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This chapter offers the first full translation from Russian to English of the Balance of the National Economy of the USSR, 1924–26’s first chapter. Involving 12 authors and composed of 21 chapters, the Balance is a collective work published in June 1926 in Moscow by the Soviet Central Statistical Administration under the scientific supervision of its former director, Pavel Illich Popov (1872–1950). In this first chapter, titled ‘Studying the Balance of the National Economy: An Introduction’, Popov set the theoretical foundations of what might be considered as the first modern national accounting system and paved the way to multisector macroeconometric modelling.

This chapter challenges the denial of “underconsumption” – the role of consumption demand in capitalist reproduction and its paucity in crises – in contemporary Marxism. At stake are better understandings not only of crisis theory but also, inter alia, of imperialism, “reformism,” and Marx's intellectual legacy. The chapter shows how the centrality of consumption demand is underlined in the three volumes of Capital and the Grundrisse, and goes on to discuss the origins, weaknesses, and persistence of this denial. The chapter also shows that Marx did not regard underconsumption as a moralistic argument about unfulfilled need. The denial originates not in Marx but in productionism, the idea that capitalism is a system of “production for production's sake.”

Originating in the overkill of Tugan Baranowski's refutation of the Russian populists’ view that capitalist development was impossible in Russia due to lack of a home market, productionism is based on his attempt to force Marxism into the marginalist and the general equilibrium framework. Despite its antipathy with Marxism, most contemporary Marxist economics are based on it. Inevitably its adherence to Say's Law – the denial of the possibility of gluts in the market – infects the tendency to assume that capitalism's contradictions do not lie in circulation. Productionism's denial of the importance of consumption demand also rests on nonsequiturs, nondialectical thinking, and an underestimation of the contradictions in capitalism Marx identified, other than the tendency of the rate of profit to fall. The chapter ends by showing the centrality of demand in the recent historical evolution of capitalism as reconstructed by Robert Brenner, followed by a discussion of whether underconsumption is “reformist.”

Improving the agricultural products market integration is conducive to developing provincial comparative advantage, optimization of agricultural and industrial organization and enhanced competitiveness. The relationship between the emergencies and the agricultural products market integration in the production and consumption provinces is of great significance for stabilizing market prices and improving the efficiency of agricultural resource allocation.

The authors reviewed the literature on the market integration of agricultural products. Then, they adopted a two-way fixed effect model to investigate the impact of emergencies on the poultry market integration in the production and consumption provinces in China.

Highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) caused abnormal fluctuations in the poultry market price and decreased the poultry market integration. The negative impact of HPAI on poultry market integration was strengthened in the main production provinces and weakened in the main consumption provinces.

This is the first study that applies empirical analysis to identify the emergencies’ impact on the poultry market integration considering production and consumption characteristics. The results indicate that the impact of avian influenza is more serious in production provinces than in consumption provinces. Due to the heterogeneity of production and consumption provinces, the government implements precise compensation policies to resume production quickly after the disaster. It can be conductive to market integration and promote the development of agricultural products market.

The purpose of this paper is to provide a method for planning and controlling energy budgets for an industrial plant. The developed method aims to obtain a very high confidence of predicted electrical energy cost to include into the estimation of budget and a continuous control of energy consumption and cost.

The authors propose a methodology that refines effectiveness and efficiency of budget estimation. The method relies on a three‐stage analysis: energy consumption characterization and forecasting, energy budget formulation and energy budget control. In particular, this paper deals deeply with the second and the third stages, i.e. energy budgeting and control. The methodology has been developed on the basis of a continuous improvement philosophy and project management techniques. A discussed case study shows the potential of the methodology in order to discover energy consumption inefficiencies.

Energy budgeting and control has been implemented within a set of first and second level metrics. The first level indicators allow identifying the effect of an increase of specific consumption beyond the predicted. The second level indicators allow identifying the effect of variations of price, volume, mix or loading bands from the predicted.

In the paper climatic variations are not considered, limiting the energy drivers to those related to production volumes.

The method can be considered as a practical guide for energy budget planning and control of any industrial consumer.

A new approach to energy budgeting and control is proposed, allowing the impact of different specific consumption or production plans (volume, mix, and load bands) to be calculated.

The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate how people making music represent their production activities using images of consumption.

Supporting evidence is based on in-depth interviews with musicians and support personnel. The data are structured through a thematic analysis.

The paper argues that consumption serves as a discursive resource that allows cultural producers to make sense of production activities which do not conform to an image of production as an alienated form of labour.

Relating the analysis to the ongoing attempts to conceptualise cultural producers through the concept of prosumption, the paper concludes that there are limits to cultural producers’ abilities to represent their production activities as production rather than a structural change in social or economic organisation, as suggested by some consumer researchers.

This study aims to examine the effects of energy consumption on economic growth by means of a panel data analysis of 75 net energy-importing countries for the period 1990 to 2012.

For the purpose of the analysis, the countries are classified into two groups, and each group is then classified into subgroups. The first group is formed based on the energy import dependence of the countries and is classified into two subgroups according to whether their dependence is greater than or less than 50 per cent. The second group is formed based on the income level of the countries and is classified into four subgroups, specifically, low-income economies, lower-middle-income economies, upper-middle-income economies and high-income economies.

The findings obtained for both panel data and for each country indicate that there is a positive and statistically significant relationship between energy consumption and economic growth over the long term such that energy consumption contributes more to economic growth as the import dependence of the country decreases. Moreover, the effect of energy consumption on economic growth decreases as the income level of the country increases. This indicates that the efficient use of energy is as important as energy consumption, which is regarded as an important indicator of economic development.

The authors expect that these findings will make a valuable contribution to the results of future studies, as they analyze the relationships among the variables by including the energy intensities of the countries.

Este estudio examina los efectos del consumo de energía en el crecimiento económico, mediante un análisis de datos de panel de 75 países importadores netos de energía para el período 1990-2012.

A los efectos del análisis, los países se clasifican en dos grupos y cada grupo luego se clasifica en subgrupos. El primer grupo se forma en base a la dependencia de los países en materia de importación de energía y se clasifica en dos subgrupos según su dependencia sea superior o inferior al 50%. El segundo grupo se forma sobre la base del nivel de ingresos de los países y se clasifica en cuatro subgrupos: economías de ingresos bajos, economías de ingresos medios-bajos, economías de ingresos medios-altos y economías de ingresos altos.

Los hallazgos obtenidos, tanto para los datos de panel como para cada país, indican que existe una relación positiva y estadísticamente significativa entre el consumo de energía y el crecimiento económico a largo plazo, de modo que el consumo de energía contribuye más al crecimiento económico a medida que disminuye la dependencia de las importaciones del país. Además, el efecto del consumo de energía en el crecimiento económico disminuye a medida que aumenta el nivel de ingresos del país. Esto indica que el uso eficiente de la energía es tan importante como el consumo de la misma, que se considera un indicador importante del desarrollo económico.

Los autores esperan que estos hallazgos aporten una valiosa contribución para estudios futuros, ya que analizan las relaciones entre las variables mediante la inclusión de las intensidades de los países.

Consumo de energía, Crecimiento económico, Importadores netos de energía, Panel de datos

Artículo de investigación

This research has addressed a quantitative approach for improving energy management through applying statistical techniques aimed at identifying and controlling factors linked to energy consumption rates at manufacturing plants. The paper presents analysis and results of multiple linear regression models used to establish the significance of a number of energy related management factors in controlling energy usage. Regression models constructed for this purpose proved the existence of statistically valid relationships between electrical energy consumption and maintenance and production management factors, namely, failure rate and production rate, where R² values of the magnitude of 65 per cent were obtained. Furthermore, an economical treatment based on the derived regression models was formulated and demonstrated that effective management practices associated with proper maintenance, cost accounting and reporting systems can result in highly significant savings in energy usage.

This paper has the ambition to enrich the extant research about the interplay between measuring intellectual capital (IC) and managing IC or, more precisely, about the production and consumption of IC measurements in practice. Stemming from these considerations, the purpose of this paper is to disentangle the production and consumption processes of IC measurements in practice.

This study is based on a longitudinal case study is analysed adopting an interventionist approach.

This study shows the peculiarities regarding the production and consumption of IC measurements, from several perspectives. In particular, it emerges that the reporting of IC can, in some specific contexts, lead to the non-use of IC measurements and to the disappearance of the measured object, IC. What is questionable is whether it is the loss of interest in the IC object that has led to the non-use of the IC measurements or if it is the non-consumption of the measurements and their qualities that has implied the disappearance of the measurement object. In addition, this study sheds a light on the fact that in an IC project the consumption of the measurements can occur not only at the end of the production process, but also (and may be especially) during the production process itself. This consumption can generate different effects such as the identification of new managerial objects, the establishment of new initiatives, the development of a deeper knowledge about how IC works or a change of the sense of some of the existing measurements. In all, the paper underlines the fact that how IC measurements are produced (the process followed and the “actors” involved) affects their actual consumption (or non-consumption).

This paper contributes to the extant literature regarding the production and consumption of IC measurements. Moreover, it contributes to the field of IC “in practice” as it highlights what happens when an IC measurement system is implemented. Finally, the research work can contribute both to the studies regarding IC as an accounting change and to the ones regarding IC as a tool that facilitates organizational change. From the first perspective, the paper highlights how the introduction of IC has fostered long-lasting changes in the management accounting system, albeit circumscribed to the local (departmental) level. From the second perspective, the paper shows how IC may allow the creation of new managerial objects, thus promoting possible new actions. The main limitations of this study are related to the methodology adopted and to its specific pros and cons.

In comparison to previous studies, this one does not focus only on the managerial and organizational aspects related to the design and implementation of IC measurements or on their actual use, but attempts to approach them simultaneously adopting a longitudinal view. Moreover, this study does not adopt a theoretical perspective on how the indicators are designed and consumed but is aimed at investigating how these indicators are produced and consumed “in practice”. Finally, this study focus on the interplay between production and consumption of indicators, i.e. on the use of IC measurements in relation to the peculiarities of their production process.

The purpose of this paper is to establish correlations among the input variables of production within themselves and input variables of consumption within themselves and to forecast the production and consumption of the rice.

The production and consumption of rice crop is governed by diverse variables. In the present study five key input variables for production of rice based on literature review and the authenticated data available from agricultural sources have been selected. These variables are area sown, agricultural workers (AW), area irrigated, growth rate and yield per hectare. On similar basis four key input variables responsible for consumption of rice are considered, namely, price of rice, population, poverty ratio and per capita net national product (NNP).

Correlation analysis showed that priority wise production of rice depends upon yield per hectare, percentage irrigation, AW and area sown. The growth rate is found to be having insignificant correlation with other variables of production and hence was omitted from subsequent study. Correlation analysis also showed that priority wise consumption depends upon whole sale price per ton, population and the per capita NNP. The poverty ratio is found to be having insignificant correlation with other variables of consumption and hence was omitted from subsequent study. The outcomes of the correlation analysis are utilized for designing rule base for fuzzy inference system (FIS) to forecast the production and consumption of the rice. Subsequently Bayesian technique is used to forecast production and consumption and its results are compared with the results of fuzzy inference analysis.

There are many techniques used for forecasting purpose but FIS and Bayesian technique outperform others. In the present study, the authors therefore focussed on these two techniques. Bayesian technique takes into account the expert opinion at the current conditions whereas FIS uses previously designed rule base. Besides discussing the appropriateness of these two techniques for forecasting production and consumption of rice, their forecasting outcomes will help in logistical and operational planning of the resources at national level, farmers’ level and traders’ level.

Karl Marx's social capital reproduction theory is his significant contribution to economics. The purpose of this paper is to review the contributions of the exploration of Chinese economists (especially Professor Liu Guoguang) in the concretization of Marx’s social capital reproduction theory combined with socialist construction since 1949.

During this process, Professor Liu Guoguang, a famous Chinese Marxist economist, has made an outstanding contribution by creating a Marxist social capital reproduction model with Chinese characteristics and a distinctive Marxist economic growth model. Professor Liu's exploration is still of crucial practical significance to building a socialist market economy today.

The process and achievements in the sinicization exploration of Marx's social capital reproduction theory were reviewed. With the reform and opening up, fundamental changes have occurred in China's economic system – the centralized planned economic system has been transformed into a socialist market economic system.

The planned management of the national economy is replaced by a macro-regulation system characterized by gross control gradually, and the concepts of agriculture, light industry, and heavy industry, and their intercorrelation are no longer applied in theory and policy. However, the sinicization exploration of Marx's social capital reproduction theory in the older generation of Marxist economists represented by Liu is not only of historical significance but also of important practical significance.