Planning Refinements and Combine Formation in East German Economic "Intensification"

Abstract

In recent years, the formation of industrial combines (Kombinate) and the introduction of economic planning innovations appear to have been responsible for a surprisingly strong economic performance on the part of the German Democratic Republic (GDR). The positive recent record seems to have convinced the GDR political and intellectual elite (and given them courage to suggest in private) that their country, rather than Hungary, for example, has become the model for further socialist development.