Harvey Leibenstein (1922 – February 28, 1994) was a

Ukrainian Ukrainian may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Ukraine * Something relating to Ukrainians, an East Slavic people from Eastern Europe * Something relating to demographics of Ukraine in terms of demography and population of Ukraine * So ...

-born American economist. One of his most important contributions to economics was the concept of

X-inefficiency X-inefficiency is the divergence of a firm’s observed behavior in practice, influenced by a lack of competitive pressure, from efficient behavior assumed or implied by economic theory. The concept of X-inefficiency was introduced by Harvey Leib ...

and the critical minimum effort thesis in development economics. Concerning his "critical minimum effort thesis", he says that the underdeveloped countries are trapped by the vicious circle of poverty and many other growth retarding factors which keep them in the state of backwardness. So these countries need to increase their per capita income to a certain level where they can maintain a self-sustained growth rate: they need a critical minimum effort, i.e., they need to invest at more than a minimum level to overcome all the obstacles of the underdeveloped countries. In economics, X-efficiency is the effectiveness with which a given set of inputs are used to produce outputs. If a firm is producing the maximum output it can, given the resources it employs, such as men and machinery, and the best technology available, it is said to be technical-efficient. X-inefficiency occurs when technical-efficiency is not achieved. The concept of X-efficiency is also used in the theory of

bureaucracy The term bureaucracy () refers to a body of non-elected governing officials as well as to an administrative policy-making group. Historically, a bureaucracy was a government administration managed by departments staffed with non-elected offi ...

Selected publications

* 1950, "Bandwagon, Snob and Veblen Effects in the Theory of Consumer Demand", ''

Quarterly Journal of Economics ''The Quarterly Journal of Economics'' is a peer-reviewed academic journal published by the Oxford University Press for the Harvard University Department of Economics. Its current editors-in-chief are Robert J. Barro, Lawrence F. Katz, Nathan N ...

'', Vol.64 No.2 : Page 183-207 * 1954, ''A Theory of Economic-Demographic Development'', Foreword by Frank Notestein, Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press * 1960, "Economic Backwardness and Economic Growth: Studies in the Theory of Economic Development", * 1966, Allocative Efficiency vs. "X-Efficiency", ''

The American Economic Review The ''American Economic Review'' is a monthly peer-reviewed academic journal published by the American Economic Association. First published in 1911, it is considered one of the most prestigious and highly distinguished journals in the field of eco ...

'', Vol. LVI., June 1966 * 1968, Entrepreneurship and Development, ''The American Economic Review'', 58(2):72–83 * 1969, Organizational or Frictional Equilibria, ''The

'', Vol. LXXXIII, No. 4, November 1969. * 1974, Socio-economic Fertility Theories and Their Relevance to Population Policy, ''International Labour Review'', May/June 1974. * 1974, An Interpretation of the Economic Theory of Fertility, ''

Journal of Economic Literature The ''Journal of Economic Literature'' is a peer-reviewed academic journal, published by the American Economic Association, that surveys the academic literature in economics. It was established in 1963 as the ''Journal of Economic Abstracts'',

'', Vol. XII, No. 2, June 1974. * 1975, The Economic Theory of Fertility Decline, ''The Quarterly Journal of Economics'', Vol LXXXIX, No. 1, February 1975. * 1976, Beyond Economic Man, Cambridge: Harvard: University Press * 1978, General X-Efficiency Theory and Economic Development, New York: Oxford University Press * 1978, "'X-inefficiency Exists: A Reply to an Exorcist," American Economic Review, 68 (1978): 208 * 1979, "A Branch of Economics Is Missing: Micro-Micro Theory," ''

'', 17: 477-502 * 1979, “The General X-Efficiency Paradigm and the Role of the Entrepreneur”. in: Mario Rizzo (ed.), Time, Uncertainty, and Disequilibrium. Lexington: Heath 1979, 127-139 * 1982, “The Prisoners’s Dilemma in the Invisible Hand: An Analysis of Intrafirm Productivity.” ''American Economic Review'', (Papers and Proceedings) 72, no. 2 (May): 92–7 * 1983, "Property Rights and X-Efficiency: Comment." ''American Economic Review'', 83: 831–42. * 1987, Inside the Firm, The Inefficiencies of Hierarchy, Cambridge: Harvard University Press

References

External links

* https://www.nytimes.com/1994/03/03/obituaries/harvey-leibenstein-harvard-professor-71.html 1922 births 1994 deaths American people of Ukrainian-Jewish descent 20th-century American economists Soviet emigrants to the United States {{US-economist-stub