Feldman–Mahalanobis model

The Feldman–Mahalanobis model is a Neo-Marxist model of economic development, created independently by Soviet economist G. A. Feldman in 1928, and Indian statistician Prasanta Chandra Mahalanobis in 1953. Mahalanobis became essentially the key economist of India's Second Five Year Plan, becoming subject to much of India's most dramatic economic debates.

The essence of the model is a shift in the pattern of industrial investment towards building up a domestic consumption goods sector. Thus the strategy suggests in order to reach a high standard in consumption, investment in building a capacity in the production of capital goods is firstly needed. A high enough capacity in the capital goods sector in the long-run expands the capacity in the production of consumer goods. The distinction between the two different types of goods was a clearer formulation of Marx’s ideas in Das Kapital, and also helped people to better understand the extent of the trade off between the levels of immediate and future consumption. These ideas were however first introduced in 1928 by Feldman, an economist working for the GOSPLAN planning commission; presenting theoretical arguments of a two-department scheme of growth. There is no evidence that Mahalanobis knew of Feldman’s approach, being kept behind the borders of the USSR.

The model was created as an analytical framework for India’s Second Five Year Plan in 1955 by appointment of Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, as India felt there was a need to introduce a formal plan model after the First Five Year Plan (1951–1956). The First Five Year Plan stressed investment for capital accumulation in the spirit of the one-sector Harrod–Domar model. It argued that production required capital and that capital can be accumulated through investment; the faster one accumulates, the higher the growth rate will be. The most fundamental criticisms came from Mahalanobis, who himself was working with a variant of it in 1951 and 1952. The criticisms were mostly around the model’s inability to cope with the real constraints of the economy; it’s ignoring of the fundamental choice problems of planning over time; and the lack of connection between the model and the actual selection of projects for governmental expenditure. Subsequently Mahalanobis introduced his celebrated two-sector model, which he later expanded into a four-sector version.

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