Re: [OPE] sources on ussr

GERALD LEVY wrote:
>
> > The problem is to get reliable figures. Harrison has some good reviews
> > of the post 89 revisions of the figures, but one has to approach all of
> > these with a skeptical view, since most of those producing figures on
> > either side have political motivations in their presentations of
> statistics.
>
> hi Paul:
>
> That's why I didn't suggest any references. The statistics on the
> performance
> of The Soviet economy aren't reliable because they were skewed for
> ideological reasons both within the USSR and by Western (primarily,
> marginalist) critics.

Some of the Marginalist stuff on total factor productivity looks really
suspect to me.
Do you know a systematic critique of that methodology?

> I'm not sure we'll ever get accurate statistics .... There are
> some non-Stalinist estimates by those on the Left (e.g. Social Democrats
> and Trotskyists) but I don't think they are reliable either since they
> also had
> political points that they wanted to score with the numbers.
>
> In solidarity, Jerry

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Received on Mon Nov 9 09:11:27 2009