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From Walras’s General Equilibrium to Hicks’s Temporary Equilibrium

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 August 2016

Bruna Ingrao
Bruna Ingrao*
Affiliation:
Università di Sassari
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Summary

Starting by and overview of open problems in the Walrasian heritage, the paper reviews tne debates which paved the way to Hicksian temporary equilibrium. In the late twenties and the thirties the open issue of equilibrium and business fluctuations gave rise to new research programmes centered on the need to add the time dimension in equilibrium analysis. The crucial result of the equilibrium and time controversy was that the general equilibrium concept cannot be defined unless it is related to a time horizon and to a process of planning over a time horizon. Ideas of intertemporal and temporary equilibrium in the writings of Hayek and Lindhal are examined in close connection with the debate on information and perfect foresight. The paper evaluates the novelty of Value and Capital with respect to the previous Austrian and Swedish contributions, arguing that the temporally equilibrium approach gained a more precise body of theory, but at the same time it lost its more innovative perspective.

L’objet de cet article est d’évaluer les débats qui ont conduit au concept d’équilibre temporaire de Hicks. A la fin des années 1920 et dans les années 1930 les problématiques de l’équilibre et des fluctuations conjoncturelles ont donné naissance à un nouveau programme de recherche centré sur la nécessité d’adjoindre la dimension temporelle à l’analyse de l’équilibre. Le résultat principal de cette controverse sur «l’équilibre et le temps» est la nécessité de rattacher le concept d’équilibre général à un processus de planification sur un horizon temporel et fini. L’article examine les notions d équilibres intertemporel et temporaire à la lumière de la controverse sur l’information et la perfection des prévisions. Enfin, l’article évalue la nouveauté du livre Value and Capital pour rapport aux contributions antérieures des auteurs autrichiens et suédois, par conclure que si, grâce à la contribution de Hicks, l’approche de l’équilibre temporaire a gagné une présentation théorique plus précise, c’est au prix d’un abandon d’une perspective plus innovatrice.

Keywords

021031021031
Type
Research Article
Information
Recherches Économiques de Louvain/ Louvain Economic Review , Volume 55 , Issue 4 , 1989 , pp. 365 - 398
Copyright
Copyright © Université catholique de Louvain, Institut de recherches économiques et sociales 1989 

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References

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