The quantitative approach to business cycle in « X-Crise » group in the 1930's

To construct models and to apply quantitative techniques in order to explain the cyclical movements of the economy is one of the main aims of “X-Crise” group (nickname of “Centre Polytechnicien d'Etudes Economiques”) at the “Ecole Polytechnique” in Paris. Indeed, french polytechniciens' engineers hope that mathematical economics, and especially empirically based modelization, will be helpful first to build a true economic science, and second, to find solutions to the 1930's crisis. These hopes are developed in the methodological debate that Polytechniciens began even before the creation of the association X-Crise. They explain in particular their rejection of "pure” economics and their defence of an approach which mixes economic concepts, statistical facts and mathematical model – such as econometrics. Overall, these hopes are expressed through models constructed by X-Crise members, such as Polytechniciens like François Moch and Maurice Potron or non-polytechniciens like brothers Georges and Edouard Guillaume. Attempts were done to include business cycle in their models. But, finally, they failed to confront them to empirical data.French Engineers - Business Cycles - history of econometrics

French Engineers and the Machinery of Society: X-Crise and the Development of the first Macroeconomic Models in the Nineteen Thirties

The purpose of this article is to highlight the originality of X-Crise, an Ecole Polytechnique association formed in nineteen thirties' France. Firstly il analyses the factors leading the French engineers to look collectively, for the first time of their history, at the big politicoeconomic problems of their epoch. Two factors seem particularly relevant on this matter : their epistemology and value system on one hand, and their perception of the theoretical and political impotence at that time on the other hand.Secondly this paper presents the main original theoretical elements that arose from the group's deliberations. Among them, it exposes the Guillaume brothers' macroeconomic model [1932], one of the very first macroeconomic model produced in France, and Potron's first application to economics of Perron-Frobenius's theorem (Potron [1911] and [1935]).French Engineers - Macroeconomic models - Pragmatism - Mechanics - Perron-Frobenius's theorem

Analyse critique de la mondialisation: tendances et doctrine (Note)

Cet article examine le fondement du discours sur la mondialisation pour en dégager les significations latentes. Les principales perspectives de la mondialisation suggèrent des tendances sociohistoriques qui sont analysées à travers quatre courants théoriques. Notre acception des phénomènes en cause propose un courant historique dont l'objet est d'étudier la tendance qui considère la mondialisation en termes d'accumulation périodique des flux d'échanges économiques internationaux autour d'objets sans cesse renouvelés. Le courant libéral interprète le sens de la nouvelle dynamique managériale qui héberge les interactions des entreprises et de l'État. Le courant sociologique analyse la sociogenèse des phénomènes de nature économique des deux courants précédents pour les situer en aval de la réflexivité individuelle et collective de l'agent. Enfin, notre démarche de théorisation comporte un courant critique qui évalue la portée du discours résultant des autres courants pour en relativiser la trop grande propension à la normalisation. Nous proposons finalement un cadre doctrinal permettant de centrer l'analyse des débats soulevés à partir de deux doctrines philosophiques et de deux attitudes pratiques.The purpose of this article is to analyse the ideological foundations underlying present day globalization discourse and to shed light on some of their latent meanings. The main perspectives of globalization suggest certain sociohistorical tendencies which mil be analysed by way of four theoretical frameworks. Our own acceptation of globalizing phenomena proposes an historical perspective whose objective has been the analysis of a tendency which considers globalization in terms of the recurring accumulation of international economic exchange flow centered around constantly renewed goods. The liberal current focuses on, and seeks to interpret the meaning of novel managerial dynamics in which are lodged interactions between business and the State. The sociological perspective is concerned with the social beginnings of the economic phenomena subsumed in the two preceding trends in order to situate them as a consequence of the agent's individual and collective reflexive processes. Finally, our theorizing process includes a critical dimension which means to evaluate the scope attained by globalization discourse as affected by other thought currents and seeks to relativize its already excessive propensity to create norms. In the end we propose a framework allowing for the centering of the analysis of these debates stemming first from two philosophical doctrines, and second, from two more pragmatic attitudes

Plein emploi, stabilité des prix, négociation collective et le rapport Woods

L'auteur critique la troisième partie du rapport surLes relations du travail au Canada. Deux problèmes y sont étudiés: la compatibilité des objectifs de plein emploi et de stabilité des prix et les relations entre la convention collective et ces objectifs.Part three of the Report of the task force on labour relations "focuses on the difficulty Canada has had in attempting to achieve full employment and stable prices simultaneously, and on the relationship of collective bargaining to that problem".With respect to the first question, the Report does not adequately emphasize the overwhelming importance of external factors in the movement of Canadian prices. In an open economy under fixed exchange rates, the trade-off is not really between full employment and price stability, but more likely between full employment and balance of payments equilibrium. Given this externally determined constraint, one of the most valid courses of action for Canadian economic policy is to seek to alleviate the discriminatory effects of inflation on individuals.The Report does not reach definite conclusions regarding the relationship between collective bargaining and the double objective of full employment and price stability. In that respect, it is merely a reflection of the state of economic knowledge. The authors could however be criticized for not having set out the various questions raised within the framework of an analytical model. While accurate measurement of policy effects is always hard to obtain, Phillips' curves, or better for Canada, trade-off curves between balance of payments surpluses and unemployment rates could have been relied upon as an appropriate framework for assessing the effects of alternative policies.Also evident in the report is the tendency to adopt the commentary approach at the expense of the more useful approach of economic analysis. A case in point is the discussion of wage parity between Canada and the U.S.A. : not even elementary analytical tools are brought in