A Study of Walras's Applied Economics : A Historical Approach to the Institutional Framework of the General Equilibrium Theory

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

We aim to clarify the significance of Walras's applied economics which can be regarded as an institutional framework of the general equilibrium theory, from viewpoints of the history of economic thought. We began to reconsider Walras's idea of organized free competition in his applied economics in connection with Hayek's critique of 'constructivism'. Hayek's arguments against constructivism derive from his disapproval of Lange's central planning economy and of a neo-classical idea of competition. Hayek sought the origin of constructivism in the Saint-Simonism tradition in France but never referred to Walras's relationship to it. While focusing on this relationship, we reexamined Walras's ideas on free competition especially as a means of criteria for monopoly and state entrepreneur in applied economics. Then we revealed that Walras's idea is far from neo-classical and that his collectivist scheme is different from Lange's market socialism. Walras's emphasis is not on what form the market structure should take, but how the market forces could be utilized. We concluded that Walras's point is not so far removed from Hayek's as is generally believed.In order to verify this conclusion, we explored further the meaning of Walras's applied economics in the history of French economic thought. We focused on not only such French tradition as Hayek defined but also the other influential French economists like Quesnay, Canard, J.B.Say, Dupuit, Cournot. In this process, we reexamined the Mandan and the Schumpeterian views on the French tradition. We consider it neither as a formation process of theory of plus-value nor as that of Walras's pure economics but as a formation process of his idea of organizing free competition in applied economics. Thus, in order to revaluate Walras's economics, which is different from the neoclassical stereotypes, we are led to develop a new perspective on the history of French economic thought.