Yugoslav Economy Research Articles

Short-Run Instability and Long-Run Trends in the Yugoslav Economy’s Development

Short-Run Instability and Long-Run Trends in the Yugoslav Economy’s Development

An Introduction to the Yugoslav Economy

An Introduction to the Yugoslav Economy

The financial development of Yugoslavia

Yugoslavia is of particular interest for the comparative study of financial structure and development as it is the only country to combine a substantial degree of central planning and the ownership of most of the means of production by the state with a true financial system. Yugoslavia thus provides a unique opportunity to observe the adaptation of a financial system to conditions which in many respects are quite different from those in the West and in much of the Third World. The author first sketches the changes in economic organisation since 1945 and summarises the features of the infrastructure of the Yugoslav economy. A review of the trends of money, prices and interest rates over the last quarter century is then provided as well as a description of the main types of financial institutions and instruments. A brief discussion of the method of financing the main sectors follows as well as an attempt at constructing a rough balance sheet of the economy for the years 1952, 1962 and 1972.

An Introduction to the Yugoslav Economy. By Joel Dirlam and James Plummer. Merrill's Economics Systems Series. Columbus, Ohio: Charles E. Merrill, 1973. ix, 259 pp. Paper. - Workers’ Management and Workers’ Wages in Yugoslavia: The Theory and Practice of Participatory Socialism. By Howard M. Wachtel. Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press, 1973. xvi, 220 pp.

An Introduction to the Yugoslav Economy. By Joel Dirlam and James Plummer. Merrill's Economics Systems Series. Columbus, Ohio: Charles E. Merrill, 1973. ix, 259 pp. Paper. - Workers’ Management and Workers’ Wages in Yugoslavia: The Theory and Practice of Participatory Socialism. By Howard M. Wachtel. Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press, 1973. xvi, 220 pp. - Volume 33 Issue 3

Economic Policy in Socialist Yugoslavia.

This 1973 posthumous publication of Rudolf BiA‡aniA‡'s last work on the Yugoslav economy is a fitting tribute to a great Yugoslav of the pre-war era, who survived the revolution and made a notable contribution to the new Yugoslavia. BiA‡aniA‡ was a man of broad learning, equally at home as a geographer, an economist and a political scientist, who was also a man of affairs. His book provides a lucid survey of the economic development of Yugoslavia from 1918 to the 1970s. BiA‡aniA‡ discusses the three planning models used in post-war Yugoslavia - the centralized (1947–1951), the decentralized (1952–1964) and the polycentric (1965–1970) - and discusses the implications of these models in the context of Yugoslavia's industrialization. The book is not only essential reading for anyone wishing to understand Yugoslavia's economic background, but it also raises questions of general interest concerning the application of socialist principles to the industrialization of developing societies.

Urbanization and Cultural Process in Yugoslavia

During the last three decades the rapid expansion of the Yugoslav economy has brought about the influx of millions of peasants to urban centers. In contrast to many other developing nations, these rural migrants are quickly assimilated and do not form a discernible social or cultural agglomerate within the city. This phenomenon is examined by the author from the standpoint of its historical antecedents and in the light of field observations carried out in the capital, Belgrade. The paper concludes that Yugloslau urbanization has taken place within the context of a relatively stable cultural matrix in which rural and urban variants are not sharply differentiated, and against the background of an egalitarian ideology based on recent common origins in the peasantry.

The Yugoslav economy viewed through the theory of labor management

In the days of Marx, the major problem was the liberation of the working man from the capitalist. The contribution of Yugoslavia to socialism is the liberation of the working man from the state. But socialist labor-management cannot assume the position of the leading world system, which belongs to it, until it liberates the working man from himself as a collective capitalist.

Changes in Industrial Structure in Yugoslavia, 1959-1968

Theories of labor-manahed market economies have suggested that market socialism requires free entry in order to achieve allocative efficiency and that, in the absence of entry, industrial structure will change over time. An important practical question is how well entry, an Integral part of the market mechanism, can function in an economy without private capital ad where all means of production are socially owned. Does market socialism have an bias toward or away from high Industrial concentration? The Yugoslav economy is closer to the ideal form of market socialism than is any other economy and, therefore, constitutes a unique opportunity to answer this question by examining long-run tendencies in industrial structure. In his extensive theoretical analysis, Vanek argues that inherent in the labor-managed system is a remarkably consistent tendency or set of forces, working in the direction of a smaller optimum size of operation

La structure institutionnelle et les stimulants économiques de la firme yougoslave

Eirik Furubotn and Svetozar Pejovich — Institutional Structure, Economie Incentives and the Yugoslav Firm. The Yugoslav economic system of the seventies has evolved as a result of the governement's persistent search for new and more desirable institutional arrangements. While the process of change has gone forward largely by trial and error, the general objective has always been to find organizational forms that permit economic efficiency and incentives for innovation to exist in a socialist environment where private property rights in capital goods are effectively precluded. Particularly after the important reform of 1965, emphasis has been on economic decentralization and the creation of a system in which individual workers and consumers have substantial decision making power. As the broad trend of economic reform has unfolded in Yugoslavia, there has developed, at another level, a set of concepts and technical tools required for the practical operation of the system. Of these, the notion of Dohodak, or net product, is of special significance to economists. What makes Dohodak important is that the analysis of the firm's net product, including consideration of the rules for its formation and distribution, represents a powerful means for examining the actual functioning of the Yugoslav economy. In general, any alteration in the legal structure under which the Yugoslav firm operates will tend to influence the size and allocation of net product and, hence, the pattern of economic rewards. Then, insofar as individuals are motivated by self-interest, incentives and behavior will be affected in turn. Each act of institutional reorganization implies a set of corresponding changes in the amount and type of output produced by the firm, the rate and direction of the firm's growth, the extend and quality of effort supplied by the labor force, etc. The central premise of the study is that the regulations surrounding the formation and distribution of the firm's net product serve to define the effective economic choices open to the collective. Specifically, by considering the factors that affect Dohodak, it becomes possible to gain basic understanding of: (i) the nature of the legal and institutionnal constraints imposed on decision makers, (ii) the range of objectives that can be pursued by Yugoslav enterprises, and (iii) the probable causes of economic problems in a labor-managed economy of the Yugoslav type. In developing these themes, the evolution of the concept of Dohodak is traced over a number of historical periods since 1946. The paper then proceds to a discussion of the formation of the net product, of the firm, the analysis of legal and contractual obligations paid from the firms net product, and the consideration of internal distribution of net product between the Wage Fund and other funds. In the final section, some general remarks are made concerning the relation between Yugoslav economic organization and efficiency.

Conclusions: The Mechanism of Movements in the Yugoslav Economy

Conclusions: The Mechanism of Movements in the Yugoslav Economy

9.1 Some Characteristics of Inventory Formation in the Yugoslav Economy

9.1 Some Characteristics of Inventory Formation in the Yugoslav Economy

Decentralized decision-making structure in the Yugoslav economy

Decentralized decision-making structure in the Yugoslav economy

Investment Problems in the Yugoslav Economy

Investment Problems in the Yugoslav Economy

Outlines of the Long-Term Development of the Yugoslav Economy

Outlines of the Long-Term Development of the Yugoslav Economy