University of Strathclyde US, UK and EU Flags Takes you to the main page for this section

Industrial Productivity

Region mln roubles per employee    % Russian mean
West Siberia 97 147
Northern 82 124
East Siberia 81 123
Far East 73 112
Urals 67 102
RUSSIAN MEAN 66 100
Volga 59 90
Central Black Earth 59 89
Central 49 75
North-west 47 72
Volgo-Vyatka 44 67
North Caucasus 37 57
Source: Promyshlennost' Rossii [Russian Industry], 1996 (calculated)

The Soviet Union gave priority to industry, long after Western market economies became oriented more toward the service sector. Its priority meant that industry was relatively favoured in the allocation of resources from the national plan. It also meant that industrial enterprises were expected to report favourable results to the plan, by whatever means necessary.

The result of decades of integrating industrial production into the official national economy is that industrial productivity and officially recorded Gross Domestic Product show a high correlation. Regions that are high in reported productivity, such as West Siberia, are also high in GDP per capita, and those such as North Caucasus and Volgo-Vyatka, that are low on one measure are also low on the other.


CSPP School of Government & Public Policy U. of Strathclyde Glasgow G1 1XQ Scotland
Email: cspp@strath.ac.uk