Operator Product Expansion and Calculation of the Two-Loop Gell-Mann-Low Function

This work was carried out in 1985. It was published in Russian in Yad. Fiz. 44, 498 (1986) [English translation Sov. J. Nucl. Phys. 44, 321 (1986)]. None of these publications are available on-line. Submitting this paper to ArXiv will make it accessible. *** A simple method is developed that makes it possible to determine the $k$-loop coefficient of the $\beta$-function if the operator product expansion for certain polarization operators in the $(k -1)$ loop is known. The calculation of the two-loop coefficient of the Gell-Mann-Low function becomes trivial -- it reduces to a few algebraic operations on already known expressions. As examples, spinor, scalar, and supersymmetric electrodynamics are considered. Although the respective results for $\beta^{(2)}$ are known in the literature, both the method of calculation and certain points pertaining to the construction of the operator product expansion are new.