Harrison, Mark, 1949-. (1998) Prices, planners, and producers : an agency problem in Soviet industry, 1928-1950. Journal of Economic History, Vol.58 (No.4). pp. 1032-1062. ISSN 0022-0507

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Abstract

Soviet planners developed the “unchanged prices of 1926/27” to facilitate the solution of an agency problem -- the regulation of self-interested producers as they worked to fulfil plans for heterogeneous products denominated in rubles. The system limited but did not eliminate producers’ opportunistic behavior, which took the form of inflating the plan prices of new products. Through the 1930s and 1940s the “unchanged” prices proved resistant to reform, and following their abolition in 1950 the system was soon afterwards reinstated with a new base year. The history of the “unchanged” prices illustrates the limits of command.

Item Type:	Journal Article
Subjects:	H Social Sciences > HC Economic History and Conditions
Divisions:	Faculty of Social Sciences > Economics
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH):	Soviet Union -- Economic conditions -- 20th century, Price fixing -- Soviet Union
Journal or Publication Title:	Journal of Economic History
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
ISSN:	0022-0507
Date:	25 September 1998
Volume:	Vol.58
Number:	No.4
Page Range:	pp. 1032-1062
Status:	Peer Reviewed
Access rights to Published version:	Open Access
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URI:	http://wrap.warwick.ac.uk/id/eprint/212

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