A measure of microeconomic disequilibrium for households facing both budget and quantity constraints is estimated from East data. Using a new specification, the Flexible-Cobb-Douglas utility function, the parameters of a German direct utility function are estimated from West family budgets. It is estimated that an average East family in 1977 would have been willing to give up 13% of its total expenditure in order to attain its demands at official prices.

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[Unemployment statistics are not published by the Soviet government which claims unemployment was "liquidated" in the early 1930s. An unemployment rate for the Soviet urban population during the late 1970s is calculated from a survey of 2793 former Soviet citizens. Unemployment incidence, multiple spells, and unemployment duration by demographic characteristics are compared with U.S. patterns. Similar unemployment rates for Soviet men and women and a positive relation between education and unemployment are found.]

An unemployment rate for the urban population living in the European U.S.S.R. for the late 1970s is calculated from a survey of 2, 793 former Sovi et citizens residing in the United States. Patterns of unemployment i ncidence, frequency of multiple spells, and unemployment duration by demographic characteristics are compared with U.S. patterns. In contr ast, similar unemployment rates for Soviet men and women, and a posit ive relation between education and unemployment, are found. The Sovie t unemployment rate is low compared to Western rates for the 1970s, b ut has been matched by West Germany and Japan in high-employment year s. Copyright 1988 by American Economic Association.