Re: apocryphal soviet screw factory

["michael a. lebowitz" <mlebowit@xxxxxx>]

I can't think of anything off-hand but books on the Soviet economy (eg., by
Nove) always recounted many of these stories-- eg., the famous Krokodil
cartoon ('The factory fulfills its plan') with workers carrying one giant
screw. My own favourite is the phenomenon of 'gold-plating', in cases where
the plan was based on value-- so you have the clothing firm using a very
expensive material for the lining of jackets. Nothing apocryphal about
these--- the soviet press regularly printed denunciations; they weren't
anomalies, though, but flowed directly from the combination of
self-interest and the impossibility of completely specifying a plan. The
best study, I think, was in Kornai's book on Overcentralization (referring
to the Hungarian experience in the 50s).
        cheers,
         michael
At 16:54 21/08/2004, you wrote:
> I cannot locate an article that I clipped many years ago discussing the
> apocryphal
> Soviet factory manager who supposedly met a weight quota for screw
> production by
> producing useless 10 pound screws.  If anyone could help me, I would be very
> grateful.
>
>  -- Michael Perelman
> Economics Department
> California State University
> Chico, CA 95929
>
> Tel. 530-898-5321
> E-Mail michael at ecst.csuchico.edu

Michael A. Lebowitz
Professor Emeritus
Economics Department
Simon Fraser University
Burnaby, B.C., Canada V5A 1S6

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