Contenu du sommaire : Mélanges Jean Lhomme - Economie sociale

Planning and administration services Following the meaning of « les administrations » in the french national accounting System, these institutions create part of the national product. The first question concerns what category of planning interfers with the geniuine behaviour of « les administrations » ; centralized or decentralized ? real or supposed ? Then, what is the most effective way to interfere ? The emphases lay on decentralization have some consequences on the concept itself, since the decentralized administrations can't any more be producers of no market services.

Social economics: meaning and prospects Is Social Economics a new scientific branch, with a specifie object and specific methods ? Different criteria can be advanced in order to precise the border line between the economic and the social aspect. But none of them can be sufficient, even if all contribute to enlight this distinction. Because there is a very strong imbrication between these two aspects of collective life, and because this opposition has only an historical sense, social economics have to express this overlapping. Social economics can be defined by their analytical object (the group concerned, the objectives pursued through social welfare services the adjustment processes from means to objectives) and also by their methods and their multidisciplinary aspect. Their present orientations are : welfare concepts and measurements (social indicators, social accounting), decision~waking studies and system analysis on social problems, social long-range planning. And all that shows the increasing analytical aspect of social economics and, at the same fime, their deeply political character.

Economists' anthropology The crisis of economics is mainly the economists' crisis. A) The history of economics may be divided into four periods : 1) from the 16th century to J.S. Mill, the practising economist language was captured by social philosophy ; 2) from 1840 to 1870, the classical theory degraded into apologetics which is immediately disputed both conceptually and practicaily; 3) from 1870 to the 1920 s, the social contradictions worsened while marginalism was separated from other social anthropologies ; 4) since that time, we have witnessed a convergence without integration. B) Science stems from ideology: 1) the sociology of knowledge has as its objective to find out the rational core within ideology ; 2) in anthropological branches the praxis criterium of thruth is taking on a specifie meaning ; 3) An illustration of this argument is given in a study of some economists.

The growth of wealth for wage earners and pensioners between 1949 and 1967 In order to study the disparities in the distribution of wealth, the authors have formalized the households accumulation processes. On the basis of an initial situation characterized by the age distribution of wealth (at the beginning of the simulation) and using data on the different variables bringing about accumulation, an attempt is made to establish the age distribution of wealth n years later. Some of these variables are exogeneous, for instance wages and variations in the priee of assets, the others are endogeneous, so are the flows between generations (inheritances and gifts inter vivos). The evolution of the average wealth in each age group between 1949 and 1967 for a sample of french wage-earners and pensioners has been simulated. It permits to distinguish in the growth of the households assets a priee effects and a real effect. It also helps to differenciate the inherited from the accumulated wealth. Morever it allows to explain in a better way the shape of the age distribution of wealth in 1967.

Income redistribution in U.S.A., France and Great Britain This paper first compares redistribution as seen in these 3 countries according to 2 hypothesis : A (uniform distribution of general expendif tires), B (similar distribution to that of primat y incomes). Redistribution always lessens R (concentration ratio whose limits are 0 and 100) from 12 to 14 points in the A hypothesis and from 5 to 10 points in the B hypothesis. The highest drop of R is to be found in Great Britain where distribution of primat y income (i.e. before redistribution) is less unequal. Secondly redistribution between income size is interpreted, using models based on the hypothesis of voluntary transfers. According to the criterium of the weighted sum of differences (absolute values) the model where transfer from j to i depends on (Yj — Yi)β appears as the most satisfactory. Differences between theoretical values and observed values are significant. For instance, in Great Britain, Ist decile receives more than theoretical values indicated by the model, wether as in France and U.S.A. it receives less. In all 3 countries, and above ail in France and U.S.A., persons belonging to the 7th, 8th, and 9th deciles enjoy a privileged position : the negative transfer observed is less than the theoretical value. As theoretical and observed transfers are compared, it is possible to consider the latter as resulting both from voluntary and compulsory transfers undet uncertainty.

An economic policy mistake : the 40 hours' week (1936) The 40 hours' week, claimed by the trade-unions since 1932 in order to restore full employment and give a new impulse to the economy, was instituted in France by a law of the 21st of June 1936, a few days after the formation of the Blum government. Its main drawback, reducing the maximum production immediately feasible, was first underrated by the supporters of the reform and its opponents as well. The 40 hours law was applied from autumn 1936 to autumn 1938 rigidly, in a tense social climate, right in a period of rearmement. It somewhat hindered the economic recovery of 1937. However, the violent attacks against « the fourty hours » must not obliterate the other factors — especially the outflow of capital — which lay heavily on the French economy of the 1936-1938 years. If the 40 hours reform, in such exceptionally bad circumstances, showed itself an economie mistake, it possibly must be held an unavoidable mistake.

The distribution of agricultural land-holdings in France at the end of the nineteenth and the beginning of the twentieth centuries The results of the decennial surveys of 1862, 1882 and 1892 and the cross-checking of data provided by the 1908-1909 survey of small rural land-holdings by means of documents of varied origin throw light upon the movements which affected the allocation of agricultural holdings in France from 1860 to 1910. For the period 1862-1882, the increase in the number of land-holdings covering areas of between 5 and 30 hectares can be directly related to the more widespread application of the changes in the patterns of agriculture, whose economie characteristics fitted well the cadre of « small-to-medium-scale » farming. During the agricultural crisis which followed, the specific forms of its organisation conferred upon small-scale farming a remarkable resilience, while the middle-scale holdings suffered proportionately to their size.Thereafter, protectionist policies doubtless mitigated the process of buying out small-holdings, but, above all, these policies were favourable to the rise of the middle-scale farm, the great beneficiary of the differential income plan related to protection, and whose structuring was suited to the new forms of agricultural progress.The limits of these variations within categories are marked, however, by a relative stability in the structure of the System of allocation of these land-holdings. The explanation of this stability can be found by means of an examination of the internal obstacles to the movement towards concentration and of some characteristics of the evolution of agriculture during this half-century, and in particular the rhythm of its development and the volume of its active population.