Productivity Measurement Review 43. [antikvár]

IN THIS NUMBER The abiüty to maintain growth in the developed countries depends largely upon scientific research; it is, therefore, understandable that problems concerning programmes of scientific research warrant a high priority in policy making. Continued expansion of trade is another essential and high priority is given to international payments and the removal of obstacles to international trade. There is a tendency, however, for many people to forget that the wealth of nations still rests in industry; without it there would be no scientific research and the greater the need for the latter, the greater the strain upon industry. One limit upon research activity lies in the supply of scientists, but this is a problem, the solution to which presents no difficulties beyond that of the inevitable lag between policy formulation and its effeet. In the interim, modern management techniques can help to increase the productivity of those scientists we have. A much more serious limitation stems from the shortage of funds for investment in research. Government aid is useful but, in the long run, industry is the source of research investment funds; governments are only as wealthy as their economies are strong. It is productivity growth which supplies the basis for this wealth, both from the point of view of rendering funds available and from that of making the best use of resources. The inclusion of agri-business together with industry is important to the developed economies because growing productivity in agriculture releases manpower to labour-hungry manufacturing industry-despite the savings made by automation-or eases the strain on the balance of payments of economies like that of the United Kingdom. It is alsó important to the developing countries where the trend must be away from subsistence farming in order to provide adequate nourishment for the growing nonagricultural population as industrialisation proceeds. Industrialisation remains the key to prosperity for such economies in much the same way as research and development has become the key to prosperity in the developed economies. But prosperity will burgeon best when resources are optimally allocated. The task of eeonometric research is to evolve the techniques for making such allocations of scarce resources and productivity measurement becomes simply a part of the system of information and analysis directed towards this end. Yet the measurement of productivity has a firm foot in the distribution camp as well as in the production one. This is particularly so in the developed economies where it must provide the guidelines of prices and incomes policies. In both types of economy it can be of outstanding assistance to economic forecasting and is, therefore, essential to planning.