Socialism with a Human Face: Using Behavioural Economics to Understand East German Economic History - Couverture souple

Magee, Gary B.; Geerling, Wayne

Couverture souple

ISBN 10 : 9811906661 ISBN 13 : 9789811906664

Editeur : Palgrave Macmillan, 2023

Synopsis

East Germany’s economic history is typically told as a story of the unravelling of an inherently flawed system. Yet, while the system’s inefficiency is undeniable, its economic history was much richer than its comparatively poor economic performance suggests. For many who lived there, it was a system that, over its forty years, was capable of achievements and generally functioned at bearable levels. This book combines the insights of behavioural economics with archival research to peel away layers of rhetoric and assumptions about the East German economy and explore aspects of that underlying functionality.

Through a series of cases studies that examine the establishment of socialist workplaces, the searches for productivity growth and efficiency, and the emergence of financial crisis, the book considers the system from the perspective of the humans who operated it and made the decisions that made it work. Unencumbered by political preconceptions, it offers a more realistic understanding of East German economic history than that derived from stagnant debates about the clash of systems. The new perspectives and approaches presented demonstrate that, extracted from its Cold War context, East Germany’s economic history can be analysed for what it was, rather than for what it symbolised.  

A propos du livre

À propos de l?auteur

Gary B. Magee is a Professor of Economics at Monash University, a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences in Australia, and a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society. He has published widely in the fields of economic history, history and historical political economics.

Wayne Geerling is an Associate Professor at Monash University. His expertise lies in European economic history. He has published widely in leading peer-reviewed journals in the fields of economics, economic history and history. He is the author (with Gary B. Magee) of Quantifying Resistance: Political Crime and the People's Court in Nazi Germany (2018).

Détails de l'édition

• Éditeur: Palgrave Macmillan
• Date d'édition: 2023
• Langue: anglais
• ISBN 10: 9811906661
• ISBN 13: 9789811906664
• Reliure: Broché
• Nombre de pages: 376
• Coordonnées du fabricant: Springer Nature Customer Service Center GmbH; ProductSafety@springernature.com; ; Europaplatz 3,69115 Heidelberg, Germany; Heidelberg; 69115; Allemagne