Econometric Estimation of the Ruble Value of Soviet Privileges

中央计划经济中的货币与市场经济中的货币在基本方面是不同的。在资本主义经济中，对购买力（货币）的控制实际上等同于获得商品、服务或其他资产的权力，而在以普遍短缺和非市场分配过程为特征的社会主义经济中，货币的重要性要小得多。与市场体系微观经济理论中常见的家庭预算约束不同，社会主义下的消费者选择通常受到预算约束和一系列数量约束的限制。此外，与工作或政治地位相关的非货币性利益（例如关系或特权）可以对家庭的实际收入构成非常重要的补充。对社会主义经济中家庭限制的性质和非市场收入和财富来源的这些差异的探索是拟议研究的中心问题。该项目的具体目的是估算苏联某些特权的卢布价值。众所周知，在苏联以及市场在资源分配和收入分配中起次要作用的其他国家，经济福利（实际收入）的分配严重依赖于这种非货币形式的财富的分配。这种估计的最终目的是调整货币收入分配的传统衡量标准，以反映实际收入的分配情况。该项目使用的数据来自苏联访谈项目（SIP）的总调查。可获得信息的特殊特权是：1)进入不对外开放的商店或特殊口粮；2)使用公务用车；3)进入不对外开放的诊所。首席研究员的初步分析发现，使用SIP受访者对自己的相对物质福利以及收入和特权变量的评估的有序概率模型可以对这些特权的卢布价值产生合理的估计。本项目计划的这项工作的主要扩展将是将人力资本和其他家庭财富的措施纳入模型的规格和估计。

Money in a centrally planned economy differs in fundamental respects from money in a market economy. Whereas command of purchasing power (money) is virtually synonymous with the power to acquire goods and services or other assests in a capitalist economy, money matters much less in a socialist economy characterized by pervasive shortage and non-market processes of allocation and distribution. Instead of the familiar household budget constraint from microeconomic theory of market systems, consumer choice under socialism is typically limited by a budget constraint as well as a host of quantity constraints. Furthermore, non-monetary benefits associated with a job or political position (e.g. connections or privilege) can constitute a very significant addition to a household's real income. Exploration of these differences in the nature of household constraints and of sources of non-market income and wealth in socialist economies is the central concern of the proposed research. The specific purpose of the project is to derive estimates of the ruble value of certain privileges in the USSR. The distribution of economic welfare (real income) in the Soviet Union, as well as in other countries where markets play a secondary role in resource allocation and the distribution of income, is known to depend heavily upon the distribution of such non-monetary forms of wealth. The ultimate purpose of such estimates is for adjusting conventional measures of the distribution of monetary income to reflect the distribution of real income. The data to be used on the project come from the General Survey of the Soviet Interview Project (SIP). The particular privileges for which information is available are 1) access to closed shops or special rations, 2) use of an official car, and 3) access to closed medical clinics. Preliminary analysis by the principal investigator has found that an ordered probit model using the SIP respondent's assessment of own relative material well-being together with income and privilege variables generates plausible estimates for the ruble value of these privileges. The major extension of that work planned in this project will be to incorporate measures of human capital and other household wealth into the specification and estimation of the model.