This project of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) consists of a bilateral seminar entitled "Economic Growth in Modern Industrial Societies: The United States and the Soviet Union." The seminar is jointly sponsored with the Academy of Sciences of the USSR (ASUSSR). It will be held in Moscow from November 28 to November 30, 1988. The NAS chairperson for the seminar is Dr. Marina Whitman, Vice-President and Group Executive of the General Motors Corporation. Academicians Konstantin Frolov, Vice- President of the ASUSSR, and Leonid Abalkin, Director of the ASUSSR Institute of Economics, have been designated as the Soviet co-chairmen. The seminar will help to clarify some of the most important factors affecting economic growth in the United States and the USSR by bringing together leading economists and industrialists of the two countries for presentations and discussions. Of particular interest are current Soviet economic reform activities and the growing importance to the United States of international economic and financial developments. The seminar is structured in five topical areas: (1) patterns and trends in economic structure and aggregate productivity; (2) economic aspects of technology innovation and diffusion; (3) management issues; (4) marketing and finance; and (5) international aspects. Following the seminar, American participants will meet with economists and other relevant specialists at key institutions and will visit industrial facilities in Moscow and Leningrad. The seminar and the subsequent industrial visits have the potential for promoting greater interaction and understanding among American and Soviet economists and for identifying areas of mutual interest for further joint exploration.
