National Wealth Estimation In Socialist Countries

The CMEA standard of statistical information provides a system of national wealth indicators. The paper deals with certain time series published in these countries and in the CMEA Statistical Yearbook as the components of that system. Special attention is paid to the USSR interbranch balance of 30 types of fixed assets cross‐classified by 105 branches of economy. This balance is analogous to the input‐output table technique in the western literature. On the basis of this balance the Soviet statisticians furnish coefficients of direct and total requirements in fixed assets for each branch. Such coefficients are usually called capital ratios or capital coefficients. In the USSR they are calculated together with the coefficients of direct and total requirements of labour for the same industries, and they supplement input‐output tables. The scheme of the fixed assets balance and the matrix for the calculation of these coefficients are described in the paper together with some numerical illustrations of actual coefficients reached in the calculations.