Postwar Economic Growth and Productivity in the Soviet Communications Industry
Volume: Volume 6, No. 2
Issue: Autumn 1975
Pages: pp. 430-450
Authors: J. Patrick Lewis
Title: Postwar Economic Growth and Productivity in the Soviet Communications Industry
Abstract: As a result of Soviet statistical aggregation procedures and the lack of readily available data, virtually no empirical research has been undertaken with respect to the communications industry in the U.S.S.R. The purpose of this paper is two-fold: to describe the nature and structure of the industry and to examine the postwar economic growth of the postal service, telephone, telegraph, and radio and television communications branches in the Soviet Union.
On the basis of previously unpublished capital stock data, conventional factor productivity estimates are used to evaluate the economic performance of the industry since 1950. The empirical results suggest that the communications industry, like other service and light industries, has received a rising though small share of postwar investment outlays; that the rapid postwar growth in the branches of intercommunications (the postal service and telephone and telegraph branches) derives primarily from the significant infusion of labor and capital inputs and only marginally from productivity change; and that the technological backwardness of the industry, particularly in the telephone and telegraph networks, has made itself felt in both the limited quantity and poor quality of communications services.
JEL Classification
Industry Studies Electrical, Gas, Communication, and Information Services (6352)
Productivity and Growth: Theory and Data (2260)