their labor force in the market in order to subsist, as Marx argued. Being the have-nots, they care about inequality in the capitalist society, whose victim they are by birth. We call them inequality-averse agents and denote their type as A. A minority of agents are born with inherited capital: they are the ‘capitalists’. They extract rents from their private capital, and care about the relative ine¢ ciency between the two systems. We call them ine¢ ciency-averse agents and denote their type as B. Initially, types (A and B) and ‘classes’ (workers and capital owners) coincide, by de…nition. In a conventional way, this can be interpreted in terms of the class struggle between capital and labor. However, over time preference types evolve, so that class and preference type may diverge. We consider an OLG model, where agents live for two periods. During childhood (in the …rst period of life), they are ‘socialized’and acquire a particular type just when becoming adult. When mature (in the second period of life), they perform active economic and ideological roles in the society, and die at the end of the period, investing any capital wealth they have accumulated. Under both systems, M and C, economic power belongs to the preference type who decides upon –and enforces –the intertemporal allocation between capital accumulation Farvaque, Mihailov and Naghavi (June 2011) 5 and consumption. The other preference type can then only try to change the economic system through ideological in‡uence. We denote the degree of strength of each type relative to the other by the con‡ict function qt ( ) and 1 qt ( ), respectively for types A and B in any period t, and measure it by an index, 0 < qt ( ) < 1. More precisely, this index can be de…ned to be some increasing function of the relative intensity of the preference itself (social resentment or ideological determination), 0 < mt < 1, and the relative size (or fraction) of each preference type in the total adult population, @qt( ) @qt( ) 0 < n < 1: 0 < q (m ; n ) < 1, with > 0 and > 0. It also captures t t t t @mt @nt the probability of a regime shift in any period t.8 It will be seen that such economic transitions can only occur once the strength of the oppressed type dominates that of the ruling type: qt ( ) > 0:5 for A and 1 qt ( ) > 0:5 for B. 2.2 Preferences The utility of agent i for i = A; B under each system j = C;M takes the form

i 2 i i i i i i (t; t) U (c ; b ; t; ) = c + b E (t; ) ; (1) j;t j;t+1 t j;t j;t+1 t t 2

i i with cj;t denoting individual consumption levels, bj;t+1 the private or social returns from intergenerational transfers,9 and 0 < < 1 the discount factor assumed to be identical for all agents. The third term generally represents the disutility from a change in the system of property rights and control, which also implies that relative status, or reference A B points, with respect to others matter as well. More precisely, Et (t) and Et ( t) are the expected inequality and ine¢ ciency that depend on the regime in the next period

A Et (t) = qt+1 ln C;t + (1 qt+1) ln M;t; (2) B E ( ) = qt+1 ln + (1 qt+1) ln ; (3) t t C;t M;t where j;t measures income of type B relative to A, or inequality within the society at t, and j;t the relative e¢ ciency, in terms of productivity and potential growth possibilities, of individual optimization under market capitalism over a centrally planned communist system. Note that communism forcefully proclaims complete equality in the society, C;t = 1, yielding ln C = 0. Similarly, ine¢ ciency is initially normalized under capitalism, M;t = 1, and so ln M = 0. M;t and C;t will be de…ned further below. The relative strength of the preference types, qt+1, determines the probability of a regime change in period t + 1. Finally, utility depends on costly socialization e¤ort functions A B i (t) and ( ), with 0 ( ) 1, to be discussed in section 2.5. t t t t 2.3 Production and Income We consider a one-sector real model where a single good is produced using a constant- returns-to-scale technology. The output produced at time t in regime j is

1 H(Aj;t;Kj;t;L) = Aj;t ( Kj;t) + [(1 )L] (4) f g 8 Alternatively, Ellis and Fender (2011) show how a revolution can materialize under full rationality in a set-up of Bayesian perfect equilibrium with asymmetric information. 9 Note that this formulation is equivalent to dynastic OLG models with altruistic preferences à la Barro (1974), where owners of capital leave a stock of wealth to their descendants as a bequest. The Grand Experiment of Communism 6

for j = C;M and depends on two productive factors, capital Kj;t depreciating fully during t and labor L supplied inelastically by households. To further simplify matters, we focus on the case of = 1, which implies perfect substitutability between capital and labor. The technological parameter Aj;t A(wj;t) measures productivity. As will be made clear, Aj;t can be thought of as a function of managerial and technical skills developed for improving the production process, determined by the incentives of workers. We approximate incentives by wages in workers’families, or their material well- being based on consumption. The relative importance of capital and labor in producing output are denoted by and 1 , respectively. Returns to labor and capital can then be written as wj;t = (1 )Aj;t and rj;t = Aj;t: Both factor returns are j-indexed, because of the potentially di¤erent productivity levels under the two systems. We consider a subsistence consumption level c, never reached by the A type so that only capital owners can invest. In the market system, income for capital owners and workers in each period is respectively

B B B yM;t = rM;tst 1 = AM;tst 1; (5) B where st 1 is savings in the previous period, and A y = wM;t = (1 )AM;t: (6) M;t Under communism, capital is nationalized, i.e. capitalists are deprived of their ownership, and investment decisions are no longer individual but made by the egalitarian planner. As a consequence, individual income becomes a centralized allocation of an equal share of output to each member of the society, i.e. wage:

B A y = y = wC;t = (1 )AC;t: (7) C;t C;t Note that in this case the whole population, including B types, forms the working class A B (cC;t = cC;t = cC;t = wC;t). Income inequality arising from saving decisions by capitalists made in period t is denoted by the index

B rM;tst B M;t = st ; (8) wM;t 1 B A where imposing the initial condition yM;0 > yM;0 prevents a capitalist from switching types and becoming a worker. Index M;t is in other words a measure of income from capital versus that from labor in period t.

2.4 Savings and E¢ ciency A capitalist, type B, chooses individual savings to maximize utility in (1) given the budget constraint cB + sB yB : (9) t t M;t Farvaque, Mihailov and Naghavi (June 2011) 7

The timing of events during the accumulation process is as follows: the savings of B the previous period st 1 comprise the private capital stock of each type B agent in the present period kM;t, which will then be put into production given (4). The private yields B B from capital ownership yM;t = rM;tst 1 are then divided between consumption ct and B savings st (forming the future capital stock). An egalitarian planner instead maximizes utility (1) in the name of the type A agents under the national budget constraint

Ct + St HC;t: (10) The savings decision by the planner di¤ers from private ones in that aggregate values are considered (which we denote by uppercase Ct, Kt, St;Yt). The same timing holds for the accumulation process under the communist regime: St 1 comprises Kt, which is used for national production along with labor and yields Yt = rC;tSt 1. Total output, HC;t, is then allocated between further savings, St, and aggregate consumption in the society, Ct, divided equally among all agents via identical wages assigned to all workers, wC;t = cC;t. Note that in this regime there is no market price of capital, therefore rC;t is the shadow price of capital referred to in period t by the planner. We can now de…ne the (inverse) ine¢ ciency index of the communist system, C;t, in terms of relative growth potential of the two regimes by means of savings or capital formation B B rM;ts^t AM;ts^t C;t = ; (11) rC;tSt AC;tSt B where St is the optimal savings chosen by the egalitarian planner, and s^t a notional value computed by individuals should the market system be operative. Index C;t is in other words a measure of income from capital under markets versus that under communism in period t.

2.5 Intergenerational Transmission of Beliefs We assume that type A agents always teach a communist ideology to their o¤spring to abolish inequality, while type B agents always teach a pro-market ideology favoring e¢ ciency. This is a …rst channel of transmitting beliefs that captures the in‡uence on ideology intensity within the family, and corresponds to what is termed ‘direct vertical transmission’in the literature (Bisin and Verdier, 2001, 2010). The evolution over time of the relative degree of ideological determination to change the status quo, however, is also a¤ected outside the family. This second channel operates through the in‡uence on ideology intensity by peers and the broader environment, and is known as ‘oblique transmission’. i Socialization e¤orts t ( ) a¤ect the determination of the next generation to mobilize A in order to change the system. Socialization e¤ort by type A, (t), is generated by B resentment from inequality t, and for type B, ( t), by the inferior e¢ ciency with respect to markets t. The properties of these socialization functions are standard:

i i i (1) = 0; 0( ) > 0; 00( ) < 0: (12) i Property t(1) = 0 in (12) states that socialization e¤ort is only activated upon su¤erance.10 10 This is a special case of Bisin and Verdier (2001) arising from resentment, where only one agent type at a time engages in the transmission of his preferences. The use of this setting allows us to simplify our notation, while maintaining the generality of our results. The Grand Experiment of Communism 8

[Figure 1 about here]

Figure 1 presents the socialization process of the agents of each type, A and B. The i transition probabilities at time t, Pt ", that a parent of type i has a child with a stronger ( ) or weaker ( ) ideological determination can be written as " #

A A A P " = (t) + [1 (t)]qt; t A A P # = [1 (t)] (1 qt); t B B B P " = ( ) + [1 ( )] (1 qt); t t t B B P # = [1 ( )]qt: (13) t t Given these transition probabilities, the relative strength of individuals of type A in period t + 1 is

A B qt+1 = qtPt " + (1 qt)Pt # 2 A B = qt + (qt q )[ (t) ( )]: (14) t t The dynamics of the probability of a regime shift are endogenous to the present economic situation and depend on the disutility experienced by each type. The properties of the A B socialization functions imply that t (t) = 0 under communism while t ( t) = 0 under a market economy. Accordingly, the law of motion in (14) simpli…es to

2 A qM;t+1 = qM;t + (qM;t q ) (t) (15) M;t under markets and to 2 B qC;t+1 = qC;t (qC;t q ) ( ) (16) C;t t under communism. Thus, in the market system the degree of ideological determination of type A to change the status quo, qM;t+1, increases with any positive socialization e¤ort by type A A, (t) > 0. Above the critical value qM;t = 0:5, the threat to overthrow the capitalist regime becomes credible. Analogously, in the communist system the ideological determination of type B to change the status quo increases, i.e. 1 qC;t+1 increases, B with any positive socialization e¤ort by type B, ( t) > 0. Above the critical value 1 qC;t = 0:5, the threat to abolish the communist regime as type B agents promote market values becomes credible.

3 Economic Systems and Interaction of Agents

We assume a plausible sequencing of actions appropriate for both economic systems, in which the agent type who exercises ownership and control (economic power) to decide on the split between consumption and saving moves …rst. The agent type who has no ownership and control rights can only have socialization (or ideological) power by instilling beliefs against the regime in force, that is, trying to teach the next generation in favour of his/her own values. The sequence of events at time t is illustrated in Figure 2 parallel to the process of capital accumulation in the same period (see Section 2.4).

[Figure 2 about here] Farvaque, Mihailov and Naghavi (June 2011) 9

3.1 Market-Based Economy In the market system, capitalists both own the capital stock and control the allocation of their income between consumption and savings, to be invested and used to produce in the next period by the next generation. In contrast, workers do not own and control anything apart from their labor force, which they supply inelastically in the model. It is therefore optimal saving and capital accumulation within the capitalist ‘dynasties’ (where ownership and control rights are aligned and e¤ective) that drives the e¢ ciency and sustainability of the market system, but deepens the social inequality. The type B agents in this case are the …rst movers in a von Stackelberg leadership game and decide on savings, while taking into consideration in their maximization problem the socialization reaction of type A agents to the inequality caused by their own savings. Starting with type A agents (the working class), they take savings as …xed and maximize their utility using (1):

A 2 A A A (t) max U ( ) = c E (t) ; A M;t M;t t (t) 2 (1 qt+1) ln M;t

A | {z } where we have substituted for Et (t) from (2) after noting that ln C;t = 0. Replacing for M;t from (8) and for qM;t+1 from (15), the optimization problem becomes:

A 2 A A B (t) max c 1 qt + qt(1 qt) (t) ln s : A M;t 1 t 2 (t) The …rst-order condition yields the optimal reaction of type A as follower:

@U A ( ) M;t A B A A A = qt(1 qt) 0(t) ln st (t) 0(t) = 0 @ (t) 1 A B (t) = qt(1 qt) ln s : (17) , 1 t This equation delivers a preliminary insight on the mechanisms that drive the evolution from one system to another. It is easy to see that an increase in the private savings (by the capitalists) leads to increased socialization e¤ort by type A agents. The latter can only expect a growing inequality between the two types of agents, which reinforces their determination to change the regime. More precisely, the higher the expected inequality, the higher the e¤ort to transmit their preferences towards a more equal society. Turning to type B agents, they move …rst by making a decision on the amount of their savings:

B( )2 max U B ( ) = cB + yB EB( ) t B M;t M;t M;t+1 t t st 2 s.t. cB + sB yB : M;t M;t M;t Note that savings by capitalists have no direct negative externality on productivity A because the decision is made at an individual level and consumption by workers cM;t is not a¤ected by it. The productivity AM;t hence is at that point assumed to be non- decreasing over time as long as markets are in place, or –to sharpen our analysis –to The Grand Experiment of Communism 10

11 remain at its initial value AM;0. This enables us to hereafter drop the time subscript to consumption in the productivity function under markets so that AM;t = AM;0 = AM . After a series of substitutions (see Appendix A.1) and omitting the M-subscript to savings due to the absence of individual savings under communism in our model, we rewrite

B B 2 A max AM s + ( AM 1) s qt + (qt q ) (t) ln : B t 1 t t C;t st A Replacing for (t) with the optimal reaction of type A agents from (17) and taking the …rst-order condition yields optimal savings by type B as leader:

@U B ( ) q2(1 q )2 M;t t t B = AM 1 B ln C;t = 0 @st st B 2 2 ln C;t st = qt (1 qt) ; (18) , AM 1 where AM > 1= must hold for positive savings by the capital owners. The last equation reveals that increased expected ine¢ ciency under the alternative (communist) system induces higher accumulation by capital owners in an e¤ort to further consolidate the capital stock and, hence, the productive potential of the market economy. In addition, the higher the productivity AM the lower the need to save. Substituting (18) back into (17) to derive the optimal socialization e¤ort of the type A in its …nal form, we get

A B (t) = qt(1 qt) ln( s ): (19) 1 t A Substituting (t) from (19) into (14), next-period ideological determination of type A to change the status quo becomes 2 A qt+1 = qt + (qt q ) (t) t 2 2 B = qt + q (1 qt) ln( s ): (20) t 1 t It is seen from (20) that the evolution of qt over time under a market system takes A a positive value when (t) > 0. This is true as long as B M;t s > 1; (21) 1 t B A which given yM;0 > yM;0 always holds. B A Lemma 1 Given the initial condition yM;0 > yM;0, optimal individual savings by capital B owners st always increase inequality, provoking type-A workers into more intensive transmission of their social discontent and more e¤ort to instigate a regime change. @M;t A Proof. See equation (21) where B > 0 increases (t) and qt+1 in (19) and @st (20), respectively. In sum, capital owners allocate their income between consumption and savings, the type A agents then react by choosing their socialization e¤ort, which in turn a¤ects the ideological determination and strength of the next generation of A types to change the status quo.

11 Allowing AM;t to increase over time only strengthens the mechanism at work in our model and results in the same outcomes. Farvaque, Mihailov and Naghavi (June 2011) 11

3.2 Centrally-Planned Economy Under communism, no one makes economic decisions apart from the egalitarian planner, who is of type A and splits total consumption equally across all members of society.12 After the nationalization following the communist revolution the society, de jure (but not de facto) owning the capital, delegates control to the egalitarian planner. Individu- als do not control the choice of aggregate consumption and investment out of national income, which is also national output. Thus, under communism, there is misalignment of ownership and control rights creating ine¢ ciency. We capture and interpret it in com- paring the optimization problems under central planning (aggregate, then disaggregated top-down by equal split) vis-à-vis the market (individual, aggregated bottom-up). The egalitarian planner is the …rst mover and takes into consideration the socialization reaction of type B agents to the relative e¢ ciency of the system caused by their centralized decision. Starting with type B agents (market advocates), they take savings as …xed and maximize: B( )2 max U B ( ) = cB EB( ) t ; B C;t C;t t t t ( t) 2 qt+1 ln C;t

B | {z } where we have substituted for Et ( t) from (3) after noting that ln M;t = 0. Replacing for C;t from (11) and for qC;t+1 from (16) the optimization problem becomes:

B B 2 B B AM s^t ( t) max cC;t qt + qt(1 qt)[ ( t)] ln : B ( ) A S 2 t t C;t t The …rst-order condition then yields:

B B @UC;t ( ) B AM s^t B B = qt(1 qt) 0( ) ln ( ) 0( ) = 0 @ B( ) t A S t t t C;t t B B AM s^t ( ) = qt(1 qt) ln : (22) , t A S C;t t Hence, an increase in the planner’saggregate savings directly reduces the socialization e¤ort by type B agents. This is due to the fact that, as seen in (11), such an increase gives a boost to the e¢ ciency of the communist system. While this e¤ect per se could reduce ine¢ ciency, it will be seen below that this accumulation process has an adverse e¤ect on productivity, leaving the total e¤ect of aggregate savings on relative e¢ ciency of the system and socialization e¤ort by the type B agents who share the values of capital owners ambiguous.13 The egalitarian planner as a …rst mover maximizes utility in the name of the type A agents taking into account aggregate values. Therefore, the egalitarian planner (not individual capitalists, whose capital has been nationalized) optimally chooses the level of aggregate savings, i.e. national investment. This also determines the allocation of output to be distributed equally among the total population for consumption.

12 This follows our assumption of inequality aversion characterizing type A agents, to conform with the preference for equality among the thinkers and pioneers of communism. Di¤erent from maximizing social welfare, it presumes that the central planner himself experiences a disutility from inequality. 13 This ambiguity resembles historical evidence such as those in Broadberry and Klein (2011), who for example shows Czechoslovakia’s comparative productivity position under the central planning regime with respect to the UK to have initially improved before falling back to lower levels. The Grand Experiment of Communism 12

A 2 A A (t) max UC;t(Ct;Yt+1; t) = Ct + Yt+1 Et (t) St 2 s.t. Ct + St HC;t:

Parallel to the market economy, the planner takes Yt+1 as the value of the intergenerational transfer in his optimization problem using the shadow price of capital rC;t (Yt+1 = rC;tSt = AC;tSt). However, it will be seen below that the social returns to capital realized in t + 1 turn out to be lower than those evaluated by the shadow price ( AC;t+1St < AC;tSt). This is due to an externality caused by productivity becoming a function of consumption, which is now changing over time in the new economic sys- 14 tem, AM A(cj;t). Furthermore, A ( ) > 0 represents the incentive of the society to ! 0 engage in technological progress as a function of consumption, and A00( ) < 0 assures that productivity gains are decreasing.15 Aggregate decision making by an egalitarian planner under a communist regime a¤ects total and per capita levels of consumption, therefore changing productivity over time. This is because the national budget constraint implies Ct + St = HC;t, that is, output in the aggregate has to be equal to the sum of consumption and investment in every period. Therefore, each individual gets an identical consumption level equal to the assigned wage by the planner

HC;t St w = c = = C : (23) C;t C;t 1 t Since allocation between saving and consumption takes place after production in each period, consumption in t determines productivity in the following period t + 1.

Lemma 2 The budget constraint of an egalitarian planner in (10), Ct + St = HC;t, implies that higher aggregate savings cut consumption by the whole population. This results in a negative e¤ect on productivity AC;t+1 and makes the latter time-dependent. Proof. We can conclude from (23) and the properties of AC;t+1 that

@AC;t+1 @AC;t+1 @AC;t+1 @AC;t+1 = = = = AC;t0 +1 < 0: @St @Ct @wC;t @cC;t

Substituting further from Appendix A.2, we obtain:

max AC;t[ St 1 + (1 )L] (1 AC;t)St St 2 B 1 qt (qt q ) ( ) ln (M;t) : t t B Replacing for ( t) with the optimal reaction curve by type B agents derived in (22) and taking the …rst-order condition yields:

14 Similar results are obtained when treating utility from the intergenerational transfer as the amount of capital left to produce in the next period, Kt+1. This could, for instance, account for the attempt to catch up due to a lower capital base in the communist region or to the loss of capital as a consequence of destruction during the revolution. 15 In a somewhat related context, Acemoglu and Robinson (2000) assume productivity to be higher in the market relative to home production. Farvaque, Mihailov and Naghavi (June 2011) 13

A 2 2 @UC;t ( ) qt (1 qt) ln (M;t) = ( AC;t 1) + = 0 @St St 2 2 qt (1 qt) ln (M;t) St = ; (24) , 1 AC;t 1 where AC;t < must hold for positive savings by the planner. The last equation notably reveals that increased expected inequality under the alternative (market) system induces higher savings by the egalitarian planner in an e¤ort to further consolidate the capital stock and, hence, the productive potential of the communist system. In addition, putting the requirements to have positive (optimal) savings under both economic systems together, we can deduce

1 A < < A ; C;t M which translate into the lower bound on capitalist productivity being the upper bound on communist productivity. Substituting (24) back into (22) to derive the optimal socialization e¤ort of type B in its …nal form, we get

B B AM s^t ( ) = qt(1 qt) ln : (25) t t A S C;t t B And now substituting t ( t) from (25) into (14), the next-period proportion of the population in favor of a market-based system becomes

2 B qt+1 = qt (qt qt ) ( t) B 2 2 AM s^t = qt q (1 qt) ln : (26) t A S C;t t It immediately appears from (26) that the ideological stance of type A’s relative to B type B’s under the communist system weakens when ( t) > 0. This is true as long as B AM s^t C;t > 1; (27) AC;tSt which will turn out to be the initial condition at the moment of the revolution, T , due to destruction of some fraction of the capital stock (see section 3.3 to follow immediately). Ine¢ ciency increases when the direct positive e¤ect of aggregate savings St on e¢ ciency is dominated by its negative e¤ect via productivity in the next period, AC;t+1. In words, when the egalitarian planner increases aggregate savings St to trigger an acceleration of the accumulation process and a fall in C;t, he must assign a lower consumption level to all workers according to Lemma 2. Since productivity depends positively on wages, worker incentives to upgrade the production process and therefore productivity under communism, AC;t+1, are reduced. If the latter e¤ect dominates, ine¢ ciency increases and type B agents recruit intertemporally by increasing their socialization e¤ort.16

16 Lindbeck and Nyberg (2006) discuss the disincentive e¤ects on work of welfare-state arrangements, stressing in particular that the “negative e¤ects of the poor incentives for work in former socialist countries in Eastern Europe also seem to have materialized with a time lag”. The Grand Experiment of Communism 14

Lemma 3 Savings by the egalitarian planner have a negative e¤ect over time if the @ indirect negative e¤ect of savings on next period productivity ( C;t+1 @AC;t+1 < 0) domi- @AC;t+1 @St @ nates the direct positive e¤ect of savings on e¢ ciency, C;t+1 > 0. When this condition @St+1 holds, saving by the egalitarian planner leads type B agents into more propaganda to proliferate market ideas and to stimulate transition. Proof. Ine¢ ciency in period t + 1 increases if the direct positive e¤ect of saving in t + 1 is dominated by the negative lagged e¤ect of saving in t via a reduction in AC;t+1:

@ @ C;t+1 @AC;t+1 C;t+1 > @AC;t+1 @St @St+1

+ +

@A | {z }| {z } | {z } where we know C;t+1 < 0 from (23). @St

Looking back at the production function in (4) and recalling St = Kt+1 reveals that Lemma 3 also entails a strong marginal loss of productivity from lower consumption that prevents HC;t to grow over time. This rules out the possibility of investments raising total output over time and bringing by higher consumption possibilities. In order to simplify the exposition of the model and focus on our area of interest, we assume hereafter that the condition in Lemma 3 holds. In sum, the egalitarian planner allocates national income between consumption and savings at the aggregate level, the type B agents then react by choosing their socialization e¤ort to in‡uence the ideology of the rest of the society (type A). The proportion of type B agents in the next period (1 qt+1) is then determined. Indeed, we can see from expression 2 2 @qt+1 q (1 qt) = t > 0; (28) @AC;t AC;t(1 AC;t) that although savings directly increase productivity in support of communism, the dis- incentives created by reduced consumption due to more government savings increases the relative strength of type B’s to change the status quo (now also proportion of the population who sympathize with communism, as more agents convert to the type B ideology).17

3.3 The Moment of Revolution Before analyzing the dynamics of capital accumulation, it is helpful to have a closer look at the …rst period immediately following the communist revolution, T . Aggregating all capital stock in the hands of the individual capitalists that has been nationalized at the beginning of T and taking into account the costs of the revolution in terms of a destroyed fraction of capital 1 , we get: B revolution (1 nT ) sT 1 = (1 nT ) kT (1 nT ) kT = KT : cost) (loss)

@ B ( ) 17 Note that t C;t+1 < 0; that is, socialization e¤ort by type B increases due to decreased @AC;t+1 consumption, incentives, and productivity. For an insight on the reduced consumption opportunities delivered by communist regimes, see for example Bergson (1991). Farvaque, Mihailov and Naghavi (June 2011) 15

The left-hand side of this expression is the capital stock invested by the individual B capitalists just before the revolution and aggregated at the national level, (1 nT ) sT 1; the right-hand side is the same capital stock after accounting for the capital losses during the revolution and the nationalization of all the inherited and surviving capital, (1 nT ) kT . The latter capital stock, KT , is what remains for the egalitarian planner to put into production in period T and, obviously, KT < (1 nT ) kT . Note that productivity in T does not change leaving the planner with unchanged productivity, AM , but a lower capital stock, KT . This results in reduced output in T relative to T 1, inducing the planner to increase savings in his very …rst intertemporal allocation decision. Such a decision could, of course, be motivated by the need to rebuild the capital base and compensate for the loss from the revolution, or to catch up with the rest of the world. From then on, in essence, period T has a lagged e¤ect on output in period T + 1 via two channels: (i) increasing the capital stock, KT +1 = ST , through more savings in the preceding period increases output, HT +1; (ii) also decreasing wages and consumption that are equally assigned to all workers as from period T ; this reduces productivity in the next period AC;T +1 resulting in a lower output HT +1. To sum up, if Lemma 3 holds, an elastic negative response of productivity to savings across generations is ensured and communism is not sustainable in the long run.

4 Intergenerational Dynamics and Economic Outcomes

In this section, we highlight our principal analytical …ndings derived from the dynamics of qt and the resulting economic outcomes. That is, having precedingly analyzed the within-period leadership game equilibrium strategies of our two agent types, we are now well equipped to proceed to the analysis of the feedback from ideological strength qt to strategies across generations. Given that agents only live one period of adulthood, players in the von Stackelberg game change every period. In other words, the same game is played by the next generation, with the level of strength qt attained by socialization of agents in the previous period as the initial condition. This allows us to observe the law of motion of qt and potential economic transitions over time. In what follows, we assume that a change of system in our model occurs once the strength of the follower type dominates that of the leader type in the con‡ict function.

4.1 Capitalism and the Communist Revolution We …rst consider the dynamics underlying the transition from a market-based to a centrally-planned economic system. We can state:

Proposition 1 (Communist Revolution) Suppose type A is initially weaker than A B type B (q0 < 0:5). Given (t), st , and the law of motion of qt, the optimal saving by type B’s is increasing in qt. This implies that a higher qM;t+1 will result in more @sB savings by type B’s in the next generation von Stackelberg game ( t+1 > 0). Such a @qt+1 trend continues until qt > 0:5 where a communist revolution becomes credible.

Proof of Proposition 1. We derive the e¤ect of the relative strength of workers in some period t on the saving behavior of the capital owners in that period:

B @st ln C;t > 0 if qt < 0:5 = 2qt(1 qt)(1 2qt) : (29) @qt AM 1 < 0 if qt > 0:5 The Grand Experiment of Communism 16

B Thus, for any low q < 0:5, we have @st > 0. In words, the optimal reaction functions t @qt of the two types in the von Stackelberg game of class struggle under markets lead to a progressive increase of qt until it surpasses some ‘critical mass’. Beyond this threshold type A’sbecome su¢ ciently strong and ideologically determined to represent a credible threat to overthrow the existing capitalist social order. For qt > 0:5, a communist revolution happens with probability qt; alternatively, the optimal savings by type B’s, B st , become decreasing in qt stabilizing the capitalist market-economy system. Our interpretation of Proposition 1 is the following: a capitalist system is only feasible when type A’s are weaker than type B’s (q0 < 0:5). An increase in this strength caused by social resentment induces more savings by future capital owners. This increases the e¢ ciency of the system, augmenting the revenues of the capital owners; but it also increases inequality, feeding the resentment of type A agents, and ultimately increasing the probability of a regime change. So as the working class increases mobi- lization and becomes more ideologically motivated to overthrow the system, capitalists accumulate more. Hence, the market system moves towards its fall as resentment within type A agents has a reinforcing e¤ect on capital accumulation, and inequality, rather than mitigating it. Historically, this could be relevant to the case of the uprising of the working class in Russia, on which we focus here.

Corollary 1 Should a communist revolution not occur when qt > 0:5, the substantial threat from strong type A’s revolting induces the leader to accommodate its strategy in B search of a compromise by decreasing savings, st , mitigating inequality and stabilizing the market system.

Proof. See proof of Proposition 1. The alternative in Corollary 1 occurs because for relatively strong type A’s the probability of a regime change is perceived by type B’sas credible, thus the latter adapt their behavior. Given the optimal socialization e¤ort of type A agents and the law of motion of qt, an increase in the probability of a regime change (qt+1 > qt) induces a reduction in capital accumulation by the only type who can save under the system and, as a result, in income inequality. By reducing the ideological determination of type A’s to change the status quo, such a reaction by capital owners can avoid slipping towards communism. Historically, this seems to have been the case of social democracies and the welfare state, where democratization of capitalism and redistribution of income have preserved the market system (although modi…ed). This scenario is not at the center of our interest, and has been analyzed elsewhere in the literature.

4.2 Communism and the Transition to Markets We turn to the dynamics underlying the transition from a centrally-planned to a market- based economic system in another proposition:

Proposition 2 (Market Transition) Suppose type B is initially weaker than type A A B (qT > 0:5) and that Lemma 3 holds. Given (t), st and the law of motion of qt, the optimal saving by the egalitarian planner is increasing in 1 qt. This implies that a higher qC;t+1 will results in more savings by the egalitarian planner in the next @S generation von Stackelberg game ( t+1 < 0). Such a trend continues until q < 0:5 @qt+1 t where a transition back to a market-based economy becomes credible. Farvaque, Mihailov and Naghavi (June 2011) 17

Proof of Proposition 2. We derive the e¤ect of the relative strength of market advocates in some period t on the saving behavior of the egalitarian planner in that period:

ln sB @St 1 t > 0 if qt < 0:5 = 2qt(1 qt)(1 2qt) : (30) @qt 1 + A C;t+1AC;t0 +1 < 0 if qt > 0:5

Thus, for any high q > 0:5 (i.e. any low 1 q < 0:5), @St < 0 (i.e. @St > 0). t t @qt @(1 qt) In words, the optimal reaction functions of the two types in the von Stackelberg game of con‡icting beliefs under communism lead to a progressive increase of 1 qt, i.e. a progressive decrease of qt until it drops below certain ‘critical mass’. Beyond this threshold type B’s become su¢ ciently strong and ideologically determined to cause a credible threat to bring down communism by pro-market transition reforms. For qt < 0:5, a market transition occurs with the probability 1 qt; alternatively, the optimal aggregate saving, St, is increasing in qt (that is, decreasing in 1 qt) stabilizing the communist system. Our interpretation of Proposition 2 is the following: a communist system is only feasible when type A’s are weaker than type B’s (1 qT < 0:5). An increase in this strength caused by a shift of ideology that arises from lower relative e¢ ciency under communism induces more savings by the next egalitarian planner. He responds by at- tempting more investment and accumulation at the aggregate level, reducing wages, total available consumption and hence productivity. As this ultimately increases ine¢ ciency, type B agents respond by higher socialization e¤ort, and more discontented people who have now observed the consequences of communism shift ideology to support a market system. The planner responds by further increasing savings, only to exacerbate the relative ine¢ ciency of the communist regime making it less and less sustainable.18 The convergence of beliefs continues until the point where economic transition is triggered and the regime reverts to the market system. Historically, this could be relevant to the Soviet and East European case, on which we focus here.

Corollary 2 Should market transition not occur for qt < 0:5, a substantial threat from strong type B’s to overturn the regime induces the leader to accommodate his strategy in search of compromise by decreasing savings, St, increasing longer-run e¢ ciency (via higher wages and consumption) and stabilizing the communist system.

Proof. See proof of Proposition 2. The alternative in Corollary 2 occurs because for relatively strong type B’s the probability of a regime change is perceived by the egalitarian planner as credible, thus the latter would adapt his behavior. Given the optimal socialization e¤ort of type B and the law of motion of qt, an increase in the probability of a regime change (qt+1 < qt) induces a reduction in aggregate savings by the egalitarian planner. This increases consumption allocations (material well-being), hence productivity and ultimately the e¢ ciency of the communist system. The latter occurs because the marginal gain in productivity from lower saving is su¢ ciently large for the range of parameter values where Lemma 3 holds. By reducing the ideological determination of type B’s to change the status quo, such a reaction by the egalitarian planner can prolong the life of a communist regime and,

18 Essentially, such a set-up resembles the overinvestment experience in communist countries during their period of initial industrialization and subsequent attempts to increase future production (and, in historical context, catch up with the West). The Grand Experiment of Communism 18 potentially, avoid surrendering central planning. Historically, this resembles the Chinese social market economy, where pro-market reforms were undertaken widely in coexistence with the centralized system.

[Figure 3 about here]

Figure 3 summarizes the dynamics of the model across generations. To elucidate it, we brie‡y revisit the events that lead to revolution and back to transition. Initially A under markets, a positive inequality index of M;0 > 1 leads to (M;0) > 0 from (19), which itself brings about an increase in the strength of type A’sin the next period q1. According to equation (18) and Proposition 1 this increases optimal savings in the B; B A B following period s (M;t > 0 s > 0 > 0 qt+1 s :::). This cycle 1 ! t ! t ! "! t+1 "! repeats every period until qt > 0:5, after which either revolution occurs (Proposition 1) or the system stabilizes (Corollary 1). In the case of revolution, a positive ine¢ ciency B index of C;T > 1 satisfying condition (27) gives ( C;T ) > 0 from (25), which itself leads to a higher proportion of B type agents in the following period qT +1. According to equation (24) and Proposition 2, this increases optimal savings in the following period

ST +1. As a result, ine¢ ciency with respect to the market system increases as long as Lemma 3 holds, triggering a continuing cycle towards transition back to the market B system ( > 0 ST > 0 (CT AC;T +1 ) > 0 1 qT +1 C;T ! ! #! #! C;T +1 # ! T ! ST +1 :::). This cycle repeats every period until qt < 0:5, after which either transition"! "! occurs (Proposition 2) or the system stabilizes (Corollary 2).

5 Discussion and Concluding Remarks

Our theoretical analysis above summarized the rise and fall of communism as a process of experimenting with a new economic system that failed. It also showed how the same general mechanism we emphasized as driving social evolution could generate, under certain conditions and under minor regime-dependent speci…city, not just the advent of communism but also its demise. That is, we proposed a model of long-run economic dynamics as one possible explanation for a principal insight from the history and the turn of events during the last century and a half. Our work is in line with North (2005)’arguments on the process of long-run economic change. He characterizes succinctly the nature of this social evolutionary process as follows:

“In contrast to Darwinian evolutionary theory, the key to human evolutionary change is the intentionality of the players. (...) Economic change, therefore, is for the most part a deliberate process shaped by the perceptions of the actors about the consequences of their actions. The perceptions come from the beliefs of the players – the theories they have about the consequences of their actions –beliefs that are typically blended with their preferences.” (North, 2005, p. viii)

While the book by North (2005) is framed along purely descriptive argumentation, in the tradition of the new institutional economics, the chain of logic in the last quote certainly is compatible with a more technical, statistical literature, featuring learning (that could be Bayesian, social or of other methodological strand or aggregation level). Our guiding principle was, therefore, to keep the framework fairly general and the learning Farvaque, Mihailov and Naghavi (June 2011) 19 process by all agents in the experiment with communism under aggregate uncertainty –or, more precisely, ambiguity hidden within an unattempted ever economic system – quite straightforward. Of course, many more additional ingredients, considerations and complications could be built into the set-up presented. We ourselves believe there are a number of interesting and relevant avenues to enrich the basic model we developed. Yet our goal with this paper was to capture the ‘perceived reality beliefs institutions policies altered perceived reality’ chain North (2005) emphasized! ! in words into a! coherent and! general theoretical construct capable to summarize the experiment of communism as social learning in the face of ambiguity highlighting the trade-o¤ between equality and e¢ ciency. Indeed, our model begins with a ‘perceived reality’ that is unjust for our type A agents, as they are born unequal and poorer. Their ‘beliefs’ are thus shaped out by the ideal of achieving equality, and are propagated by socialization and the spread of ideology across society in our model. At this initial point in our model, however, the world has never operated a communist economic system, to which the A types strive. In other words, the society faces huge (aggregate) ambiguity if it decides to attempt a change in the status quo. The experimentation with communism can, in this light, be seen as the ‘necessary evil’ to pass through in order to learn (more) about (the properties of) an unknown form of socioeconomic organization. The experiment accordingly creates its own ‘institutions’and ‘policies’, forcing equality in incomes and a central planning system to replace the role of capitalists and markets. But after repeating a few generation-spans of production and consumption, the social realities imposed by the revolution and nationalization turn out simply not to work. All members of the communist region su¤er lower and lower material well-being due to misaligned incentives resulting from a distorted ownership and control structure. This will be, in fact, the main social learning outcome after experimenting with an unknown economic system abolishing private property and market signals: all agents will gradually discover that communism forces equality of ownership through a centralized allocation that comes at the cost of lower productivity and poor coordination. While observing as a reference point the rest of the world that has remained market-based and is performing better, a drive to pro-market reforms –the ‘altered perceived reality’–reverts the society back to sustainability. Although we stop modeling the chain of social evolution at this point, it certainly does not end here, but continues by experimenting and discovering ‘onand on’. Sometimes –if not often –in history, the society faces the unavoidable challenge to experiment with its own existence and future under huge ambiguity. With heterogenous agents, information sets, expectations and interests, it is not always easy to converge to a commonly shared plan, or at least hope for such a plan to possibly end up success- fully. Doubts, con‡icts and ideologies emerge naturally, values and institutions evolve, responding to evolving realities, experiences, learning. Indeed,

“Men make their own history, but they do not make it just as they please: they do not make it under circumstances chosen by themselves, but under circumstances directly encountered, given and transmitted from the past. The tradition of all the dead generations weighs like a nightmare on the brain of the living.”19

At times, the experiment discovers a positive outcome. And then society …nds and

19 Karl Marx, 1852, The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte, Chap. 1. The Grand Experiment of Communism 20 settles into a new (again, temporary) equilibrium, until the next unprecedented vital change of the environment. However, when the outcome of such a social experiment is negative, the pendulum of history swings back, or along a spiral, whose circles constitute a gradation of hard-to-acquire knowledge.

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A Derivation of the Model Solutions

A.1 The von Stackelberg Game under Market Capitalism Type B agents move …rst by making a decision on the amount of their savings: B( )2 maxU B ( ) = cB + yB EB( ) t B M;t M;t+1 t t sM;t 2 s.t. cB + sB yB : M;t M;t M;t B B We …rst substitute out: consumption cM;t from the budget constraint; income yM;t+1 from the production function, after taking into account the marginal return to capital; B the expected regime-dependent ine¢ ciency Et ( t) from its de…nition after noting that B B ln M;t = 0; under a market economy t ( M ) = t (1) = 0 (since M = 1, see above). Below we omit the M-subscript to savings because under communism individual savings are absent:

B B B max y s + rM s qt+1 ln( ): B M;t t t C;t st B B Next, we substitute: yM;t = rM st 1 and rM = AM (from the production function, after taking into account the marginal return to capital); qt+1 (from its law of motion):

B B B 2 A max rM s s + AM s qt + (qt q ) (t) ln ; B t 1 t t t C;t st B B 2 A max AM s + ( AM 1) s qt + (qt q ) (t) ln : B t 1 t t C;t st A.2 The von Stackelberg Game under the Communist Plan The egalitarian planner as a …rst mover maximizes utility in the name of the type A agents taking into account aggregate values.

A 2 A A (t) max UC;t(Ct;Yt+1; t) = Ct + Yt+1 Et (t) St 2 s.t. Ct + St HC;t: Substituting out consumption and savings from (23); the expected regime-dependent A inequality Et (t) from its de…nition after noting that ln C;t = 0; qt+1 (from its law of B A A motion); M;t = 1 st from (8); and (C ) = t (1) = 0 under a centralized economy (since C;t = 1, see above).

max HC;t St + Yt+1 (1 qt+1) ln(M;t): St Next we substitute: Yt+1 = rC St and rC = AC;t (present shadow price of capital in a communist system) in his optimization problem.

max AC;t[ Kt + (1 )L] (1 AC;t)St (1 qt+1) ln (M;t) ; St max AC;t[ St 1 + (1 )L] (1 AC;t)St St 2 B 1 qt (qt q ) ( ) ln (M;t) : t t Farvaque, Mihailov and Naghavi (June 2011) 23

B Figures

Type A Type B

A B A B tt (υt) vertical tt (χt) vertical transmission A transmission B A B 1–q (.) A qt(.) 1 –t B(χ ) t 1 –tt (υt) t t oblique oblique transmission transmission

1–qt(.) qt(.) A B

Figure 1: Types of Agents and Socialization The Grand Experiment of Communism 24

qt... B i ...qt+1 Kt Ht s t* , St* t t* t•1 t+1 inheritence production saving socialization

B A market kt = st•1 yt = aAMst•1 s t* = yt –ct tt (ut) * communism K = S B t t•1 Yt = aAC,tSt•1 St* = Ht –Ct tt (ct) *

Figure 2: Sequence of Events in Period t Farvaque, Mihailov and Naghavi (June 2011) 25

inefficiency

B t T+2 ST+2

qt stablized qT+2 qT+1 communism

qt B tB transition t T+1 ST+1 T

0.5 revolution

market qt+1 qt+2

qt A B A B A t t s t+1 t t+1 s t+2 t t+2

qt stablized

inequality

Figure 3: Dynamics of Ideology across Generations NOTE DI LAVORO DELLA FONDAZIONE ENI ENRICO MATTEI Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei Working Paper Series Our Note di Lavoro are available on the Internet at the following addresses: http://www.feem.it/getpage.aspx?id=73&sez=Publications&padre=20&tab=1 http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/JELJOUR_Results.cfm?form_name=journalbrowse&journal_id=266659 http://ideas.repec.org/s/fem/femwpa.html http://www.econis.eu/LNG=EN/FAM?PPN=505954494 http://ageconsearch.umn.edu/handle/35978 http://www.bepress.com/feem/

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