Bergson's Structure of Soviet Wages
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Bergson’s Structure of Soviet Wages JAMES MILLAR George Washington University, USA. E-mail: [email protected]
A review of Abram Bergson’s first major work on the Soviet economy illustrates how the method of analysis he used remained strikingly consistent throughout his career. The approach involved a rigorous statement of the relevant economic theory, the erection of an hypothesis upon it for empirical testing, and reliance upon carefully evaluated Soviet statistical data for the test. Comparative Economic Studies (2005) 47, 289–295. doi:10.1057/palgrave.ces.8100098
Keywords: Soviet wages, wage inequality, socialist wages JEL Classifications: B2, B24
When I learned in 1961 that I would be going to Harvard as a special student associated with the Russian Research Center and working with Abram Bergson I sat down and read his The Structure of Soviet Wages. A Study In Socialist Economics (Bergson, 1944). It was clearly a model publication in economics. Upon being invited to say something about Bergson’s legacy to the field, I picked up my by-now faded and dog-eared copy of the book. After perusing it and my marginal notes, I decided that it would be an appropriate topic for a presentation on his legacy to the field of Soviet economic studies. Anyone who has read a number of Abe Bergson’s publications will discover a very disciplined and consistent author. Abe was not given to overstatement and he obviously enjoyed unobtrusively skewering his intellectual opponents. The Structure of Soviet Wages is divided roughly into four parts. In the first part (Chapters I and II) Bergson explains why he calls his work a study in socialist economics and spells out the theory of socialist wages. The second part is institutional and is divided into two sections: Chapter III on money wages and non-wage benefits and Chapters XI and XII describe wage administration. The third part (Chapters IV–X) is an empirical, comparative examination of wage variation in the Soviet Union in 1928 and Russia in 1914, in the Soviet Union in 1928 and the United States in 1904, and
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in the Soviet Union in 1928 and 1934. It also includes an examination of salaries in the Soviet Union in 1928 and 1934 and of the distribution of the wage bill among industrial workers in 1914 Russia and the USSR in 1928 and 1934. The fourth part is historical: A critique of Soviet equalitarianism (XIII and XIV). A very terse conclusion follows. The pattern is clear: a theoretical framework, an empirical and comparative test of the hypothesis, a description of the relevant economic and administrative institutions, and finally an historical search for the rationale for Soviet economic practices. Bergson presents his hypothesis as an apparent paradox: that the principle of socialist wages ‘is also a capitalist principle.’ (p. 15). Abe Bergson’s defense of his reliance on Soviet statistics, which he presented in the Preface, is a measure of the care with which he formed his opinions and of his consistent ap
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