Harvey Leibenstein

Harvey Leibenstein (1922 – February 28, 1994) was a Ukrainian-born American Jewish economist. One of his most important contributions to economics was the concept of x-efficiency.

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 was introduced by Harvey Leibenstein in his paper Allocative efficiency v. "x-efficiency" in American Economic Review 1966.

The concept of x-efficiency is also used in the theory of bureaucracy.

Selected Publications

• 1950, "Bandwagon, Snob and Veblen Effects in the Theory of Consumer Demand", Quarterly Journal of Economics, Vol.64 No.2 : Page 183-207
• 1954, A Theory of Economic-Demographic Development, Foreword by Frank Notestein, Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press
• 1966, Allocative Efficiency vs. "X-Efficiency", The American Economic Review, Vol. LVI., June 1966
• 1968, Entrepreneurship and Development, The American Economic Review, 58(2):72–83
• 1969, Organizational or Frictional Equilibria, The Quarterly Journal of Economics, 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, 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," Journal of Economic Literature, 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.

External links

• http://www.nytimes.com/1994/03/03/obituaries/harvey-leibenstein-harvard-professor-71.html