Trading Effort for Freedom: Workday Credits in the Stalinist Camp System1

Simon Ertz ()
Additional contact information
Simon Ertz: Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA.

Comparative Economic Studies, 2005, vol. 47, issue 2, 476-491

Abstract: In this paper, we focus on the economics of forced labour during Stalinism. We show that, despite the regime's ability to apply massive coercion, the camp system administrators used various incentives to raise labour productivity. The particular incentive system examined in this paper is the so-called workday credit system. Workday credits provided for a reduction in sentences for plan fulfilment and overfulfilment to motivate prisoners. An analysis of the economic implications of this instrument enables us to gain insights into the economic goals the camp system administrators pursued. We demonstrate that profitability (or loss-minimisation) was a major concern for the administrators of the Stalinist prison camp system, although the strategies on how to achieve it changed over time. Comparative Economic Studies (2005) 47, 476–491;. doi:10.1057/palgrave.ces.8100106

Date: 2005
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.palgrave-journals.com/ces/journal/v47/n2/pdf/8100106a.pdf Link to full text PDF (application/pdf)
http://www.palgrave-journals.com/ces/journal/v47/n2/full/8100106a.html Link to full text HTML (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:pal:compes:v:47:y:2005:i:2:p:476-491

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.springer. ... cs/journal/41294/PS2

Access Statistics for this article

Comparative Economic Studies is currently edited by Nauro Campos

More articles in Comparative Economic Studies from Palgrave Macmillan, Association for Comparative Economic Studies Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().