Economic Association

in the USSR, a production and economic complex composed of enterprises and production units from one or more branches or subbranches of the economy. Economic associations have proliferated as a result of a decree on measures to improve industrial management that was issued on Mar. 2, 1973, by the Central Committee of the CPSU and the Council of Ministers of the USSR. An economic association may be a production association, that is, an organization of the basic, or primary, level in the three-level system of industrial management. Economic associations of the middle level are known as industrial associations.

A special type of economic association is the scientific industrial association. In structure, the scientific industrial association resembles the production association, or combine, but its particular task is to develop and implement new technology. A scientific industrial association is directed by a research institute of the given branch of industry.