Etude statistique et théorique de la croissance économique des pays d'Europe orientale (1945-1955)

[eng] SUMMARY This paper has been discussed at the Hindsgavl International Associa tion for Research in Income and Wealth conference September 1955. The postwar national income rates of growth in Poland Czechoslovaquia ungaria Rumania and Bulgaria are generally much higher than those of Western countries The upward bias of the indices employed explains only part of this fact The main real factors of growth are the increase of man power and working time the increase of labour productivity due essentially to very high rate of investment the shift of man-power from agriculture to industry After an attempt to measure the relative contribution of these factors to economic growth the author comes to the conclusion that no one of them can be developed on steady geometrical rate The economic growth of the countries concerned was fostered at the beginning by the existence of idle resources But it will depend more and more on the normal deve lopment of all the component factors The resulting rate of growth will gradually decrease to the level observed in more advanced countries The planning system can at best help to maintain an approximately linear but not an exponential pattern of development