Acta Oeconomica 1. (1966)

1966 / 3-4. szám - BOOK REVIEWS - Szakolczai György: Bródy, A.: A termelés tőkeigényessége a kapitalizmusban (Capital Requirement of Production in Capitalism); Rácz, J.: Az állóalapok és a termelés összefüggése a magyar iparban (Interrelation between Fixed Capital and Production in the Hungarian Industry)

BOOK REVIEWS Bbódy, A., A termelés tőkeigényessége a kapitalizmusban. (Capital Requirement of Production in Capitalism.) — RÁcz, J., Az állóalapok és a termelés összefüggése a magyar iparban. (Interrelation between Fixed Capital and Production in the Hungarian Industry.) Budapest, 1966. Akadémiai Kiadó. p. 331. Economists in the socialist countries are paying much attention to the interrelation between fixed capital and the volume of production. Finding out whether the capital intensity of production will in­crease or decrease over time and as a function of technological progress, and thus, whether we have to expect an increase or decrease in sacrifices for eco­nomic development and to what extent — is of basic importance both for the clarifi­cation of the general interrelations of economic development and for actual planning. Akadémiai Kiadó (The Publishing House of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences) published in one volume A. Bródy’s and J. Rácz’ voluminous papers approaching this problem from different aspects. Bródy presents statistical data relating to capitalist countries published already elsewhere and draws conclusions from these, J. Rácz composes new Hun­garian time-series, analyses them to dis­cover the laws and points out the possibil­ities for using the results in the actual planning work. The two studies are related to each other not only by their common topics and objective but also by the regular co-operation between the authors in the course of their research work. Following the first introductory and explanatory chapter, Bródy deals in Chapter II with conceptional and method­ological questions. According to his opinion the capital-output ratio is an indicator of the return of capital. As regards the starting data, he comes to the conclusion, that although theoretically it would be desirable to measure the net reproduction value of capital, in practice we must rest satisfied with gross purchase value, which seems to be the most reliable datum available. In Chapter III statistical data — from Colin Clark, Goldsmith, Griinig, Aukrust, Bjerke, etc. — are summed up, while conclusions are drawn in Chapter IV. Here are the most important conclu­sions: the capital-output ratio for a short period is unstable and the marginal quotients have no interpretation; for a long period, however, it is highly stable and its trend is increasing until the in­dustrialization of a country is completed, while afterwards vt is decreasing. The increase at the beginning, and subsequent decrease is characteristic among the sec­toral quotients also for those of the manu­facturing industries and for mining. The need for capital is in case of transport and public utilities extraordinarily strong at the beginning, then there is first a rapid and later a slower decline. A very slow decrease of the quotient is characteristic of agriculture. Such change of the quotient over time Acta Oeconomica Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae 1, 1966

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