Leontief’s input-output models are usually viewed as simplified classical (neo-Ricardian) models. However, this interpretation hides two opposed views. On the one hand, the common interpretation, based on Koopmans and Samuelson’s works, considers the so-called “models of Leontief” as...

French Abstract: Au XIXe et au XXe siècles, l’économie politique regroupe plusieurs domaines distincts. A côté des connaissances offertes par la théorie, on peut identifier un autre domaine généralement appelé économie appliquée. Léon Walras distingue très explicitement...

In September 2009, the editors of this special issue organized at Lausanne University a Workshop on the History of Russian Political Economy and Statistics at the turn of the 20th century. When preparing a call for paper for this journal, the editors realized that papers presented at the...

With his revealed preference theory (RPT), Samuelson intended to offer “operational” foundations to neoclassical consumer theory by getting rid of unobservable or ill-conceived psychological arguments like, especially, introspection. According to Samuelson, RPT is operational inasmuch as...

In 1918 the Central Statistical Administration (TsSU) was founded with the support of Lenin. Pavel Illich Popov was its first director (1918-1926). TsSU proceeded to the merging and centralization of the former decentralized statistical system of the zemstva (local governments) inherited from...

Ragnar Frisch wrote in 1933 that "The complete macrodynamic problem, as I conceive of it, consists in describing as realistically as possible the kind of relations that exist between the various magnitudes in the Tableau Economique ..., and from the nature of these relations to explain the...

Social Economy and Sustainable economics are two independent fields that sometimes refer one to another. The former is primarily concerned with “social capital” issues, while the latter deal with “natural capital” stakes. When referring to the other field, there is no systematic analysis...

Input-output analysis was a particular way of state intervention. Its success was due to the connection of a theory to a model and to an instrument. It was a tool for science and for action. This articulation of an explanatory, a descriptive and a prescriptive dimension may be understood as an...

As a case study on the status of women in the economics profession, this article analyzes the fascinating career of Anne P. Carter. Prior to 1966 there were no women in the economics faculty at Harvard. In 1966 Carter became the first assistant professor of the Harvard Economics Department but,...

The way the expresssion "applied economics" was employed changed deeply from one author to another. In this article we examine the meaning of this concept in Leon Walras' and Wassily Leontief's works regarding mathematical models of general interdependence and general equilibrium. It appears...