Trade and Technology in Soviet-Western Relations

281 Pages·1981·28.926 MB·English

by  Philip Hanson (auth.)

TRADE AND TECHNOLOGY IN
SOVIET-WESTERN RELATIONS
STUDIES IN SOVIET HISTORY AND SOCIETY
General Editor: R. W. Davies
The series consists of works by members or associates of the inter
disciplinary Centre for Russian and East European Studies of the
University of Birmingham, England. Special interests of the Centre
include Soviet economic and social history, contemporary Soviet
economics and planning, science and technology, sociology and
education.
John Barber
SOVIET HISTORIANS IN CRISIS, 1928-1932
Philip Hanson
TRADE AND TECHNOLOGY IN SOVIET-WESTERN RE
LATIONS
Nicholas Lampert
THE TECHNICAL INTELLIGENTSIA AND THE SOVIET
STATE: A STUDY OF SOVIET MANAGERS AND TECHNI
CIANS, 1928-1935
Robert Lewis
SCIENCE AND INDUSTRIALISATION IN THE USSR:
INDUSTRIAL RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT, 1917-1940
J. N. Westwood
SOVIET LOCOMOTIVE TECHNOLOGY DURING INDUS
TRIALIZATION, 1928-1952
Further titles in preparation
TRADE AND
TECHNOLOGY IN
SOVIET-WESTERN
RELATIONS
Philip Hanson
in association with the
Palgrave Macmillan
© Philip Hanson 1981
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 1981 978-0-333-28056-0
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be
reproduced or transmitted, in any form or by any means,
without permission
First published 1981 by
THE MACMILLAN PRESS LTD
London and Basingstoke
Companies and representatives
throughout the world
ISBN 978-1-349-05165-6 ISBN 978-1-349-05163-2 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-1-349-05163-2
To Eve
Contents
List ofTables and Figures ix
Acknowledgements xi
Glossary xiii
PART I THE SETTING
I Introduction 3
2 The Nature oflnternational Technology Transfer 6
3 Soviet Technological Performance 30
4 The Influence of the Soviet Economic System on
Technological Performance 49
Appendix to Chapter 4 79
PART II THE SOVIET IMPORT OF
WESTERN TECHNOLOGY SINCE 1955
5 The Evolution of Soviet Perceptions 83
6 The Evolution of Soviet Policies and Institutions 106
7 Pressures and Constraints in the Soviet Planning of
Technology Imports 119
8 The Dimensions ofTechnoiogy Imports 128
Appendix to Chapter 8 141
9 The Impact oflmported Western Technology 144
Appendix to Chapter 9 157
10 A Case-study of the Soviet Mineral Fertiliser Industry 161
Appendix to Chapter I 0 185
1I Lead-times and Efficiency in the Assimilation oflmported
Western Technology 186
Appendix to Chapter 11 206
PART III IMPLICATIONS FOR WESTERN POLICY
12 The Success of the Soviet Strategy 211
13 The Scope of Western Policy-making 230
14 The Distribution of Economic Benefits 235
15 The Primacy of Politics 249
Index of Authors 261
Index of Subjects 265
List of Tables and Figures
FIGURE
2.1 Two technologies in, for example, ammonia production 9
2.2 Use of a 'given technology' with differing relative factor
prices 10
TABLE
3.1 Soviet economic growth 1951-79 32
3.2 Selected measures of output and productivity growth in the
UK, US, FRG, Japan and USSR 1950-78 38
4.1 Shares of construction and other elements in Soviet non-
kolkhoz 'productive' investment, 1938-77 67
7.1 Actual and 'predicted' Soviet imports of Western
machinery 1973-7 125
8.1 Soviet imports of machinery and transport equipment from
the West 1955-78 129
8.2 Percentage shares of selected Soviet industries in imports of
Western machinery and in 'productive' investment
1955/56--1975/76 136
9 A.1 Soviet chemical and petrochemical industry 1960-78: net
output, 'domestic' and imported Western capital stocks
and employment 159
9A .2 Soviet chemical industry 1960-7 5: production function
estimates 160
10.1 Soviet production and deliveries to agriculture of mineral
fertilisers 1950-85 Plan 167
10.2 Changes in the structure of Soviet fertiliser output
1965-80 Plan 168
10.3 Levels of fertiliser deliveries to agriculture, USSR and
Western Europe, around 1971 169
10.4 Soviet ammonia production, capacity, plant imports and
production on 'Western' plant 1960-85 Plan 172
11.1 Sample of UK chemical plant exports to the USSR: Lead-
time and value data 191
X List of Tables and Figures
11.2 Sample of UK chemical plant exports to the USSR:
respondents' judgements of'excess' lead-times 192
11.3 Sample of UK chemical plant exports to the USSR:
comparative Soviet-West European manning levels on
completed plant 193
11.4 Lead-times, contract dates and contract values: regression
results for a sample of Soviet chemical-plant projects 197
Acknowledgements
The research on which this book is based began in 1973. In the course of
some seven years' work I have accumulated a long list of benefactors.
A grant from the Social Science Research Council in 1973 supported
the first stages of the work. In 1974 a Commonwealth Fellowship
enabled me to spend two months researching and writing at Carleton
University, Ottawa, where the Institute of Soviet and East European
Studies provided abundant hospitality and the stimulus of shared
research interests. In 1977-8 a Consultancy for the Stanford Research
Institute (Menlo Park, California) enabled me to develop and carry out
the survey of Western exporters on which Chapter 11 of this book is
based. Part of Chapter 12 is based on work undertaken under the
auspices of the California Seminar on Arms Control and Foreign Policy.
Throughout the whole period that I have been working on this subject,
the University of Birmingham has provided generous support for
travel to conferences and for research.
I am indebted to a large number of people for commen~s on papers
which subsequently formed the basis of the book. Among them were
several of my colleagues at Birmingham's Centre for Russian and East
European Studies: Ron Amann, Mike Berry, Julian Cooper, Bob
Davies, John Grayson and Hugh Jenkins; Robert Campbell and Paul
Marer of the University of Indiana at Bloomington; Michael Ellman
of the University of Amsterdam; Michael Freeman of Fertecon Ltd;
John Hardt of the US Congressional Research Service; Jonathan
Haslam of Birmingham University's School of International Studies;
Colin Lawson of the University of Bath; Carl McMillan of Carleton
University; John Michael Montias of Yale University; Alec Nove of
Glasgow University; Bruce Parrott of Johns Hopkins University;
Heinrich Vogel of the Bundesinstitut, Koln; Martin Weitzman of MIT;
Peter Wiles of the London School of Economics. I am especially
indebted to Malcolm Hill of Loughborough University, with whom I
worked closely on the survey of exporters reported in Chapter II; and
to Stanislaw Gomulka of the London School of Economics, whose ideas
and analysis have helped me to formulate key issues, and who has also