Cooperation of the CMEA Countries in the Sphere of Employment

Abstract

Labour resources, one of the most important factors of production, have been attracting the attention of both policy-makers and planners in the CMEA countries for many years. The preceding chapters deal with the handling of problems of labour-force utilization in individual countries. The area of all major attempts to increase effectiveness of the labour force is the national economy of each socialist country. At the same time, taking advantage of international division of labour is another way of obtaining higher returns on labour inputs. Possible factors in the drive to increase the effectiveness of utilization of existing resources, including labour, are rationalization of territorial and sectoral structures of production in collaborating countries and thus development of a more efficient pattern of specialization and international exchange of goods and services. Creation of transnational enterprises with a rational combination of production factors whose relative surplus or shortage is felt to an uneven degree by the partners is another form of such cooperation. There is not much evidence that the CMEA, while working out programmes of cooperation and integration, does in fact take fully into account the comparative advantages of individual countries, in particular with respect to the availability of labour resources.

This study was made possible by financial support from the National Council for Soviet and East European Research and by the Russian Research Center, Harvard University.