Les économistes face aux «crises» de 1929 et 1974 - article ; n°1 ; vol.52, pg 114-124

Vingtième Siècle. Revue d'histoire - Année 1996 - Volume 52 - Numéro 1 - Pages 114-124
Economists and the crises of the 1929 and 1974, Jacques Wolff.
In spite of different methodological presuppositions, the analysis of the 1929 crisis by the British orthodox economist Lionel Robbins (The Great Depression, 1929-1934, 1934) often agrees with the synthetic approach of the French economist Bertrand Nogaro (La crise économique en France et dans le monde, 1936) : both reject the idea of a single cause interpretation of the recession and condemn any policy that questions market laws and claims to break with the market economy. Faced with the 1974 recession, Otto Eckstein (The Great Recession, 1978) proposes an analysis of the American crisis based on an econometric model using many simulations, which opposes, point by point, the Marxist Ernst Mandel's point of view (La crise, 1974-1978, 1978). Far from being a weakness, the difference between the approaches illustrates the richness of economic analysis. In this field, improvement of the representations can come only from the confrontation of models and ideas.
11 pages
Source : Persée ; Ministère de la jeunesse, de l’éducation nationale et de la recherche, Direction de l’enseignement supérieur, Sous-direction des bibliothèques et de la documentation.