*Jedna* recenica mog intervjua u "Danasu" da Srbija (do korone) "menja neke elemente demokratije za brzi ekonomski rast" izazvala je veliku polemiku. (Uzgred, Srbija se nigde ne pominje ni u "C,A" niti u "Globalnoj nejednakosti".)
Imao sam u vidu da su s jedne strane, nezavisne institucije u Srbiji znacajno oslabljene u poslednjih desetak godina, ali da je, u isto vreme, ekonomski rast bio zadovoljavajuci. On jos nije na nivou na kome bi idealno trebalo da bude, ali jeste zadovoljajuci.
I ne samo ekonomski rast vec i drugi ekonomski pokazatelji: inflacija, porast izvoz/GDP, smanjenje budzetskog deficita, smanjenje nezaposlenosti itd.
Ali najveca polemika je nastala oko stope raste sto je cudno, jer je to prilicno lako izracunati i uporediti.
Grafikon prikazuje prosecnu stopu rasta Srbije u periodu 2012-19 u poredjenju sa ostalim bivsim YU republikama. Podaci su izrazeni u konstantnim PPP dolarima za sve zemlje (podaci Svetske Banke i IMF).
Prosecna stopa rasta po stanovniku je bila oko 3%, sto je nesto iznad stopa rasta Slovenije i Hrvatske. Ta stopa bila je niza nego sto je bio rast Bugarske (3.6%) ili Rumunije (cak 4.9%).
Cilj Srbije bi, po mom misljenju, trebalo da bude da ima stopu rasta od oko 5% per capita.
Na taj nacin bi bilo moguce, u toku dve generacije, pribliziti se razvijenim zemljama. U poslednje dve godine pre korone, srpski rast je bio 4.7% sto je veoma blizu tom "cilju".
Pored toga, nezaposlenost (pre kovida) je znacajno pala, a labor force participation (zaposleni + oni koji aktivno traze posao) je porasla i za zene i za muskarce za oko 5 poena. (Iz IMF izvestaja).
To su podaci.
Interpretacija podataka i narocito kontrafakti ("sta bi se moglo desiti da je politika bila drugacija") su pitanja za raspravu, ali cinjenice to ne bi trebalo da budu.

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More from @BrankoMilan

1 Jul
My argument in "C,A" that China is capitalist is not based on the composition of CPC, but on the share of VA produced by the private sector, private sector role employment (incl. the self-employed in agriculture) & in fixed investments.
Some numbers on the declining state role:
Share of the state sector in total GDP.
Share of the state sector in total urban employment.
Read 4 tweets
29 Jun
(Long thread)
I am rereading vol. 2-3 of Kolakowski's magisterial "Main currents of Marxism" (read it in 1982-3; written in late 1970s). Will write a post on it later.
The erudition is awe-inspiring. Writing excellent. Clear, very logical sentences. The use of irony is sparing.
Pent-up anger is never allowed to escape and eclipse the thinking.
But some parts are dogmatic and ultra-deterministic; plus, the current Chinese experience throws a very different light on USSR in the 1920s. That experience was, of course, still in future when Kolakowski wrote.
Kolakowski has the straight line: Marx=Lenin=Trotsky=Stalin=Lukacz etc.
In econ, it leads him to treat War Communism, NEP and collectivization as the same thing, or as everything inevitably leading to collectivization & mass murder. No "degrees of freedom".
Read 5 tweets
22 Jun
Today's EHR workshop discussed 3 excellent papers. I will show one graph from each.
Bleynat, Challu, Segal on long-term growth & inequality in Mexico.
The real wage (blue) increased substantially in 1960-80 after which it dropped precipitously, to go up again a bit more recently.
BCS conclude that policy played a major role in wage repression after the 1980 debt crisis.
de Pleijt & van Zanden find that women's wages almost equaled men's in Northern Europe after the Black Death, but then decreased to some 50-70% of men's in 17th C.
They conclude that a tight labor market after the pandemic pulled women's wages up; but the effects lessened as growth slackened.
Scott looks at millionaires in the UK after WW1 & finds that their numbers peaked in the 1920s.
Read 5 tweets
19 Jun
What I meant by saying that the Hewlett Foundation article was "ignorant" was that the authors seem to view "development" as a Western concept. Their view of history is entirely US-centric. "Development" as conscious state policy to increase income started with Japan and Germany.
It continued with the Soviet Union.
Included numerous authors such as Feldman, Leontieff, Kuznets in the USSR, Gerschenkron, Arthur Lewis and many others. To imagine that it somehow starts w/ Truman, Kennedy or modernization theory is to ignore about a century of development.
Thus the idea of "development" simply means that to improve people's lives higher real income matters: it gives you good housing, running water, sewage, electricity, washing machine, car, wifi and many other things that make lives better.
Read 4 tweets
18 Jun
The term "equity" is a legitimate, but very ideological term. "Equity" for Marxists cannot, by definition, exist in a capitalist society. "Equity" for Hayekians means that income is made while formal rules are observed.
"Equity" for a Friedmanite means that incomes are obtained in a free (not necessarily monopoly-free) market.
Inequality is an observable fact: it simply says your income is higher than mine; you are wealthier than I.
"Equity" is thus often the term of choice for those who minimize importance of inequalities or believe that a given inequality is justifiable because it is "equitable".
With "equity", you immediately get into a realm of ideological discussion where things are vague.
Read 4 tweets
17 Jun
Thinking last night about Mark's post, I have to say that I have a somewhat different interpretation of Schiavone (which I think is closer to his original text).
Schiavone says that Roman economy could not develop because of (A) orientation toward plunder and conquest that led to enslavement of people => (B) cheapness of such slave labor => (C) consideration that labor is demeaning.
This in turn (D) made Romans never envisage the idea of replacing labor by machines.
But in my interpretation (C) is a derivative (not to say "reflection") of the "objective" conditions of productions (A+B).
Read 5 tweets

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