Contenu du sommaire

The search for the appropriate real wage Edmond Malinvaud Confronted with a current topic, economic science does not propose a well tested method that would provide foundations for an objective answer. An approach and sortie building blocks for a full formalization are discussed. The central part concerns the behaviour of firms that must choose a type of equipement and a productive capacity whereas the future demand for their product is uncertain. Along a regular growth path, with a satisfactory employment level, appropriate values for real rates of wages, interest and profit must hold. When strong imbalances exist in the current situation, one has not only to characterize such a regular growth but also to select a strategy in order to reach it.

The allocation of natural resources and the theory of liberalism Serge-Christophe Kolm The theory of liberalism defines legitimate rights by their origin from the « natural rights » of each individual to himself (freedom) and from freedoms of cession and abandonment of rights (which implies freedom of exchange). Its central problem is thus to define the just allocation of first rights to natural resources (although the total corresponding value is much smaller than the one of labor's fruits). The various solutions are analyzed with special regard to their liberal or individualist or market features. Unanimous agreement in which each person may yield or abandon legiti­mate rights to obtain others' acceptance, whether explicit, or implicit in a « Liberal Social Contract », has a privileged status. But we also consider « first occupancy », equal shares, allocation according to need of the specifie resource or of general wealth, or according to some merit, publicization and its more or less market uses, etc. We then present the Theory of Compensations by which each beneficiary compensates others for not receiving the resource. It is found acceptable if from each compensation is deduced the compensations that its beneficiary would have paid had he received the resource, and, then, possible if the resource is salable. We analyze the properties of this rule, which a requirement of unanimous acceptance with a large number of persons may drive towards equal sharing.

RATIONAL EXPECTATIONS AND MACROECONOMIC ANALYS1S Antoine d'Autume This article offers a critical introduction to New Classical Macroeconomics, based on the Rational Expectations Hypothesis. We consider a number of Sargent-Wallace-type macroeconomic models in an attempt to identify the main themes of this school and to evaluate their f antidations. In particular we show how the neutrality or non-neutrality of expected monetary policy depends solely, from a formal viewpoint, on the homogeneity properties of the model and how this resuit still holds in disequilibrium models. We then attempt to evaluate the empirical scope of the New Classical critique. In particular we review the identical problems faced when estimating under rational expectations a consumption function or the macro-economies effects of monetary policy.

Turnover, productivity and hierarchy in the internal market Gérard Ballot, Cyrille Piatecki The paper develops a two level internal labour market which is built on the rationality of both the employer and the employes. The essential variables are the career plan offered by the employer (wage rate at each lecel and promotion rate) and the quit rate of the production workers, which depends on this plan and determines the turnover. We show that each employer sets his own wage hierarchy (a result which is an extension of the efficiency wage theory), and that, under a set of reasonable assumptions, the hierarchy of jobs is pyramidal. The rnodel also displays the often noted gaps between marginal producticity und wage in the short term, and we analyse the direction and causes of tins gap. Finally a level generalisation is offered and the possibility of quitting is extened to all hires of employees.

Difference and similarite elements in international Trade composition analysis K. S. Abd-ElRahman This article aima to study the articulation relationship between difference and similarity elements of national economics in the determination of the obserced trade composition at their level. The article shed lighton the existence of an additive report (rather than an opposite one) between the effects of the elements considered. Trade composition may therefore show simultaneous exports and imports of similar products without hindering the functioning of comparative advantage principle and the resulting specializations.