USSR: Measures of Economic Growth and Development, 1950-80

Approved for Release: 2019/07/19 C05210421
expenditure weights. Despite reservations concerning
both the sub-indexes and weights, the composite index
probably reflects real outlays on recreation reasonably
well. Its relatively slow growth is consistent with the
traditional reluctance of the Soviet government to
invest in the provision of recreational facilities and
with the impact of rapidly growing availability of
television on attendance at movies and similar
activities.
Weights. The derivation of the 1970 expenditure
weights for the three sub-indexes is explained in CIA,
GNP 1970, p. 42.
Indexes. Entertainment. The index is based on the
sum of the numbers of paid admissions to movies and
admissions to theaters. These are the only series of
data on entertainment that are regularly published.
The data are to be found in two tables regularly
published in annual handbooks, e.g., Narkhoz 1972,
p. 669.
Vacation resorts. The index is based on the number of
persons staying at “sanatoria, resort polyclinics, rest
homes and pensions" in each year; the series excludes
visitors to “rest bases" and “tourist bases,” which are
essentially campgrounds and shelters. There are no
other data available to reflect such forms of recrea-
~tion. Data for 1950, l958, 1960-80 are given in tables
regularly published in Narkhozy, e.g. Narkhoz 1972,
p. 569. Growth rates for other years are interpolated.
Leisure. The index is based on manhour employment
in hotels. There are no other data available on this
form of travel and recreation, which is greatly under-
developed in the Soviet Union. Employment in hotels
was estimated for 1950-69 in Stephen Rapawy, Com-
parison of US and USSR Civilian Employment in
Government, I950-1969, US Bureau of the Census,
International Population Reports, P-95, No. 69, April
I972, p. 17. Estimates for subsequent years are based
on the assumption that employment in hotels in-
creased at the same rate as employment in the
housing—communal economy, regularly reported in
Narkhoz, e.g., Narkhoz I977, p. 378. The annual
number of manhours worked in hotels is assumed to
be the same as that in housing-communal economy.
Manhours for 1950-74 are estimated in Stephen
Rapawy, Estimates and Projections of Civilian Em-
ployment in the USSR, 1950-1990, US Bureau of the
Census, Foreign Economic Report No. 10, September
1976, p. 60, and extended to 1980 by him.
Communal Services
The index of communal services is a weighted aggre-
gate of separate indexes for education and for health.
The coverage of these services, nearly all state-pro-
vided, is virtually complete. The 1970 weights used to
combine the indexes are total current expenditures on
these services by the population and by the govern-
ment. The data underlying the two sub-indexes are
shown in Appendix F.
Education. Scope and Coverage. The definition of the
sector follows Soviet statistical practice and includes
(1) kindergartens and all types of general education
schools concerned with the education and rearing of
children, (2) trade schools (vocational-technical
schools), and (3) higher and secondary specialized
educational institutions of all kinds (Melodicheskiye
ukazaniya, I974, pp. 755-56). The coverage coincides,
mostly, with “private education and research,“ a
component of personal consumption expenditures in
the US national accounts, plus government expendi-
tures on education. Expenditures on nursery schools
and on public libraries in the US are included in
education; in the USSR, the former are included in
“health” and the latter in “culture.”
The index of education services is a weighted compos-
itc of two sub-indexes personnel services and other
current purchases, mainly food, utilities and supplies.
The index for personnel is a measure of manhour
employment and is used to move wage expenditures in
I970. The result is equivalent to the procedure used
by Bergson and Becker and also to that in the US.
where total wage expenditures are deflated by an
index of average wages. The index for other expendi-
tures is a deflated value series, as are similar indexes
constructed by Bergson for the USSR for I928-55
and by the Department of Commerce for the US.
Use of manhours as a measure of personnel services
makes no allowance either for productivity change or
fo:r improvement in the quality of education in general
that may have resulted from changing skill mixes and
an upgrading of the level of qualification of teaching
staffs. Because a suitable measure of productivity in
education has yet to be devised _and agreed upon, the
practice in the US and elsewhere is to measure
education services in real terms on the basis of inputs,
as is done here for the USSR. ln its measure, the US
does make some allowance for changes in the quality
of labor inputs (skill mixes). The data required for an
adjustment for rising qualifications and changes in
skill mixes are not available for the USSR.
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Approved for Release: 2019/07/19 C05210421