| Popis: |
Soviet machinery produced for domestic use is, in general, of substantially lower quality than machinery produced for export. Special export-price supplements compensate manufacturers for the higher costs incurred in meeting world-market quality standards. In the 1970s these supplements ranged from 6 to 95% of the domestic price, averaging about 40%. These price supplements can serve as a measure of the gap between Soviet domestic and world-market quality standards. The author suggests that this measure be used to adjust current Western estimates of ruble/dollar ratios for machinery and that an upward adjustment by a factor of about 1.4 would make these ratios more realistic. |
