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Factors influencing distribution of housing in the USSR The paper analyzes the main factors which influence consumption of residential housing by Soviet urban households. Using both the published Soviet data and the results of the Berkeley-Duke family budget survey the paper shows that income from all sources is an important independent determinant of a household's housing consumption. This conclusion, which holds for all major types of housing in the USSR including state-owned, suggests that administrative rationing of housing can be obviated by market forces usually acting through the second economy. Other important factors determining housing consumption are the (official) social status of a household and its size. Multivariate regression coefficients are estimated for state-owned, cooperative, and private housing consumption.

Housing in Hungary : the situation during the 1980's In a comparison of the recent housing situation with that of the postwar period, it is evident that there has been spectacular progress, not only in quantitative but also in qualitative terms (marked increase in amenity factors). Nevertheless, the housing problem still represents one of the major preoccupations of both the population and the central authorities. The author begins with an outline of the development of the housing situation over the past decades, and indentifies the decisive turning-points in the country's economic history which underlie the changes that have taken place. He then attempts a description of the essential features of the housing-market in Hungary, the way it operates, the people involved and their motivation. By so doing, he hopes to convey a better understanding of the factors which engender permanent tensions on the housing market.

The housing sector in France and Poland The comparison this article is trying to present is built upon a direct parallel between the housing sectors in France and in Poland. The differences and similarities between the situations encountered in both countries are underlined : the crisis exists in France and in Poland, but this is a different crisis by its deepness and its nature, according to the particularities of the economic system in each of the two countries. The comparative analysis of the housing situation (age structure, amenity factors and equipment...) and of the evolution of building for the last decade gave an opportunity to show the role of the State in the housing sector. The perspectives of the evolution of the sector, both in France and in Poland, display the importance of the financial conditions for the development of the sector. Even if the financial instruments are different in each of the two countries, their evolution will undoubtedly determine the level of the construction in the forthcoming years. The article is completed by an annex displaying the differences of the financing, in France and in Poland, based on an example of a young household buying its own appartment.

The funding of public-sector housing in France The history of the financing of public-sector housing since 1945 falls into four periods: - 1945-1965, characterized by massive State intervention ; - 1965-1975, which featured the whithdrawal of State commitment and a growing emphasis on the private sector ; - 1977, which saw the passing of a law embodying changes in personnal assistance ; - 1985, which saw changes and some relaxation in procedures, intended to mitigate defects arising from rigidities in the system which had developed in the preceding period. The future of the public-sector housing depends upon collection of booklet A, and in 1988 the funds for public-sector housing will be treated as moveable assets. But a total « publicization » could lead to a rise in the cost of resources, which is scarcely compatible with the needs of the public-sector housing programme. Between 1945 and 1965, the State introduced an instrument of production by creating a public sector (HLM) and assisted the private sector by granting bonuses and interest rebates through the French Land Bank (Crédit foncier de France). Between 1965 and 1975, the assisted sector was removed from the budget with the creation of the Loan Bank for the HLM ; monetary funding in the strict sense was discontinued. In 1975, the Barre report produced a negative assessment on the social aspect. This is why, in 1977, a system of personnal assistance for housing was introduced, as well as a compromise arrangement between the various forms of assistance on building (PLA, PAP, PC) and the latter. But the co-existence of different forms of personnal assistance has costly adverse effects which are a drain on public funds, while the number of persons qualifying is limited. This reform did nothing to check the downward trend in new building. In 1986, the Caisse des dépôts et consignations became a direct lender for public-sector housing (PLA) ; the guarantee system was changed and a risk analysis was undertaken. A greater diversification in funding is being sought, particularly by increased recourse to the debenture market.

The mechanisms of stimulation in a centrally-planned economy In a centrally-planned economy, the decentralization of information is an obstacle to achieving optimal allocation of resources. Indeed enterprises on the periphery have an interest in underestimating their production capacity, in relaying information to the Centre, so as to be assigned low targets, which can be fulfilled with little effort. This article is a study of the mechanisms which the central authorities employ in order to encourage enterprises to tell the truth, and to carry out their given plan with the maximum effort. The various bonus/penalty procedures (Fan, Bonin, Ellman, Weitzman) are analysed and compared in the context of a bilateral Centre-enterprise relationship. When machinery and equipment are to be allocated among n enterprises, it is shown that the optimal procedure belongs to the Groves category of mechanisms. In the two hypotheses, the dual problem of choice of objective, and fulfilment of the objective, is studied in the light of recent results in incentive theory. Thus, it appears that while certain bonus mechanisms, in use in the USSR since the end of the 1960's, are such as to solve the problem of the manipulation of information where an enterprise is concerned, the optimal mechanisms for resource allocation among n peripheral figures are very far removed from actual practice.

The political economy of Chinese reforms The reform of a socialist economy, especially if it is comprehensive or radical, should be understood as a long process of systemic change, as well as a process of social change with a potential redistribution of most places and powers in the economy and the society. The latter dimension is that of a political economy of reforms. The Chinese experience in the 1980s is analysed in this respect, through four revealing examples : 1) the change which occured in rural cadres'role, through décollectivisation, and the evolution of clientelism in the countryside ; 2) the unexpected outcome of wages're- form, depending on the structure of interests within the industrial enterprise ; 3) the increased power of local authorities in the management of industry ; 4) the conflicts between large economic bureaucracies, and between regions. Reforms have a revealing effect on the genuine complexity of systemic and social realities in China, which is an invitation to overcome the one-sided « vertical » vision of the society, and to rely more on pluridimensional models of interpretation.