Kondratiev and the Economics of Planning

Abstract

This chapter examines both Kondratiev’s views on the methodology and principles of planning, and his work on the creation of a concrete plan for agriculture and forestry for 1924–28. As always with Kondratiev, a concern with the interrelation of theory and policy is something which emerges as very important in this area. The plan for agriculture and forestry was composed together with other members of the People’s Commissariat of Agriculture such as N.P. Makarov, not with other members of the Conjuncture Institute, which was part of the Commissariat of Finance. Even so, the methodology which underlay Kondratiev’s approach to planning was clearly indebted to his work on forecasting cyclical movements pursued in the Conjuncture Institute.