Kornai's theories of a ''soft budget constraint'' study a firm that re
ceives state assistance when expenses exceed revenues. Such assistance
is characteristic of classical socialism. It is well known that Korna
i contended that a soft budget constraint increases input demands. He
also predicted a second effect that has received less attention: input
demands exhibit lower price responsiveness. The Second Kornai Effect
may be defined in terms of slopes of input demands as Kornai did, or i
n terms of elasticities. A simple soft budget constraint model is used
to review the First Kornai Effect and to examine the two versions of
the Second Komai Effect. (C) 1996 Academic Press, Inc.