Nouvelle histoire de la pensée économique, tome 1
Abstract
Ce premier tome comporte quatre parties qui traitent1 - De l'économie entre la religion, le droit et la morale du XII au XVII siècle2 - Des auteurs dits mercantilistes3 - De l'économie politique des lumières4 - Des économistes classiques
... (Béraud, Faccarello, 2000dir ;Etner, 2004;Van Daal, Walker, 2007). L'objectif majeur de Schumpeter était d'élaborer un schéma d'analyse permettant de comprendre le fonctionnement du capitalisme dans sa globalité et sur sa durée. ...
Schumpeter invented the entrepreneur to conceptualize the innovation act that the model of pure economy of Walras was unable to explain. In doing so, he converged to Marx. In this paper, we propose to come back to the two nodal economists, Walras and Marx, who marked the work of Schumpeter. Admiring the work of the one and of the other, Schumpeter aimed to go further. Did he really succeed to do so? On the one hand, in Schumpeter’s work, the entrepreneur remains an abstract entity, although he had the ambition to find a solution to the Walrasian abstraction. On the other hand, he could only observe the bureaucracy - through the concentration process - of the capitalist production which had become the norm of managerial capitalism.
... Will they be communitarian structures? Or will they be new modernisms that imply exchanges and collaborations based on a meaning that we build together, i.e. based on the diversity of interpersonal relationships that forms part of a chosen collective framework (Brender, 2004: 118; Ricoeur, 1997 After the divine (Béraud and Faccarello, 1992), the Prince (Hirschman, 1980), the market (Vergara, 2006) and now shareholders (Jensen, 2001), which symbolic figure will we need to build collective wellbeing? Is it possible to move from creating shareholder value – and the emblematic figure represented by the shareholder – to creating a value of bonds (Cova and Paranque, 2007), where the " citizen-consumer " would be the new player? ...
This article aims to highlight the need for a radical break with the methodological individualism that dominates the fields of economics and management, especially finance. It advocates the need to try to understand the issues and methods that are required to coordinate economic action in order to meet social needs.The article questions methodological individualism and the dominant role played by shareholders. Is it possible to promote social welfare simply by considering it to be a result of a shareholder value maximization point of view? If not, this implies not only understanding fully the challenges that we face but also being innovative regarding the way in which we coordinate the actions that are necessary to meet these challenges head on, and perhaps promoting another character as a substitute for the shareholder.
... Economics has experienced important changes during the last two decades, one of them being the diversification of the discipline with the emergence of new subfields such as neuroeconomics, experimental and behavioral economics, ecological economics, and the economics of happiness (Faccarello 2000;Colander 2000;Davis 2007). Besides the development of these new programs, already established disciplines, such as José Edwards: CHOPE Center at Duke University (jose.edwards@duke.edu). ...
The aim of this paper is to explain the process of diversification of normative economics by presenting the work of two authors: Tibor Scitovsky [1910-2002] and Amartya Sen [1933-]. While these two authors first contributed to traditional welfare analysis from within, they were subsequently involved in the development of two different, and even opposed, programs: the economics of happiness and the capability approach. They focused on different concepts of well-being: the 'joy' of satisfied consumers for Scitovsky, and the 'capabilities' of deprived individuals for Sen. In imposing new theoretical frameworks, applications, as well as new concepts of well-being, which are measureable, the capability approach and the economics of happiness represent two major attempts to renew normative economic analysis.
... The fact that its teaching is alive and well is also illustrated by the volume and variety of published textbooks in French. In two years (1999 and 2000), and in addition to the translation of the fifth edition of Blaug [1962] 1999 and to the reprinting of the classic Gide and Rist [1909] 2000 and Denis [1966] 2000, no less than ten new textbooks came out: three for intermediate and advanced courses (Béraud and Faccarello 2000, Deleplace 1999, and Etner 2000; three for introductory courses, in standard (Gnos 2000 and Montoussé 2000) or pocket (Duboeuf 1999) size; and four in pocket size on particular schools (Combemale 1999, Defalvard 2000, Poulon 2000, and Ravix 1999). At the postgraduate level (the equivalent of the master's degree), courses in HET are usually replaced by methodology ones. ...
History of Political Economy Annual Supplement to Volume 34 (2002) 110-124
For historical reasons, history of economic thought (hereafter HET) has been until today in France more an integral part of economics in general than a specialized subdiscipline in the field of economics or in the history of sciences and culture. There is no doubt that inherited idiosyncrasies have played a role in maintaining until now the weight of HET in the teaching and research system. But I shall argue that its present strength may also be explained by the way economics in France repudiated around 1970 its past insularity and opened itself to foreign influences. HET then developed through an active link with modern theory. Today, the threat to the future of HET is not the outcome of the lifting of barriers supposedly protecting French economics, but the consequence of a change in foreign influences. Nevertheless, some signs of hope exist, which should prevent French historians of economic thought from falling into nostalgia.
I shall first mention some facts about HET in France, before stressing which type of HET they have shaped. Finally, I shall describe the elements that sketch an uncertain future.
The weight of HET in French universities has remained until today quite significant, and one should turn to long-term factors to explain that situation, both in the institutional environment and in the evolution of economic thinking.
The significance of this subdiscipline may be evaluated at three levels: undergraduate teaching, postgraduation and research, and the academic system.
French universities offer three national levels of graduation after two (DEUG), three (licence), and four (maîtrise) years. Although less than 50 percent of the students entering the universities in economics obtain the four-year degree, the programs (which, due to the national diploma, have a unified structure, but may be adapted by each university) are conceived over the four years. An inquiry made in 1999 by Association Charles Gide pour l'étude de la pensée économique (the French equivalent of HES) provides information on the teaching of HET in sixteen universities (Association Charles Gide 1999); my own investigation has raised this number to thirty-eight, out of the fifty-eight where an economics program exists. It appears that only two universities do not offer compulsory courses in HET at least once in the four-year program, and the same number offer courses during three years. On the whole, the thirty-eight universities deliver on average sixty-eight hours of courses (compulsory or not) in HET over the four-year program; 73.7 percent of them deliver more than fifty hours, and 18.4 percent deliver more than one hundred hours. The distribution of the courses over the duration of the program is given by tables 1 and 2.
These results are quite favorable to HET. The fact that its teaching is alive and well is also illustrated by the volume and variety of published textbooks in French. In two years (1999 and 2000), and in addition to the translation of the fifth edition of Blaug [1962] 1999 and to the reprinting of the classic Gide and Rist [1909] 2000 and Denis [1966] 2000, no less than ten new textbooks came out: three for intermediate and advanced courses (Béraud and Faccarello 2000, Deleplace 1999, and Etner 2000); three for introductory courses, in standard (Gnos 2000 and Montoussé 2000) or pocket (Duboeuf 1999) size; and four in pocket size on particular schools (Combemale 1999, Defalvard 2000, Poulon 2000, and Ravix 1999).
At the postgraduate level (the equivalent of the master's degree), courses in HET are usually replaced by methodology ones. But one specific program is devoted to HET (delivered jointly by the two most important universities for economics in Paris, Paris 1 and Paris 10), and another one (at Paris 1) devoted to economic epistemology leaves much room to it. A research laboratory specialized in HET gathers twenty Paris-area academics, and in eight other laboratories in France, HET is an axis of research implemented by at least three scholars. Another structure dependent on the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) sponsors a postgraduate...
La gracia es eficaz pero la intervención necesaria y poderosa de Dios no debe hacerse esperar. El cristiano debe “tentar a Dios” en lo ordinario. Se rehabilita lo mundano en pro de la intervención divina. A partir del modelo de vida monástica, Nicole fomentará una referencia moral de vida cotidiana
This essay provides a general overview of the development of economic theories in Thirteenth and Fourteenth centuries in the light of the latest studies and offers new perspectives for future investigations. Scholasticism is a milestone in the history of Western philosophy as well as its contribution to scientific method and innovation. At the end of the Middle Ages, the ideal of shared norms and values clashes with the tensions of commercial transformation. In this historical framework – characterized not only by an unprecedented international trade and new financial institutions but also by a sort of proto-empiricism – the philosophical speculation tries to find a unitary “way of knowledge” between the legitimacy of individual interests and the primacy of general principles. This interdisciplinary effort is based on the innovative interpretation of theology, (natural) philosophy, Roman and Canon law such as local customary rules applied to the emergent economic issues.
Par l’intermédiaire de la notion de rechange qui contribue à l’organisation du voyage de l’argent, l’objectif de cet article est d’interroger l’analyse par les juristes des phénomènes économiques. Les mutations juridiques de la seconde modernité sont propices à un apport nouveau, mais les intérêts en jeu mettent à l’épreuve leur appréhension de la réalité des affaires. Entre la complexité des marchés et la régulation du voyage retour de l’argent, l’équilibre reste à trouver.
Ce travail s'inscrit dans la poursuite des réflexions critiques engagées sur le paradigme qui définit le rendement financier tel qu'il est utilisé par la profession et théorisé par la communauté académique. Si on veut aller au-delà des constats pour contribuer à la construction de solutions d'émancipation, d'autres questions sont cruciales : qu'est alors un rendement social alternatif au rendement financier ? Comment l'évaluer et le proposer dans des outils d'allocation de ressources ? Quel dispositif peut permettre d'opérationnaliser une telle démarche ? L'hypothèse de cette recherche est de considérer que l'économie des conventions telle que développée par les travaux de Robert Salais et Michael Storper en termes de mondes de production permet non seulement de comprendre la diversité concrète des formes de coordination des organisations productives mais aussi la dynamique du système productif dans son ensemble dans lequel est inséré le 'commons' tel que définie par Ostrom. L'un des enjeux de cette action collective orientée est celui de son financement selon des modalités qui respectent la cohérence du « monde de production » (ou avec le monde cible en cas de changement) et les objectifs/valeurs du collectif humain qui le porte. Dit autrement, comment assurer les porteurs du projet que les critères de financement ne vont pas entrer en contradiction avec leurs propres critères d'impact social et remettre en cause les finalités du collectif ? 1 Merci à Roland Pérez pour sa lecture précise, pertinente, exigeante mais toujours bienveillante et positive. Merci à Jean-Michel Servet pour son intérêt permanent et la justesse de ses commentaires. Merci aux participants du séminaire organisé par La Coop des Communs le 11 avril 2018, "La banque en communs ?", pour leurs remarques et questions. Les erreurs ou approximations subsistantes me restent totalement imputables.
In light of the current financial and economic crisis, the question we are asking is how ethics can be restored to the heart of society and finance put back in its place. In other words, what legitimacy does the creation of shareholder value have in defining and attaining social welfare? Our hypothesis is that the subject should be reversed. Rather than obliging companies to add a socially responsible dimension to their financial performance, this responsibility should instead be placed at the heart of management.
This chapter provides a presentation about Chapter 1 of The Balance of the National Economy, 1923-24, edited by Pavel Illich Popov. The Balance was issued in June 1926 by the Central Statistical Administration (CSU or TsSU) of the USSR, which Popov had headed from July 1918 to January 1926. In the first part of our chapter, we show how Popov's work on the balance of the national economy was rooted in the specific scientific and political culture of zemstvo statisticians inherited from the Tsar. Statistical inquiry was considered an objective scientific process based on international standards. Furthermore, like zemstvo statisticians, CSU statisticians developed great autonomous political power. The balance of the national economy was built according to these principles, which met harsh criticism from revolutionaries and Bolsheviks. In the second part, we analyze the contents of Popov's Chapter 1, especially the theoretical foundations of the balance and its connection with Soviet planning. In the third part, we discuss the balance's significance in the years 1926-1929, years which ended the NEP and launched the first Five-Year Plan, so as to understand how CSU's balance didn't become a standard Soviet statistical instrument and was discarded as a "bourgeois" device.
The Historical Footprint of the Theory of the Entrepreneur : Learning from Jean-Baptiste Say’s and Joseph Aloïs Schumpeter’s Analysis
Jean-Baptiste Say and Joseph Aloïs Schumpeter are two key-economists in the theory of the entrepreneur. Both assigned to the entrepreneur the role of an economic engine, moved by innovation. Moreover, both lived in periods characterized by a flow of economic and political new ideas (Say : the French Revolution, the Empire of Napoléon, the Bourbon Restoration, the first industrial revolution ; Schumpeter : the two World Wars, the Bolshevik Revolution, the 1929 crisis, the second industrial revolution). Their theories, embedded in troubled times ; define an individual who constantly avoids being locked in (economic, social, political and technical) routines. Nevertheless, an important point distinguishes their approaches : Say describes a real entrepreneur, while Schumpeter reduces him to an ideal type.
JEL Codes : B12, L26
In 1918 the Central Statistical Administration (TsSU) was founded with the support of Lenin. Pavel Illich Popov was its first director (1918-1926). TsSU proceeded to the merging and centralization of the former decentralized statistical system of the zemstva (local governments) inherited from Tsarist regime. Between 1918 and 1928, i.e. during the civil war and the NEP, TsSU was at the heart of Soviet Statistics but it came to be controlled and eventually absorbed by Gosplan. At the TsSU Popov defended his view of social statistics as being a device for the revolution and the dictatorship of the proletariat in the political sphere while resting on strong scientific foundations in accordance with international standards. Rooted in Russian statisticians’ tradition, the objectivity and scientific nature of the works issued by the TsSU was Popov’s credo. In 1926, Popov exposed his views in a collective book he edited and published by the TsSU, The Balance of the National Economy of the USSR, 1923-24. In The Balance was exposed for the first time the modern principles of national accounting and intersectoral macroeconometric analysis. According to Popov, these were the relevant devices for social engineering in the NEP. Against “utopian” authors, Popov stressed the importance of founding social engineering and planning on economic theory and political economy. He thus explained how his statistical balance was an outgrowth of Quesnay’s Tableau économique and Marx’s schema of reproduction. Our article aims at examining Popov’s specific contribution as well as identifying its stakes and its significance in the economic debates during the 1920s.
Éphémérides du citoyen is often considered to be an anti-physiocratic periodical, up until Baudeau's adherence to Quesnay's theories in 1766. An analysis of the journal's main economic themes between 1765 and 1766 however shows that this interpretation is inaccurate. It is true that the theme of rurality, the issue of the colonies and Baudeau's needs analyses indicate an original line of thinking, in which the public powers played the role of primary investor via a “land clearing company” or a “threefold royal messengers service”. However, these contain no radical opposition to the liberal ideas developed by Quesnay.
This article shows the influence of Turgot over Gustave de Molinari’s studies in efficient allocation of productive means in a decentralized markets economy. From Turgot’s works on spatial organization of markets’s grain as an answer to the spatial information problem, Molinari makes deeper the discussion on allocation of means. His contribution resids on the extension of Turgot’s analysis to all of goods, in particular to labor, and on the connection, he makes, betwenn spatial organization of markets and the properly working of the gravitation process of prices which permits an efficient sectorial allocation of productive means.
Classification JEL : B11, B12, B31
Why and how translate economists texts? The example of the Della Moneta de F. Galiani
A text is the product of a society, a situation, of time. Whole passages of the work result from observations of ground, from polite conversations very important for the period. The translation which we published is based on the first edition of Della Moneta, libri cinque. We can say that the work of Galiani is a real textbook of practical economic policy for politicians – The absence of translation of Della Moneta weighed heavily in the absence of a real consideration of the theoretical contribution of F. Galiani. We can understand this absence by the importance of the problem of the value throughout the XIXth century. The objective was at first to take into account the biggest part of the real roots of the European history of the economic thought.
El art?culo estudia las formas de gobierno provincial a trav?s de la cuesti?n financiera.?Aborda primero el juego de los actores, que permite entender c?mo la hacienda?rige el funcionamiento de la monarqu?a, en tanto cuerpo social encabezado por?un soberano apoyado, sin embargo, por sus miembros. Las asambleas de estados?forman parte ?ntegra de la monarqu?a contractual y, en este sentido, es imposible?disociarlas de la cabeza pol?tica. Se abordan despu?s los objetivos de la gesti?n de?Versalles. La organizaci?n estatal orienta sus decisiones de gesti?n en funci?n de?varios l?mites y condicionantes. Naturalmente, la guerra pes? en las decisiones de?gobierno, limitando v?as de financiaci?n posibles, fuera de la intermediaci?n de?bancos y oficiales. Combinando el estudio de los juegos de actores y el de los objetivos?de gesti?n, es posible identificar modelos de gobierno financiero entendidos?como din?micas de funcionamiento de las organizaciones, mejor que como l?gicas?institucionales.AbstractThe article looks at provincial forms of government from the financial standpoint.?First of all it addresses the stakeholders and their modus operandi, showing how the?treasury governed how the monarchy worked, as a social body headed by a sovereign?who is supported, however, by its members. State assemblies form an integral?part of contractual monarchy; as such it is impossible to disassociate them from?political leaders. It then moves on to the management objectives of Versailles. State organisation takes its decisions under various limits and constraints. Naturally, warfare weighed heavily in the government?s decisions, limiting possible financing outlets outside the intermediation of banks and officials. Bringing these two strands together then enables us to identify models of financial government understood as real up-and-running organisations rather than mere institutional logic.
The management sciences are largely based on the figure of an economic agent who seeks to maximise his or her own individual interests, in the same way as the celebrated homo economicus. The whole corpus of finance relies on this fundamental hypothesis. However, developments in this field, as well as in the neighbouring field of marketing, in the last decade reflect the effects of collective actors or actors whose motives are more collective than individual. This paper describes those developments and proposes to make new progress in this direction by offering a critical reading of the role and place of financial markets.
The gender issue is usually not dealt with in economic theories and policies. Neo-classical trends (the human capital theory, discrimination, etc.) have focused many works on female job offers, especially those offered to married women, whereas these works rely on, and therefore never question, role specialization within the family. Heterodox trends, on the other hand, or at least their the basic texts on them, possibly even without the segmentation theory, totally confused the issue, whereas the very heart of their analysis resides in inequalities. More recently, economic theories have echoed this silence by erasing the gender distinction in the measures implemented. The object of this article is to trigger a questioning of the status of gender within economics, starting with an overview of the main economic tendencies in France since the 1960s-1970s. Silence in the field of economic policy is then illustrated by the gender issue among poor workers.
This article aims to demonstrate the need for a radical break with the methodological individualism that dominates the fields of economics and management, and especially finance. It advocates the need to try to understand the issues, and the methods that are required to coordinate economic action in order to meet social needs. This coordination is to economics, management, and finance what interaction is to physics. It is through interaction that matter is formed, and it is through interaction that human beings and their projects take shape. This paper questions methodological individualism and the dominant role played by shareholders. Is it possible to promote social welfare simply by considering it as a result of shareholders value maximization point of view? If not, this implies not only understanding fully the challenges that we face but also being innovative regarding the way in which we coordinate the actions that are necessary to meet those challenges head on, and maybe promote another character as a substitute of shareholder. (Cet article souhaite montrer la nécessité d’une rupture radicale avec l’individualisme méthodologique qui domine en économie, en gestion, particulièrement en finance. Il prône la nécessité de s’attacher à comprendre les enjeux et les modes nécessaires de coordination de l’action économique pour répondre aux besoins sociaux. Cette coordination est à l’économie, la gestion, la finance, ce que l’interaction est à la physique. C’est par celle-là que se construit la matière, c’est par celle-ci que se construisent l’être humain et ses projets.)
INTRODUCTIONQUESNAY AND THE ECONOMIC THEORY OF AN AGRICULTURAL KINGDOMTURGOT: TOWARD A THEORY OF A CAPITALIST ECONOMYCONCLUSION
Luego de los programas de ajuste radicales, las entidades internacionales y los gobiernos de los países latinoamericanos vienen adoptando políticas de defensa de los más pobres, bien sea para compensar el deterioro del nivel de vida que aquéllos originaron o bien para evitar el mayor descontento social. Hoy se acepta la intervención del Estado para afrontar los problemas de la pobreza y las desigualdades sociales, aunque desde una óptica liberal, es decir, expulsando la política y dando prioridad al mercado como entidad reguladora de la sociedad. Así, las políticas en defensa de los pobres adquieren un carácter de mera beneficiencia o red de seguridad para quienes son excluidos por el mercado, y se basan en dos principios: hay que ser pacientes y esperar hasta mañana. Sus fundamentos filosóficos se encuentran en Rawls y en Heyek, quienes aunque difieren en algunas cuestiones comparten cuatro temas fundamentales: el papel determinante del mercado en la formación de la sociedad, la apología del fetichismo de la mercancía, las desigualdades creadoras y la exclusión social como fenómeno individual.
Résumé
Rompant avec la politique charitable à l’égard des pauvres, Turgot innove au cours de la deuxième moitié du XVIII e siècle par la mise en place d’une politique sociale moderne, à la fois par son contenu, par ses méthodes et par les analyses économiques sous-jacentes. En expliquant la pauvreté par des causes économiques (baisse du pouvoir d’achat, chômage) et non par le seul comportement individuel, Turgot admet que le droit au travail pour tous est la seule réponse possible. La fermeture progressive des dépôts de mendicité et l’ouverture des ateliers de charité sont les éléments significatifs de ce changement.
The present study centres on Meade’s Simplified Keynesian Model (1937) presented in 1936. The objective of this paper is to show that Meade’s model foreshadows the studies (Kalecki (1944), Tobin (1975)) which refute wage rigidity as the benchmark between Keynesian and Classical models. In particular, developing upon Peter Rappoport’s paper (1992), we show Meade’s model, by emphasising the role and the nature of expectations displays cases in which falling money wages decrease employment.
The first section relates Meade’s expectation treatment to Keynes discussion of investment. The analysis then shows Meade’s model can be interpreted as a response to a critique Kalecki made in his 1936 review of the General Theory that Meade certainly did not know. Section II and III then show this model allows displaying cases in which, starting from an unstable position of unemployment equilibrium with fixed money wages, falling money wages are accompanied by falling output.
Classification JEL : B22, E12
Dans cet article, nous nous int�ressons � une dimension particuli�re de la pens�e de Condorcet : la question de l'instruction publique dans son rapport au progr�s �conomique. Nous d�fendons l'id�e qu'� c�t� de sa dimension politique fr�quemment mise en lumi�re, le plan condorc�tien d'instruction, par son organisation et ses principes, est, entre autres fins, dirig� vers un objectif de progr�s �conomique. Nous argumentons ce point de vue en pr�sentant le lien entre les r�flexions de Condorcet sur l'innovation et le projet d'instruction publique. Nous montrons ainsi que la pens�e de Condorcet soutient d�j� l'id�e du r�le de l'�ducation sur le progr�s technologique et la croissance affrm� par les th�ories modernes du capital humain.
L'article rapporte la loi microéconomique de la demande aux thèses sur la confirmation empirique développées, respectivement, par Hempel et par Popper. Après avoir rappelé les bases hicksiennes de la théorie du consommateur et souligné que la loi n'y avait jamais fait l'objet d'un test rigoureux, il analyse la contribution novatrice d'Hildenbrand. Dans Market Demand (1994), celui-ci propose une dérivation logico-mathématique originale de la loi de la demande au marché, qui vise à rendre enfin possible un test de cette loi. L'article montre que la démarche d'Hildenbrand s'inscrit dans une perspective qui est néo-hempélienne, et non pas poppérienne, et il tire argument de cette étude même en faveur de la première contre la seconde.
This paper reviews the various types of discourse on the poor and on the relation-ships between poverty and a number of economic and social institutions that were seen al-ternatively as either solutions to or causes of poverty. At the beginning of the 19th century, the poor were considered autonomous economic agents responsible for their own condition.
Progressively environmental explanations for the existence of poverty are discussed in this economic analysis. By the middle of the 19th century, these new arguments, combined with analysis about non specific forms of behaviour, justified new attitudes and new politics to-wards the poor.
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