Economic planning

Economic planning is a resource allocation mechanism that is contrasted with the market mechanism. As a coordinating mechanism for socialist economics, economic planning substitutes factor markets and is defined as a direct allocation of resources. This is contrasted with the indirect allocation mechanism of a market economy. There are various types that economic planning procedures and forms planning can take.

The level of centralization in decision-making in planning depends on the specific type of planning mechanism employed. As such, one can distinguish between centralized planning and decentralized planning. An economy primarily based on central planning is referred to as a planned economy. In a centrally planned economy the allocation of resources is determined by a comprehensive plan of production which specifies output requirements. Planning may also take the form of directive planning or indicative planning.

Most modern economies are mixed economies incorporating various degrees of markets and planning.

A distinction can be made between physical planning (as in pure socialism) and financial planning (as practiced by governments and private firms in capitalism). Physical planning involves economic planning and coordination conducted in terms of disaggregated physical units; whereas financial planning involves plans formulated in terms of financial units.

Different forms of economic planning have been featured in various models of socialism. These range from decentralized-planning systems, which are based on collective decision-making and disaggregated information, to centralized systems of planning conducted by technical experts who use aggregated information to formulate plans of production. In a fully developed socialist economy, engineers and technical specialists, overseen or appointed in a democratic manner, would coordinate the economy in terms of physical units without any need or use for financial-based calculation. The economy of the Soviet Union never reached this stage of development, so planned its economy in financial terms throughout the duration of its existence. Nonetheless, a number of alternative metrics were developed for assessing the performance of non-financial economies in terms of physical output (i.e.: net material product versus gross domestic product).

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