East‐West comparisons and comparative economic systems

IN a recent essay (this journal, January I97I), Mr. Philip Hanson presents a lengthy critique of attempts by various writers to appraise quantitatively socialist economic performance. Regrettably, Mr. Hanson affects a polemical style that impedes, rather than favours, fruitful exchange, but I am among the writers attacked, and indeed am his chief target. With the editor's kind permission, I must reply to Mr. Hanson's more interesting strictures. I too must write at some length, but the subject is important. Mr. Hanson focuses especially on attempts I have made to compile comparative data on factor productivity in the USSR and Western countries, and, on that basis, to gain insight into the question of socialist economic efficiency. As he omits to explain, neither of the two inquiries in question is exactly a treatise. Rather, one occupies a brief section of a chapter in a book (Economics of Soviet Planning, New Haven, Conn., I964; hereafter ESP) surveying Soviet planning. The other appears in a small volume (Planning and Productivity under Soviet Socialism, New York, 1968; hereafter PPSS) that represents a somewhat revised version of three lectures delivered initially to an audience consisting primarily of business men. As may be understandable, therefore, I have not myself regarded these inquiries as constituting the last word on their large and complex theme. Indeed, since ESP and PPSS appeared, I have already tried to explore that theme further in two additional essays. These essays (one presented to a Conference in Ann Arbor, Michigan, as long ago as November 1968), are still in press,' but it may not be amiss sometimes to refer to them here

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• The small enterprise and agricultural initiatives in Bulgaria

  Robert J Mcintyre•Soviet Studies•1988

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• Reflections on Economic Sovietology

  Gertrude E Schroeder•Post-Soviet Affairs•1995

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• The real national income of Soviet Russia since 1928.

  Abram Bergson•The real national income of…•1961

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