New Haven; London: Yale University Press, 1964. — 114 p.This study deals with the process of central economic planning, or economic planning by governments. It aims at a threefold treatment, which may be summarized as follows: (a) to describe the process of central planning, considered as one of the service industries of a modern economy; (b) to analyze its impact on the general economic process; (c) to indicate, as far as possible, the optimal extent and techniques of central planning. This means that, under (a), central economic planning will be made the object of traditional economic analysis. It will be described and analyzed like any other element of the economic process: its product and factors will be defined, its possible methods of production set out, as well as the possibilities to increase its efficiency in the narrower sense.ContentsForewordPrefaceEconomic Planning as Part of the Economic Process: Actors, Tasks and ElementsNature of This Study; Origin of PlanningActors and Task of PlanningActivities Involved in PlanningProcedure Timing Methods Organization An International Comparison of Planning Processes Influence Exerted on the General Economic ProcessFrom Unplanned to Planned Policy Contents of Plans Drawbacks of Coordinated Action Theoretical Analysis of the Influence of Planning Empirical Evidence Deviations from Plans in Actual Development The Influence of Circumstances and Ideas on the Nature and Intensity of PlanningNeed for Planning Dependent on CircumstancesNeed for ForecastsImportance of AimsNecessity of CoordinationPossibilities of PlanningDifferences in the Degree of PlanningToday’s Most Serious ControversyDoctrinaire ViewsDifferences in Social Welfare FunctionDifferences Open to ArgumentOptimal PlanningThe Unknowns of the Problem The Optimum Regime Optimum Planning: Choices to Be Made Criteria for Optimum Planning Some Remarks on Optimum Methods: What Must Be Planned? Some Remarks on Optimum Methods: Planning in Stages? Some Remarks on Optimum Procedures Appendix: An International Comparison of Planning Processes BibliographyIndex