Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-mkpzs Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-23T07:13:08.609Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

KOOPMANS IN THE SOVIET UNION: A TRAVEL REPORT OF THE SUMMER OF 1965

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 February 2016

Till Düppe
Till Düppe*
Affiliation:
Université du Québec à Montréal.
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Tjalling C. Koopmans, research director of the Cowles Foundation of Research in Economics, was the first US economist after World War II who, in the summer of 1965, travelled to the Soviet Union for an official visit to the Central Economics and Mathematics Institute of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR. Koopmans left hoping to learn from the Soviet economists’ experience with applying linear programming to economic planning. Would his own theories, as discovered independently by Leonid V. Kantorovich, help increase allocative efficiency in a socialist economy? Inspired by a vague notion of universal reason spanning the iron curtain, Koopmans may have even envisioned a research community that transcends the political divide. Yet, he came home having discovered that learning about Soviet mathematical economists might be more interesting than learning from them. On top of that, he found the Soviet scene caught in the same deplorable situation he knew all too well from home: that mathematicians are the better economists. Reconstructing Koopmans’s voyage from a first-person perspective puts the spirit of universal economic knowledge at Cowles to test: Is it capable of establishing a dialogue across the political divide of the Cold War or is it limited to the Western academic cocoon?

Type
Articles
Information
Journal of the History of Economic Thought , Volume 38 , Issue 1 , March 2016 , pp. 81 - 104
Copyright
Copyright © The History of Economics Society 2016 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Barnett, Vincent. 2005. The History of Russian Economic Thought. New York: Taylor and Francis.Google Scholar
Bockman, Johanna. 2011. Markets in the Name of Socialism: The Left-Wing Origins of Neoliberalism. Stanford: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
Bockman, Johanna, and Bernstein, Michael A.. 2008. “Scientific Community in a Divided World: Economists, Planning, and Research Priority during the Cold War.” Comparative Studies in Society and History 50 (3): 581–613.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Boumans, Marcel J. 1998. “Tinbergen.” In Wade Hands, D., Mäki, Uskali, and Davis, John, eds., The Handbook of Economic Methodology. Cheltenham/Northampton: Edward Elgar, pp. 501–504.Google Scholar
Byrnes, Robert F. 1969. “American Scholars in Russia Soon Learn About the K.G.B.” New York Times Magazine, November 16, pp. 84, 87–94.Google Scholar
Calvino, Italo. [1972] 2013. Invisible Cities. New York: Helen and Kurt Wolff.Google Scholar
Campbell, Robert W. 1961. “Marx, Kantorovich, and Novozhilov: Stoimost’ versus Reality.” Slavic Review 20 (3): 402–418.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Charnes, Abraham, and Cooper, William W.. 1962. “On Some Works of Kantorovich, Koopmans and Others.” Management Science 8 (3): 246–263.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dalmedico, Amy D. 2001. “An Image Conflict in Mathematics After 1945.” In Bottazzini, Umberto and Dalmedico, Amy D., eds., Changing Images in Mathematics: From the French Revolution to the New Millenium. London and New York: Routledge, pp. 223–253.Google Scholar
Dantzig, George B. 1955. “Linear Programming under Uncertainty.” Management Science 1 (3–4): 197–206.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dorfman, Robert. 1984. “The Discovery of Linear Programming.” Annals of the History of Computing 6 (3): 283–295.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Düppe, Till. 2011. “How Economic Methodology Became a Separate Science.” Journal of Economic Methodology 18 (2): 163–176.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Düppe, Till. 2013. “Talk Means Trouble—Don’t Talk: Angst und Wissen in ökonomischen Diskursen.” In Pahl, Hanno and Sparsam, Jan, eds., Wirtschaftswissenschaft als Oikodizee? Diskussionen im Anschluss an Joseph Vogls Gespenst des Kapitals. Wiesbaden: Springer, pp. 91–112.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Düppe, Till, and Weintraub, E. Roy. 2014a. “Siting the New Economic Science: The Cowles Commission’s Activity Analysis Conference of June 1949.” Science in Context: 453–483.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Düppe, Till, and Weintraub, E. Roy. 2014b. Finding Equilibrium: Arrow, Debreu, McKenzie, and the Problem of Scientific Credit. Princeton: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Ellman, Michael. 1973. Planning Problems in the USSR: The Contribution of Mathematical Economics to Their Solution, 1960–1971. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Engerman, David. 2009. Know Your Enemy: The Rise and Fall of America’s Soviet Experts. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Erickson, Paul, Klein, Judy, Daston, Lorraine, Lemov, Rebecca, Sturm, Thomas, and Gordin, Michael. 2013. How Reason Almost Lost Its Mind: The Strange Career of Cold War Rationality. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gass, Saul I. 1958. Linear Programming: Methods and Applications. New York: McGraw-Hill.Google Scholar
Gass, Saul I., and Rosenhead, Jonathan. 2011. “Leonid Vital’evich Kantorovich.” In Assad, A. A. and Gass, Saul I., eds., Profiles in Operations Research. International Series in Operations Research and Management Science. New York: Springer, pp. 157–170.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gelfand, Izrael M., Piatelki-Schapiro, Izrael I., and Zetlin, Mikhael L.. 1963. “On Some Classes of Games and of Games with Automata.” [In Russian.] Dokl. Akad. Nauk [USSR] 152 (4): 845–848.Google Scholar
Gerovitch, Slava. 2002. From Newspeak to Cyberspeak: A History of Soviet Cybernetics. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hagendorf, Klaus. 2012. “Victor Valentinovich Novozhilov: A Marxian Mathematical Economist.” Paper prepared for the All-Russian Scientific Conference Mathematics and Economics in the Works of V. V. Novozhilov at the Saint-Petersburg State University of Engineering and Economics on 15 October 2012.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hardt, John P. 1965. “Rochester Meeting on Mathematical Techniques and Soviet Planning.” Association for the Study of Soviet-type Economies Bulletin 7 (3): 14–17.Google Scholar
Hardt, John P., Hoffenberg, Marvin, Kaplan, Norman, and Levine, Herbert S., eds. 1967. Mathematics and Computers in Soviet Planning: Proceedings of a conference held in May 1965 at the University of Rochester. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Kantorovich, Leonid V. [1939] 1960. “Mathematical Methods in the Organization and Planning of Production.” [In Russian.] Leningrad: Leningrad University USSR. Translated 1960, Management Science 6: 366–422.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kantorovich, Leonid V. [1942] 1958. “On the Translocation of Masses.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences [USSR] 37 (7/7): 227–230. Translated 1958, Management Science 5 (1): 1–4.Google Scholar
Kantorovich, Leonid V. 1959. The Best Use of Economic Resources. [In Russian.] Moscow: USSR Academy of Sciences. Translated 1965, Oxford: Pergamon Press.Google Scholar
Kantorovich, Leonid V. 1990. “My Journey in Science.” In Leifman, Lev J., ed., Functional Analysis, Optimization, and Mathematical Economics: A Collection of Papers Dedicated to the Memory of Leonid Vital’evich Kantorovich. Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 8–45.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Iljina-Kantorovich, Natalie, and Rosenhead, Jonathan V.. 1990. “Silver Medal.” In Leifman, Lev J., ed., Functional Analysis, Optimization, and Mathematical Economics: A Collection of Papers Dedicated to the Memory of Leonid Vital’evich Kantorovich. Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 46–48.Google Scholar
Kassel, Simon. 1971. “Soviet Cybernetics Research: A Preliminary Study of Organizations and Personalities.” Report prepared for Advanced Research Project Agency (ARPA), R-909. Santa Monica: RAND.Google Scholar
Kats, Adolf I. 1960. “On the Wrong Concept of Economic Calculations.” [In Russian.] Problems of Economics 35: 256–261.Google Scholar
Katsenelinboigen, Aron J. 1986. “Mathematical Economics in the Soviet Union: A Reflection on the 25th Anniversary of L.V. Kantorovich’s Book, The Best Use of Economic Resources.” Acta Slavica Iaponica 4: 88–103.Google Scholar
Katsenelinboigen, Aron J. 1978. “L. V. Kantorovich: The Political Dilemma in Scientific Creativity.” Journal of Post Keynesian Economics 1 (2): 129–147.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Katsenelinboigen, Aron J. 1980. Soviet Economic Thought and Political Power in the USSR. New York: Pergamon Press.Google Scholar
Kirtchik, Olessia, and Boldyrev, Ivan. 2014. “General Equilibrium Theory behind the Iron Curtain: The Case of Victor Polterovich.” History of Political Economy 46 (3): 435–461.Google Scholar
Konüs, Alexander A. 1939. “The Problem of the True Index of the Cost of Living.” Econometrica 7 (1): 10–29.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Koopmans, Tjalling C. 1939. Tanker Freight Rates and Tankship Building: An Analysis of Cyclical Fluctuations. Netherlands Economic Institute, 27. Haarlem: De Erven Bohn.Google Scholar
Koopmans, Tjalling C. 1942. “Exchange Ratios between Cargoes on Various Routes (Non-refrigerating Dry Cargoes).” Memorandum for the Combined Shipping Adjustment Board, pp. 1–12.Google Scholar
Koopmans, Tjalling C, ed. 1951a. Activity Analysis of Production and Allocation: Proceedings of a Conference. Cowles Commission Monograph 13. New York: John Wiley and Sons.Google Scholar
Koopmans, Tjalling C. 1951b. “Efficient Allocation of Resources.” Econometrica 19: 455–465.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Koopmans, Tjalling C. 1959. Three Essays on the State of Economic Science. New York: McGraw-Hill.Google Scholar
Koopmans, Tjalling C. 1960. “A Note about Kantorovich’s Paper Mathematical Methods of Organizing and Planning Production.” Management Science 6 (4): 363–365.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Koopmans, Tjalling C. 1962. “On the Evaluation of Kantorovich’s Work of 1939.” Management Science 6 (4): 363–365.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Koopmans, Tjalling C. 1965. “On the Concept of Optimal Economic Growth.” In The Econometric Approach to Development Planning. Rome: Pontif. Acad. Sc. Scripta Varia 28, pp. 225–300.Google Scholar
Koopmans, Tjalling C. [1974] 1992. “Autobiography.” In Lindbeck, Assar, ed., Nobel Lectures: Economics 1969–1980. World Scientific Publishing: Singapore. <http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/economic-sciences/laureates/1975/koopmans-bio.html. Accessed 26 October 2015.Google Scholar
Koopmans, Tjalling C. 1977. “Concepts of Optimality and Their Uses.” The American Economic Review 67 (3): 261–274.Google Scholar
Koopmans, Tjalling C., and Montias, John M.. 1971. “On the Descriptions and Comparison of Economic Systems.” In Eckstein, Alexander, ed., Comparison of Economic Systems, Theoretical and Methodological Approaches. Berkeley: University of California Press, pp. 27–78.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Koopmans, Tjalling Charles Papers (TKP). Manuscripts and Archives, Yale University Library.Google Scholar
Leeds, Adam. 2015. Spectral liberalisms: On the subjects of political economy in Moscow, PhD thesis, University of Pennsylvania.Google Scholar
Makarov, Valery L. 1962. “The Condition of Equilibrium in the von Neumann Model.” [In Russian.] Siberian Mathematical Journal 3: 476–478.Google Scholar
Makarov, Valery L. 1965. “The State of Equilibrium of a Closed Linear Model of an Expanding Economy.” [In Russian.] Economics and Mathematical Methods 5: 736–738.Google Scholar
Medow, Paul. 1965. “V. S. Nemchinow. Obituary.” Economics of Planning 5 (1–2): 1–4.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Montias, John M. 1961. “Review of L. Kantorovich’s Economic Calculation of the Best Utilization of Resources.” Econometrica 29 (2): 252–254.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Morton, George, and Zauberman, Alfred. 1969. “Von Neumann’s Model and Soviet Long-Term (Perspective) Planning.” Kyklos 22: 45–61.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nemchinov, Vasily S., ed. [1959] 1964. The Use of Mathematics in Economics. Translation 1964 by A. Nove. Cambridge: MIT Press.Google Scholar
von Neumann, John. 1937. “Über ein ökonomisches Gleichungssystem und eine Verallgemeinerung des Brouwerschen Fixpunksatzes.” In Menger, Karl, ed., Ergebnisse eines Mathematischen Kolloquiums 1935–36. Volume 8. Leipzig and Vienna: Deuticke, pp. 73–83. Translated by George Morton, 1945. “A Model of General Economic Equilibrium.” The Review of Economic Studies 13 (1): 1–9.Google Scholar
Novozhilov, Viktor V. 1964. “Mesures des dépenses (de production) et de leurs résultats en Economie Socialiste.” In Novozhilov, V. V., Johansen, L., Chambre, H. J., Fiszel, H., Kreyberg, H. J., Waelbroeck, Jean, and Stolz, G.. Rationalité et calcul économique en URSS. Cahiers de l’ISEA, Série G, 19 (146). Paris: ISEA.Google Scholar
Rindzeviciute, Egle. Forthcoming. System-Cybernetic Governmentality Across the Iron Curtain, Ithaca: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Sutela, Pekka. 1991. Economic Thought and Economic Reform in the Soviet Union. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sutela, Pekka. 2008. “Soviet Economics after Stalin: Between Orthodoxy and Reform.” In Barnett, Vincent and Zweynert, Joachim, eds., Economics in Russia: Studies in Intellectual History. Burlington: Ashgate: 157–172.Google Scholar
Tinbergen, Jan. 1961. “Do Communist and Free Economies Show a Converging Pattern?” Soviet Studies 12 (4): 331–341.Google Scholar
Vorob’ev Nikolai N, . 1958. “Equilibrium Points in Bimatrix Games.” [In Russian.] Teorija verojatnostei i ee primenija 3: 318–331. English translation in Theory of Probability and its Applications: 297–309.Google Scholar
Vorob’ev Nikolai N, . 1959. “Finite Non-coalitional Games.” Uspekhi Matematicheskikh Nauk 144: 1–56.Google Scholar
Zauberman, Alfred. 1975. The Mathematical Revolution in Soviet Economics. London: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Weintraub, E. Roy. 2014. “MIT’s Openness to Jewish Economists.” History of Political Economy 46 (Supplement): 45–59.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Weintraub, E. Roy. 2015. “McCarthyism and the Mathematization of Economics.” Unpublished working paper.CrossRefGoogle Scholar