The Political Economy of Textbook Writing: Paul Samuelson and the making of the first ten Editions of Economics (1945-1976)

Over the past two decades, numerous contributions to the history of economics have tried to assess Paul Samuelson’s political positioning by tracing it in the subsequent editions of his famous textbook Economics. This literature, however, has provided no consensus about the location of Samuelson’s political ideas. While some authors believe that Samuelson has always had inclinations toward interventionism, others conclude that he more often acted as a pro-business advocate. The purpose of this paper is not to argue for one of these two interpretations but to depict the making of Economics itself as a political process. By ‘political’ it is not meant the conduct of party politics but the many political elements that a textbook author has to take into account if he wants to be published and favorably received. I argue that the “middle of the road” stance that Samuelson adopted in the book was consciously constructed by the MIT economist, with the help of his home institution and his publishing company, McGraw-Hill, to ensure both academic freedom and the success of the book. The reason for which the stance developed is related to pre-McCarthyist right-wing criticisms of the textbook and how Samuelson and the MIT department had to endure the pressures from members of the Corporation (MIT’s Board of Trustees), who tried to prevent the publication of the textbook and threatened Samuelson’s tenure at MIT as soon as 1947 – when early manuscripts were circulated. As a result, it was decided in accordance with both the Corporation and McGraw-Hill that the Readings volume would be published to balance conflicting ideas about state intervention. Following these early criticisms, the making of the subsequent editions relied on a network of instructors and referees all over the US in order to make it as successful and consensual as possible. This seemed to work quite well in the 1950s and for a good portion of the 1960s, until Economics became victim of its own success and was seen, in an ironical twist of fate, as a right wing text by younger, radical economists. From now on, Samuelson will try to have his book sent as often as possible to the radicals for referring process, with mixed results. Eventually, the book became criticized from both its left and its right.Paul Samuelson, Economics, Textbook, Politics, Economic Education

Economics for the Masses : The Visual Display of Economic Knoledge in the United Staes (1921-1945)

The rise of visual representation in economics textbooks after WWII is one of the main features of contemporary economics. In this paper, we argue that this development has been preceded by a no less significant rise of visual representation in the larger literature devoted to social and scientific issues, including economic textbooks for non-economists as well as newspapers and magazines. During the interwar era, editors, propagandists and social scientists altogether encouraged the use of visual language as the main vehicle to spread information and opinions about the economy to a larger audience. These new ways of visualizing social facts, which most notably helped shape the understanding of economic issues by various audiences during the years of the Great Depression, were also conceived by their inventors as alternative ways of practicing economics: in opposition to the abstraction of “neoclassical” economics, these authors wanted to use visual representation as a way to emphasize the human character of the discipline and did not accept the strict distinction between the creation and the diffusion of economic knowledge. We explore different yet related aspects of these developments by studying the use of visual language in economics textbooks intended for non-specialists, in periodicals such as the Survey, a monthly magazine intended for an audience of social workers, the Americanization of Otto Neurath's pictorial statistics and finally the use of those visual representations by various state departments and administrations under Roosevelt's legislature (including the much-commented Historical Section of the Farm Security Administration). We show how visualizations that have been created in opposition to neoclassical economics have lost most of their theoretical content when used widely for policy purposes while being simultaneously integrated into the larger American culture. It is our claim that those issues, which are familiar to those involved in cultural and visual studies, are also of crucial importance to apprehend the later developments of modern economics.Visualization, economocs, American Economy, Otto Neurath, Rexford Tugwell, Roosevelt, Roy Stryker, Photographs, Pictorial Statistics

Localization in 1D non-parametric latent space models from pairwise affinities

We consider the problem of estimating latent positions in a one-dimensional torus from pairwise affinities. The observed affinity between a pair of items is modeled as a noisy observation of a function $f(x^*_{i},x^*_{j})$ of the latent positions $x^*_{i},x^*_{j}$ of the two items on the torus. The affinity function $f$ is unknown, and it is only assumed to fulfill some shape constraints ensuring that $f(x,y)$ is large when the distance between $x$ and $y$ is small, and vice-versa. This non-parametric modeling offers a good flexibility to fit data. We introduce an estimation procedure that provably localizes all the latent positions with a maximum error of the order of $\sqrt{\log(n)/n}$, with high-probability. This rate is proven to be minimax optimal. A computationally efficient variant of the procedure is also analyzed under some more restrictive assumptions. Our general results can be instantiated to the problem of statistical seriation, leading to new bounds for the maximum error in the ordering

Resistant grape varieties and market acceptance: An evaluation based on experimental economics

We analyze consumers' evaluations of white wines from resistant varieties, produced in the Languedoc winegrowing region of France (2016 vintage). We use the results from a laboratory experiment performed in Paris in June 2017, where a panel of more than one hundred and sixty consumers, regular buyers of this type of wine, were asked to evaluate a wine of the Bouquet 3159 grape variety (monogenic variety resistant to mildew and powdery mildew and optimized for quality) and compare it with two conventional wines of different quality levels, and with a certified organic wine of similar type and price. The environmental and health performances and the production methods of the different wines were quantified according to several indicators: Treatment frequency indicator (TFI) and pesticide residue analysis. The consumers first evaluated the wines after tasting, having been given only a minimum amount of information about the region of origin and the vintage, then again after receiving information on production methods and the levels of our indicators. The method used to lend credibility to individual valuations used experimental economics, via a mechanism based on direct disclosure of their willingness to pay (maximum purchase price for a bottle of wine according to available information). The results showed that, on a purely sensory level, consumers had difficulty in accepting wine from a resistant variety. We were then able to see that communication focusing on environmental and health performances very much improved the position of the resistant variety of wine, putting it ultimately at the top of the average qualitative evaluations. In economic terms, we show that this promotion results in high market share, gained from conventional wines. Market share losses were lower, however, for the premium conventional wine, suggesting that the higher quality wines would be less directly challenged by wines produced from resistant varieties

Large-scale analysis by SAGE reveals new mechanisms of v-erbA oncogene action

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background:</p> <p>The <it>v-erbA </it>oncogene, carried by the Avian Erythroblastosis Virus, derives from the <it>c-erbAα </it>proto-oncogene that encodes the nuclear receptor for triiodothyronine (T3R). v-ErbA transforms erythroid progenitors <it>in vitro </it>by blocking their differentiation, supposedly by interference with T3R and RAR (Retinoic Acid Receptor). However, v-ErbA target genes involved in its transforming activity still remain to be identified.</p> <p>Results:</p> <p>By using Serial Analysis of Gene Expression (SAGE), we identified 110 genes deregulated by v-ErbA and potentially implicated in the transformation process. Bioinformatic analysis of promoter sequence and transcriptional assays point out a potential role of c-Myb in the v-ErbA effect. Furthermore, grouping of newly identified target genes by function revealed both expected (chromatin/transcription) and unexpected (protein metabolism) functions potentially deregulated by v-ErbA. We then focused our study on 15 of the new v-ErbA target genes and demonstrated by real time PCR that in majority their expression was activated neither by T3, nor RA, nor during differentiation. This was unexpected based upon the previously known role of v-ErbA.</p> <p>Conclusion:</p> <p>This paper suggests the involvement of a wealth of new unanticipated mechanisms of v-ErbA action.</p

Multi-loci diagnosis of acute lymphoblastic leukaemia with high-throughput sequencing and bioinformatics analysis

International audienceHigh-throughput sequencing (HTS) is considered a technical revolution that has improved our knowledge of lymphoid and autoimmune diseases, changing our approach to leukaemia both at diagnosis and during follow-up. As part of an immunoglobulin/T cell receptor-based minimal residual disease (MRD) assessment of acute lymphoblastic leukaemia patients, we assessed the performance and feasibility of the replacement of the first steps of the approach based on DNA isolation and Sanger sequencing, using a HTS protocol combined with bioinformatics analysis and visualization using the Vidjil software. We prospectively analysed the diagnostic and relapse samples of 34 paediatric patients, thus identifying 125 leukaemic clones with recombinations on multiple loci (TRG, TRD, IGH and IGK), including Dd2/Dd3 and Intron/KDE rearrangements. Sequencing failures were halved (14% vs. 34%, P = 0.0007), enabling more patients to be monitored. Furthermore, more markers per patient could be monitored, reducing the probability of false negative MRD results. The whole analysis, from sample receipt to clinical validation, was shorter than our current diagnostic protocol, with equal resources. V(D)J recombination was successfully assigned by the software, even for unusual recombinations. This study emphasizes the progress that HTS with adapted bioinformatics tools can bring to the diagnosis of leukaemia patients

NMR studies of telomeric nucleoprotein complexes involving the Myb-like domain of the human telomeric protein TRF2

In order to study the binding of the Myb-like domain of the human telomeric protein TRF2 (Myb-TRF2) with different structural components of the t-loop model, we report NMR studies of the binding of Myb-TRF2 protein with two repeats human telomeric DNA under three conformations. Our results showed that Myb-TRF2 binds to the duplex and even to the quadruplex and the random coil G-rich strand. The solution structure of Myb-TRF2 reported here looks like Myb-TRF1 suggesting similar DNA binding mode. As a matter of fact, we have shown that its binding to the human telomeric duplex presents great similarities with this of Myb-TRF1

L'informatique musicale : informatique et musique en interdisciplinarité

National audienceL'informatique musicale, recherche en science et art du traitement automatisé d'informations musicales, rassemble une communauté vivante de chercheurs et d'enseignants-chercheurs, ingénieurs, artistes et pédagogues. Ce document partage quelques réflexions épistémologiques sur ce domaine par nature interdisciplinaire (parties 1 à 3) et propose des résultats préliminaires d'une cartographie de ces recherches en France (parties 4 et 5). 1. AUX SOURCES DE L'INFORMATIQUE MUSICALE La science et la musique ont toujours eu des liens forts, tout d'abord sur des aspects de gammes et d'acoustique. Le Quadrivium fut défini par Boèce au VI e siècle et re-groupe les arts libéraux des « sciences des nombres », à savoir l'arithmétique, la musique, la géométrie et l'astro-nomie. L'harmonie des sphères, liant proportions célestes et musique, est une des théories pythagoriciennes étudiées par Boèce [4]. Mille ans plus tard, notamment à partir des ouvrages de Zarlino [27], les questions de tempérament, c'est-à-dire de distribution fréquentielle de la gamme, sont un sujet majeur de débat musical et scientifique du XVI e au XIX e siècle. À côté des préoccupations acoustiques, le côté plus sym-bolique et calculatoire de la musique a aussi une longue histoire, notamment pour la génération musicale [1]. Cer-tains Würfelspiele du XVIII e siècle, jeux musicaux aléa-toires, sont par exemple attribués à Mozart. L'émergence de la pensée informatique va de pair avec des réflexions sur la musique algorithmisée. En 1843, Ada Lovelace, per-cevant l'universalité de la machine proposée par Charles Babbage, imagine déjà que la musique puisse se formali-ser au point que l'ordinateur devienne compositeur [11] : It might act upon other things besides number , were objects found whose mutual fundamental relations could be expressed by those of the abstract science of operations, and which should be also susceptible of adaptations to the action of the operating notation and mechanism of the engine... Supposing, for instance , that the fundamental relations of pitched sounds in the science of harmony and of musical composition were susceptible of such expression and adaptations, the engine might compose elaborate and scientific pieces of music of any degree of complexity or extent. La pensée sérielle du début du XX e siècle a aussi des aspects systématiques, parfois algorithmiques. Un siècle après Babbage et Lovelace, dans les années 1940, les premiers ordinateurs suscitent rapidement des questions mu-sicales. Dès la fin des années 1940, Alan Turing décrit lui-même comment utiliser le haut-parleur du Mark II [6]