SOVIET INCENTIVES IN ARMS CONTROL

Much conventional wisdom supports the argument that growing economic problems in the Soviet Union will tend to enhance Soviet willingness to make concessions at the arms control bargaining table. This position is plausible. Equally plausible, however, is the opposite view: as a means of protecting its political power at home, the Soviet leadership could be led by falling living standards to emphasize the growth and importance of external threats. This would be inconsistent with a Soviet desire for arms control as conventionally defined. Economic problems in the Soviet Union are not new, and the Soviet approach to past arms control negotiations does not offer evidence in support of the conventional view.     

Economic Consequences of Armaments Production: Institutional Perspectives of J.K. Galbraith and T.B. Veblen

J.K. Galbraith’s short book, How to Control the Military, boldly championed political and institutional reforms to curb “the military power.” Galbraith stood out among economists for his advocacy of arms reduction negotiations with the Soviet Union. He rejected the hypothesis that the Soviet Union nurtured an aggressive expansionary military policy. At the same time, he maintained that the tenor of national policy and the shaping of national priorities emanated from the Pentagon. Galbraith’s assertion that the military was the dominant force within the “military-industrial complex” was never empirically demonstrated. Nor did he adequately address the crucial role that military outlays played in advancing major technological innovations which underwrote the accumulation process. Veblen offered a more comprehensive analysis of the role of military expenditures, correctly showing that forms of “waste” are highly functional to the institutional and ideological structure of the U.S. economy. Military Keynesianism constituted the evolution of his conceptualization.     

Consensus among Economics Teachers from Transition Economies

The authors analyze the economic opinions of teachers and economists from the former Soviet Union who participated in economic education programs sponsored by the U.S. Department of Education under the auspices of the National Council on Economic Education from 1995–2001. They sought to determine the level of consensus on economic topics among the participants, and then analyzed their concordance with U.S. economists. They conclude that there is a significant level of consensus among the participants from the former Soviet Union, but this consensus is often at odds with the views of American economists.     

Economic determinants of fertility in Belarus

This study examines the determinants of births in Belarus in 1996–2007 by using detailed micro‐data from the Belarusian Household Budget Surveys (BHBS). The existing literature offers several explanations of the recent trends in fertility in Belarus and in other former Soviet Union countries. It is often argued that the collapse of the Soviet Union and the concomitant economic instability reduced fertility in the 1990s, while economic growth and stabilization were responsible for its recovery since 2005. We evaluate these and other hypotheses by looking at the determinants of the first, second and third births, separately for women aged below 30 years of age and above 30 years of age. We provide evidence on the presence and the relative importance of the economic determinants, including income and wages, economic uncertainty, maternity and child‐care benefits. Our findings could inform demographic policies in Belarus and in other transitional countries.     

俄罗斯生产力布局理论的演变及对中国的借鉴意义

前苏联经济地理学的学术思想,对计划经济条件下生产力布局的研究做出了很大贡献,我国生产力布局的形式与方法大多来源于具有计划经济特色的前苏联模式。苏联解体后,传统的计划经济被市场经济所取代,俄罗斯的经济地理学按照市场经济规律,发展了生产力布局理论。文章论述了苏联及俄罗斯生产力布局规律及原则等理论的演变特点,并提出了对我国社会主义市场经济条件下生产力布局的借鉴意义。     

Research Note: The slow growth of foreign direct investment in the Soviet Union successor states

This note reviews the statistical evidence on foreign direct investment (FDI) in the countries of the former Soviet Union taking into account data from both host countries and countries of origin. The main characteristics of this FDI and its variation among the successor states of the Soviet Union are established. The contribution of FDI to economic transition is so far limited to some sectors and regions, and unlikely to accelerate in the near future.
JEL classification: F21, F23, P31.     

Growing apart? A tale of two republics: Estonia and Georgia

We compare and contrast the economic growth performance of Estonia and Georgia from the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 until 2006 and beyond in an attempt to understand better the extent to which the growth differential between the two countries can be traced to increased efficiency in the use of capital and other resources (intensive growth) as opposed to brute accumulation of capital (extensive growth). On the basis of a simple growth accounting exercise, we infer that advances in education at all levels, good governance, and institutional reforms have played a more significant role in raising economic output and efficiency in Estonia than in Georgia which remains marred by various problems related to weak governance in the public and private spheres.     

Recent developments in EC USSR commercial and economic relations

Conclusion Trade with the Soviet Union represents only a small part of total Community trade (3.5 % of EC imports and 2.7 % of EC exports in 1990). EC imports from the Soviet Union increased moderately between 1989 and 1990 as well as between the first six months of 1990 and the corresponding period of 1991, whilst EC exports decreased sharply as a result of hard currency shortage in the Soviet Union.The CMEA and Soviet disintegration processes will lead to a substantial reorientation of trade flows. This development has already begun with large increases of trade between the EC and the Central and Eastern European countries.International assistance to the USSR mainly consists of export credits. Community assistance involves a large proportion of grants and technical assistance. The cost of assistance measures envisaged so far remains limited for Western countries.The economic effects of assistance would be enhanced if effective coordination was implemented among the providers. Adequate mechanisms such as triangular operations or the untying of assistance would be required in order to avoid crowding out traditional suppliers from Soviet markets.     

斯大林的资本主义经济危机理论探析

当世界各国正从美国次贷危机引发的世界性经济危机中探索出路、找寻对策时,也在对危机的爆发缘由进行积极的思考和多种的解读,重新梳理和评价斯大林的资本主义经济危机理论,即资本主义经济危机是生产过剩的危机;资本主义经济危机是毁灭性的周期性危机;资本主义经济危机是资本主义制度的必然产物等等,这对探讨、洞析和应对当前世界性的经济危机毫无疑义具有重要理论和现实意义。     

拓宽中国特色社会主义经济学的研究视野--从多向比较揭示规律性

为深化中国特色社会主义经济学研究、认识中国经济发展的特殊规律，必须进行多向的比较分析，包括对中国经济自身发展历史阶段的比较分析、同苏联模式的比较分析、同俄罗斯和东欧等“转型“”国家的比较分析、同发展中国家的比较分析、同西欧发达国家的比较分析，在比较中鉴别，为理论升华开拓广阔的视野。     

INCOME DISTRIBUTION IN THE U.S.S.R. IN THE 1980s

In 1989 Soviet authorities released unprecedented new data on the size distribution of income in the U.S.S.R. in the 1980s, including the distributions by republics. With the goal of providing a benchmark for evaluating the effect of current and future economic reforms on income distribution in the former Soviet Union, this paper estimates inequality measures for the new data. The estimation uses a simple nonparametric technique based on the Kolmogorov-Smirnov test to fit the Soviet data to a lognormal distribution. The results suggest that, for income from official sources, (1) inequality in the Soviet Union as a whole declined throughout the 1980s-both before and after Gorbachev's accession in 1985, and (2) income inequality was greater in the poorer, southern republics of the U.S.S.R. than in the north. While the inclusion of unofficial (unreported) private income would probably reinforce the second of these two trends, its effect on the first cannot be determined on the basis of available information.     

The composition of foreign direct investment and protection of intellectual property rights: Evidence from transition economies

While existing literature examined the impact of intellectual property protection on the volume of foreign direct investment (FDI), little is known about its effect on the composition of FDI inflows. This paper addresses this question empirically using a unique firm-level data set from Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union. It finds that weak protection deters foreign investors in technology-intensive sectors that rely heavily on intellectual property rights. Moreover, the results indicate that a weak intellectual property regime encourages investors to undertake projects focusing on distribution rather than local production.     

THE MEASUREMENT OF HOUSING OUTPUT: U.S. AND SOVIET CASE STUDIES

This paper examines the measurement of the output of the Housing industry in real GNP accounts of the U.S., the Soviet Union, and selected OECD countries. These real GNP accounts make use of quite different Housing indexes, based on different types of data. This paper's major empirical finding is that the (measured) growth rate of Housing output can be extremely sensitive to the type of index used.
After reviewing the concept of housing quality, the paper presents U.S. and Soviet case studies. The BEA and the CIA do not use identical procedures to measure Housing output for the U.S. and the Soviet Union: the BEA measures many more aspects of housing quality improvements than the CIA does. This difference in the two agencies' procedures increases the growth rate of the US. Real Estate industry relative to the growth rate of the Soviet Housing industry. The idea behind the two case studies is to remeasure Housing output far the Soviet Union (U.S.) using an index that approximates the BEA (CIA) index. The purpose of these studies is the calculation of numerical magnitudes: to what degrees are the levels and growth rates of Housing sensitive to the type of index that is used. The calculations for the U.S. are useful because they show the important role of housing quality growth in the U.S., and because they make the magnitudes reported for the Soviet Union more credible. The Soviet case study provides numerical support for the proposition that the post-WWII growth rate of Soviet housing quality has been considerable and exceeds the growth rate implicit in the CIA output figures.     

从中苏改革比较看我国改革开放30周年

中国和苏联在社会主义发展历程中都曾为加快社会进步不断探索,但苏联在改革途中逐渐偏离并抛弃马克思主义,最终走上绝路,而我国自1978年开始的改革开放却逐渐探索出中国特色的社会主义发展模式,中国之路越走越宽广。正确认识中苏改革的异同,科学评价中苏两国的改革,对未来社会发展的认知具有重要参照价值。     

Economic Education and Government Reform in the Republic of Georgia

The author describes public education through the media and training for government officials and for journalists undertaken as part of economic reform efforts in the Republic of Georgia of the former Soviet Union. The article concludes with a discussion of the necessary conditions for success of these broad-based educational efforts.     

传媒视野下前苏联的信息发布：一个简史

从传播的角度看,任何一个国家在发布、公开信息时,都必须借助于通报或告知的渠道。这种渠道在当代社会是以报刊、电台、电视为主的新闻传播媒介。前苏联充分利用以报刊、电台、电视为主的传播媒体来发布信息。前苏联的信息发布大致经历了列宁时期、斯大林时期、赫鲁晓夫时期、勃列日涅夫时期和戈尔巴乔夫时期。前苏联的信息发布既有一些有益的经验,也有一些深刻的教训。前苏联信息发布的教训给我们以启示。     

Women and the social economy in transitional Russia

The present article analyses the role of the social economy in transitional Russia and its consequences for women. The changes in the economic system in the former Soviet Union and its effects is often analysed in general terms. One interesting aspect is whether the changes have similar effects on men and women. The aim here is to highlight how women's situation changes when the economic system changes and how Russian women adapt to these changes. Three types of activities which are carried out by women within the social economy are discussed below, where each of these activities are built on strategies for survival from the Soviet period: distribution of vital goods in rural areas, distribution of information to women and production of services. Although the social economy has a considerable gap to fill in Russia, this has not yet implied that the cooperative sector flourishes. Instead there is a danger that women go from paid work in the state sector to non-paid work within the voluntary sector.     

中国经济改革三十年断想

本文对三十年来中国经济改革的一些特点和经验教训中的重要方面作了回顾和反思,认为中国经济改革的起点比前苏联和东欧国家都要低,但中国的经济改革是同经济发展紧密地结合在一起的,打破了改革的初始阶段必须以牺牲经济增长为代价的障碍,实现了改革与发展同步进行并互相促进,实现了渐进的转轨方式,降低了改革的成本,实现了提高城乡居民的收入和生活水平的总体目标,树立了藏富于民和居民收入来源多元化的思想.在总结改革的误区与教训中,分别对1988年夏季的价格"闯关"、国有企业的承包制、收入差距过大等问题作了分析.文章最后就如何评估渐进方式所带来的成本上升的风险、如何正确地发挥市场的功能和政府的功能、如何进一步培育要素市场、如何处理拨乱反正和改革开放的关系等方面提出了问题并阐述了自己的看法.     

苏联时期对外战略演变规律研究

苏联时期的对外战略始终在推动世界革命的国际主义和关注国家利益的国家主义之间摇摆。苏联国力增强,资本主义世界陷入危机时,苏联就会倾向于国际主义,积极推动世界革命的发展。而当苏联遭遇不利形势,资本主义蒸蒸日上时,苏联的对外战略就会倾向于国家主义,关注国家利益。苏联对外战略的这种具有规律性的演变对苏联自身发展、国际共产主义运动以及20世纪国际关系发展均产生不可忽视的重要影响。     

An Account by two International Labour Office Observers

In September and October 1935, Mr. Lewis L. Lorwin, Economic Adviser, International Labour Office, formerly with the Brookings Institution, Washington, D. C., and Mr. A. Abramson, Member of the General Information Section, International Labour Office, had the opportunity of visiting the U.S.S.R. This article is a record of some of the information which they gathered and of the observations made during this visit. The Review offers this article to its readers in view of the interest in economic and social development in the Soviet Union. The article is not intended to give a comprehensive view of conditions in the Soviet Union, but merely an account of some of the striking changes now taking place. It is of course to be regarded as the expression of the personal views of the writers .