An Interview with János Kornai

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Abstract
Most of us are armchair economists. Whether our opinions are rightor wrong, we can proffer them at little personal cost—the most we can loseis our reputation. Not so for János Kornai. For much of his life,speaking freely would have led him to land in jail, or worse. He faced adifficult choice. He could publish illegally, take the samizdat route, butreach a very small number of readers. He could instead respect a number ofofficial taboos, publish legally, and reach a much wider readership. Thesedifficulties have not prevented him from giving us the most informed anddeepest critique of the socialist system to date. This interview is, Ihope, successful in showing the degree to which Kornai's life and work havebeen intertwined, and how he came to believe what he believes today. Kornaiis sharing his time between Harvard and Collegium Budapest. The interviewtook place in my office when I was visitingHarvard University in June 1998.

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