Determining the Efficiency of Territorial Distribution of Production

The demand of the national economy for various kinds of output can be satisfied by developing the corresponding branches of production in many regions. This is one of the main advantages of our country with its huge territory and natural resources. But since the regions of the USSR differ in their natural and economic conditions, the outlays for production of output are unequal in different regions. Therefore, it becomes an extremely pressing problem to choose that distribution of production which would enable the necessary output to be obtained with the lowest total expenditures of social labor. These problems are no less important than the choice of a variant of a technical solution at planned or designed enterprises. We may choose the optimal technical solution and introduce the most modern equipment or technology, which fully answer to the criteria of economic efficiency; but if the enterprise is located without regard for the natural and economic conditions of the region, its construction will be inefficient. Therefore the choice of one or another technical solution should not be put ahead of the choice of the region of construction. Along with improving methods of determining the efficiency of capital investments and new equipment, one must also work out related methods of calculating the economic efficiency of the territorial distribution of production. At the same time, one must not forget that these methods have their own special features in comparison with the methods of determining the economic efficiency of new equipment. Ignoring them will lead to great losses, considering that it is practically impossible to correct mistakes and miscalculations in territorial distribution.

Criteria for Evaluating the Economic Effectiveness of New Technology

Criteria for the economic effectiveness of new technology occupy an important place in the system of criteria for economic effectiveness of social production. At the same time, they also have a significance of their own - as one of the main economic levers for managing progress in science and technology. Four aspects characterizing the significance of these criteria can be singled out. First, they are used in the selection of the most economical variants of new technology in all directions of scientific and technological progress. Second, they make it possible to shape technical policy in the national economy as a whole and in its individual elements. Third, they serve as the most general indicators in the planning of scientific and technical progress. The final and fourth point is that they are the basis for providing material incentives to the collectives of enterprises and individual working people for their participation in the creation and utilization of new technologies.