Technical equipment, technological changes and institutions
O.S. Sukharev,
д-р экон. наук, проф., ведущий научный сотрудник, Институт экономики РАН (117218, г. Москва, Нахимовский проспект, 32; e-mail: o_sukharev@list.ru)
Аннотация. В статье рассматривается развитие технических систем и технологий, воздействие экономических институтов на это развитие. Автор с точки зрения эволюционной экономической теории предлагает объяснение изменений в технике и институтах, предлагает логическую цепочку (цикл) изменений.
Abstract. The article examines the development of technical systems and technologies, the impact of economic institutions on the development. Author from the standpoint of evolutionary economic theory offers an explanation of the technique, and institutions within a logical chain of changes in production and technical systems.
Ключевые слова: техническое оборудование, технологические изменения, новые комбинации, институты, развитие, эффективность, принцип выявленных предпочтений П. Самуэльсона.
Keywords: technical equipment, technological changes, new combinations, institutes, development, efficiency, principle of revealed preferences of P. Samuelson.
Both in the modern world, and in the remote past development of technical equipment and technologies were an indicator and expression of economic progress. The reason was the possibility to increase labor productivity and machinery, that means to create more products and items per man, to increase income and the general degree of mechanization and, hence, to raise the standard of well-being. The development of production and knowledge accumulation on certain directions of human activity became the tool of struggle against the decreasing return on factors of production - labor and capital. Scientific and technological advance permanently provides the effect of movement of factor return curve upwards to the right. Thereby, escape from a dangerous point of return decrease with the following reduction of per capita income is provided. Decreasing return arises, when at using additional unit of the factor of production with the other factor invariable, there is a decrease of limit and then average value of the product on the factor (labor or capital). Technological and institutional changes become the factors of withstanding possible decreasing return.1
Underdeveloped countries of Africa, Latin America and Central Asia have a serious problem with this effect. It is either not detected due to chronic technological backlog, or is reproduced only thanks to a transfer of certain technologies from the outside, from the developed industrial countries. Return reduction on production factors are so considerable there, that in some countries, especially in sub- Sahara Africa, there is hunger, that is, elementary foodstuffs shortage during certain periods of time. Besides, the return on the factors of production decreases because the institutions contributing to the development of knowledge and technologies are undeveloped. These countries are deprived of the possibility to use abilities and to increase production results. Many of them are raw materials colonies of strong industrial powers though the term "colony" has not been used for a long time, but, in essence, they are such colonies because they are structurally dependent on the developed states and supply them with relatively cheap raw materials.
1 At rising return the product on this factor should increase, at positive scale effect on the amount surpassing the involved volume of the factors of production. Certainly, there are sectors with decreasing return in modern economy. - Author's note.
It is difficult to apply the concept of "technical and economic paradigm" of C.Perez or the classification of technological development defining this or that stage of the development on dominating branch and the energy resource to such countries. Working out of development economic theory for such economic systems demands special approach. Not accidentally there appeared a separate school on developing countries in economic science - the development economy. Its aim was to study the "vicious circles" of the development, that is, poverty system from which the country cannot be pulled out, and to suggest the development models which can as though allow overcoming such backwardness of the country.
Development laws of technical equipment, technical systems and technologies are not stable. The specific character of their development doesn't imply leaps over some stages. Such cases are individual, not indicative and they are often defined by interpretative possibilities. In other words, the main mechanism of their development is a consecutive upward spiral of technology. In some isolated cases, the leap over some stages is possible, for the account of accelerated training and transference of ready technical systems to the professional environment which can take these systems in, systematically providing result augmentation.
Consider a known example. In 1965 at the beginning of microelectronics formation the Intel founder Gordon Earle Moore observed an interesting empirical regularity, applicable to the development of microelectronics: every year the density of elements (p-n transitions) per area unit should double. After a while G.Moore forcedly reconsidered this formulation. Doubling occurred in 18 months, and some time later, in modern period there is an increase of the period up to 3 years. The problem is that the cost of equipment and clean rooms increases faster than the returns from investments in this equipment. The efficiency increment from density increase does not compensate capital investments in the means of production which should provide the ultimate increment of this density. Besides, monopolization of microelectronics and concentration of the capital connected with the necessity of technological problem solution (the demand for capital concentration is often the response to the necessity of purely technical problems solution) became the consequence of competition for high effi-
ciency, productivity increase of elements and chips. Two technical problems define the development of technologies in the given sphere. They are: increase of chips memory and their speed. Then, the problems of "clever" chips development are solved including the ones with the elements of mechanics.
The following groups of rules are of importance concerning the development of technical equipment and technologies:
1. The rules of product design and paper design work, engineering support of items in the workshops, information supply of the work, and the design methods presupposing the use of software, numerical calculations and computers.
2. Rules of interaction of various workshops, enterprise services, contracting with the client and contractors, expenses calculation and management, production distribution and market development, new knowledge adsorption within the firm and from educational system.
3. Operating rules, maintenance, safe operating mode, repair and utilization, tests and organization of pilot production.
4. Patenting rule of technical ideas, inventions, getting certificates of authorship and its protection, registration and research and development conduct.
5. Rules of cash security of a new idea, its production and marketing, commercialization, getting credit (bank system job), interaction with old equipment and technologies, duplicating possibility, loan of technical solutions, popularizations of new technological achievements (advertising). Looking for new markets (marketing).
If these rules differ in different systems, they define the efficiency of the actions which describe and program technical development in different ways. It is interesting to note, that even if it is possible to say that some rule is somewhere inefficient due to the internal efforts of qualified personnel, agents' internal burden increase and execution accuracy cannot worsen the general situation at all. Any rule, the inefficiency of which is obvious by some moment, can in time become more effective or more significant in the system of rules regulating this kind of activity, in particular, equipment and technologies perfection.
I will give the example concerning the visit of Siemens representatives to a Russian enterprise producing railway equipment. They were very much surprised, that there is a complete production cycle there, from designing up to final assembly, testing and even materials control in the special chemical laboratories the work of which was scrupulously studied by the German representatives. When asked about their unusual surprise, they said that in Germany the work of similar firms is organized differently and the firm having a complete production cycle is very rare. Details and components are bought in the market. And if some firm does not satisfy the customer, the client will simply change the producer. Russian engineers smiled because there should be more producers of the components in question for this system to exist. And if the situation in the economic system is different, then the enterprise has a complete cycle not to depend on anybody. Especially as such dependence is fraught with capture of enterprise's property, stoppage of its work with the loss of personnel potential, and etc. Protective function, together with the other ones, requires exactly such organization of production,
which, by the way, emphasizes the technological level of the enterprise. German representatives couldn't but agree with this fact.
If there is legislation, that new houses should have photovoltaic cell on the roof for electric energy production, all construction firms cannot cancel this regulation and are compelled to include solar cell panels in the expenses, supplying this very Siemens with the orders and so on along the multiplying production chain. Then the law, which allows sending the created electric energy to the circuit, is
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