Economics of Communications

in the USSR, the branch of economics that studies the patterns of the development and functioning of communications. It studies the forms and methods of economic management in order to improve the efficiency and qualitative performance of the branch as a whole and of the various subbranches, including postal, telegraph, and telephone communications.

As a discipline, the economics of communications proposes ways of improving the management of communications enterprises, makes recommendations on the methodology and organization of economic planning, and develops forms and methods for the organization of labor and production with due consideration given to the uneven work load of communications enterprises and networks. It also suggests methods for planning and analyzing the economic performance indicators of the communications branch and for evaluating their impact on production efficiency, and it makes recommendations for improving the system of tariffs for communications services and prices for the products of various communications enterprises (seeTARIFFS, COMMUNICATIONS). Research in the economics of communications takes into account the fundamental economic characteristics of the sector (the nonmaterial nature of the product—communication services-—and the participation of more than one communications enterprise in the transmission of messages).

The economics of communications is closely associated with national economic planning and with a number of allied economic sciences: communications statistics, the finances of communications, and so forth. The discipline also has important ties with specialized technical sciences. Research on problems of the economics of communications is carried out at research institutes and higher educational institutions of communications that have departments of the economics of communications and departments of the organization of planning and management. The scientific methodology of the discipline is widely used by economic planning agencies, ministries, enterprises, and research institutions in the field of communications to evaluate the effectiveness of capital investments and new communications technology and to plan and manage communications production. Research in the economics of communications is published in the journal Vestnik sviazi (Communications Journal).