“Soviet and East European Foreign Trade, 1946-1969”
It would be difficult, in introducing this volume, to steer easily between false modesty and immodesty. From an original limited idea, the enterprise has evolved by leaps and not a few serendipitous bounds to its present claimant status as a signal contribution to the field of international trade. Reactions from numerous consultants, representing a broad array of professional interests, give reason to believe that Compendium and the considerably more detailed data bank underlying it will represent a major research resource and contribution, not only to the East Europe specialist, but also to the development economist, trade or development policy maker, and economic historian. For it remains a useful syllogism that foreign trade lies at the heart of East Europe's economic performance and prospect for political autonomy, and that these prospects, in turn, could have multiplier impact on the dozens of nations and large majority of the world's population belonging to the less developed, low-income nations.
Even a cursory review of the Compendium contents reveals the enormous efforts that Paul Marer and his staff have put into their preparation. The specialist will appreciate, with equal ease, Mr. Marer's courage in making the attempt at all. Literally hundreds of thousands of statistical and analytic decisions, large and small, have been required along the way, with sometimes seemingly ceaseless iterations and reiterations to accommodate additions, revisions, and corrections. And the product continues to evolve, both with the appearance of new series and as opportunities arise for revising old ones.
The Compendium plus the simplified data bank associated with it are part of the Center's substantial program in the field of East European planning transitions, development performance, and systemic change during the postwar period. A group of leading East European economists has been commissioned to prepare a series of interrelated national and thematic investigations on these subject areas. Yugoslavia, Hungary, Poland, and Czechoslovakia have been singled out for the study of national experiences, while comparative foreign trade patterns, industrial organization, the management sector, and East European planning theory and controversies exemplify the topics being presented on a region-wide basis.
This is the second volume on socialist-type economies to appear in the Center's Studies in Development series. The earlier study was Socialist Management and Planning: Topics in Comparative Socialist Economics by Nicolas Spulber. Others are now in various stages of preparation. Related publications by other scholars, some involving leading economists from East Europe, have also appeared in the Center's Working Paper, Occasional Paper, and Reprint series.
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