Contenu du sommaire : La structure économique

SUMMARY definition of the structure can be obtained by two successive approaches The structure then appears as the bill of relations internal or external quantitative or qualitative which describe given economic entirety with double reference In time to delay-periods which may be deteriiiiiied by the irre- versibility and the discontinuity of mutations In space to location-spaces determined by the existence of cor respondences The notion of structure thus denned is lilkely to iiud numerous appli cations for instance structure of the French agriculture at date near our time It allows comparizon with other more or less bordering notions as tlie institutions the frameworks historical or geographical frameworks) the standard the system the datum the ordering cf Eucken An effort following two directions has been made lastly- order to classify concepts npcording to their generality in order also to point out their interrelations

SUMMARY The author demonstrates the necessity of tïking the structural aspect iito consideration basing this assertion on three examples the statistical demand curves the problem of growth and the explanation forecasting of the most severe crisis of the epoch of industrialism 1929 Starting from the fundamental dichotomy of causal analysis and planning the micro- macro problem and the question of structural homogenity are discussed leading to the conclusion that lassic theory Keynesian Stockholm School reposes on very special non-realistic assumptions The structural and atomistic approaches are then compared systematically see the diagram and the two schemes in the text The relation between the ana lysis of aggregate concepts and the structural approach is examined and finally the author puts the question is it probable that the structural approach will supersede theory solely applying conceptual analysis of aggregates and answers in the affirmative yet stressing the obstacles impeding such methodological change

SUMMARY The method of functional relations which has been widely adopted in economics has led to conception of the economic system as constellation of economic quantities bound to each other by simple and multiple relations This representation however makes the system appear too abstract shadowy and inconsistent To eliminate this drawback serious hindrance to the building of makro-economics the author of this paper says that it would be both necessary and useful to give priority to those of the functional relations that connect the quantities of the system and esta blish quantitative relation between the production factors available within the system at any given time To do this one must assume that the economic system covers not only given period of time but also given size of space This proportional relation between quantities which are productive factors in the system in so far as it is taken to have position of priority tends as show to be constant in time and constrains the other relations between non-factor units By this means the economic system takes on more definite and concrete shape that is it acquires specific structure of its own which differentiates it from other economic systems that may exist alongside it The author postulates four degrees of interpretation to illustrate the structure of the system he formulates an elementary definition equa tion of the structure and furthermore examines the variations of the structure and the variations the structure Thus the economic struc ture of certain system can be connected with the fund of national economy and on this well-known simile depends the flux of income employment savings consumption and so on

SUMMARY From our point of view tlie sliort period can be defined on the one hand by the poor development of consciousness It is the period of routine res ponses typical of cumulative processes rise or downfall In that case the behaviour of the economical subjects results only from their propensities and purely phenomenological knowledge of economy This cumulative growth created by instinctive reactions carries ine vitably structural tensions along with it second criterion of the short period for all parts of the economy are not equally malleable At this stage appear bottlenecks which engender reversal of the situation accompanied by all the instinctive reactions implicated among economic subjects by such reversals But these subjecte dominate progressively their elementary reflexes and begin to reflect on the origin of the phenomenon Their behaviour shows they are nov conscious of the changes occured in the proportions and relations of the economic frame overcapitalisation for instance instead of perceiving only the effects of such changes evolution of prices Their phenomenological knowledge is replaced by structural knowledge Their behaviour becomes adapted to the changes provoked in the structure of production and consists of an action on other structures monetary political social mental... achieving something different than simple return to the ancient structure of production Thus full consciousness of economical subjects characteristic to our mind of the long period is necessarily accompanied by changes indispensable for structural adaptations

SUMMARY The economic thought after the overwhelming Keynesian infatuation turns again to the long run problems In this regard new central notion has been brought out the economic structure What does this term mean For the needs of empirical research we tbial that definition of the structure can only be given by referring to the long run It appears then as combination of lasting relations or more precisely of relations which most often vary slowly Most often means that sudden changes may occur in the different elements of the structure These can be divided into four sections population productive resources natural data and accumulated capital) technique and institution? The structure changes divide long periods in the historical and not in the Marshallian sense These long periods are those during which structure is steady enough One can regard them as almost homoge neous as said Aherman Then the characteristics of these long periods are underlined They may be used as hypothesis in the researches on the long run evolution