"GENERAL EQUILIBRIUM AS KNOWLEDGE. FROM WALRAS ONWARDS"
Groupe de Recherches Epistemologiques et Socio-Economiques et Pole
d'Histoire et d'Analyse des Representations Economiques
(GRESE-PHARE, Universite Paris 1)
Centre d'etudes interdisciplinaire Walras-Pareto (CWP, Universite de
Lausanne)
Centre Alexandre Koyre en Histoire des Sciences et des Techniques (EHESS)
Call for Papers
General Equilibrium as Knowledge. From Walras Onwards.
International Conference
Paris, 6-8 September 2007
Honorary Committee
Maurice Allais, Anne P. Carter, John S. Chipman, Dale W. Jorgenson,
Edmond Malinvaud, Herbert E. Scarf, Martin Shubik
The aim of this conference is to gather contributions on general
equilibrium, its spread and its uses since Walras. General equilibrium
is considered here as ‘knowledge’, i.e. as a combination of theoretical
references, technical standards and economic and social representations.
The goal of the conference is not to provide yet another history of
general equilibrium as a theoretical object. It is more about pointing
out the interpretative contexts and the technical instruments that
shaped, and still shape, the uses of general equilibrium within
‘theoretical and ‘applied’ economics as well as outside economics. The
conference should be of interest to social scientists working in the
history of economic thought, but also in the fields of applied
economics, science studies, history of applied mathematics, sociology,
social and political philosophy.
Contributors might wish to adopt one of the following viewpoints.
>From a first viewpoint, general equilibrium is of course a central
reference to economic theory. However, its coherence and meaning are
controversial topics. Be it the classical questions of existence, unity
and stability or its properties in terms of welfare, the theoretical
structure of general equilibrium and the analytical tools it is built
with are very important in appraising the various meanings and uses of
general equilibrium.
>From this point of view, Walras’s and Pareto’s respective models can be
usefully compared; the different types of axiomatic used should be
examined and the connections with game theory cannot be avoided if one
is to understand the logic of the construction and the different
interpretations of general equilibrium. Central issues such as the
various interpretations of tâtonnement, the historical spread of general
equilibrium and its popularization, or the meaning and consequences of
Sonnenschein, Mantel and Debreu results would be highly relevant to the
Conference topic. In this perspective, to revisit once more the
Socialist calculation debate and the links between welfare economics and
general equilibrium theory would also be welcome. These questions should
be tackled in such a way as to bring out the role of groups,
institutions and national traditions, without however neglecting
important contributors, such as Wald, von Neumann, Hicks, Samuelson,
Allais, Arrow, to name but a few.
>From a second viewpoint, general equilibrium is a reference in various
fields of economic research. At the core of macroeconomic model
building, general equilibrium is also central to various forms of
decision making analyses such as input-output analysis, linear
programming, national accounting, economic planning, and the whole
spectrum of applied general equilibrium models.
More precisely, general equilibrium is related to the social and
technical systems in which it is developed. One can mention for instance
the many developments of input-output techniques in relation to national
accounting systems; or the many uses of general equilibrium since the
Second World War, at the Cowles commission and within centrally planed
systems. The scientific committee would appreciate contributions
recounting the activity of such institutions and scientific networks.
More recent developments such as computable general equilibrium would
help understand better an apparently strictly instrumentalist use of
general equilibrium theory. In the same vein, and outside economic
theory, general equilibrium models are involved nowadays in fields such
as the analysis of climatic change; this may help discover other kinds
of uses of general equilibrium in decision-making and model building.
>From a third viewpoint, general equilibrium opens up to many
representations and concepts that either have been adopted by other
disciplines (the analysis of social equilibria) or have been implemented
through material and technical devices. All those devices can produce
results the proprieties of which are taken as extremely useful. They can
also be used in order to find out hidden properties of formal systems.
Thus, contributions to the conference might identify how general
equilibrium has been used in different types of technical or conceptual
applications.
For instance, during the 1930s and 1940s, concepts and tools borrowed
from general equilibrium have been at the core of numerous social
theories (/Harvard Pareto Circle/, plans of social reform). Similarly,
concepts borrowed from general equilibrium models have been embodied in
many technical devices. One may think of the Fisher machine, but also of
electronic networks and computation systems used either in economic
planning or in price fixing on the stock exchange.
All those suggestions are not exclusive and are given here with the sole
aim of being specific about the scope of the conference. Whatever the
topic, contributions to the conference ought to establish connections
between theoretical developments, interpretative debates and specific
uses of general equilibrium models. Thus, general equilibrium will stand
out as a contextualized knowledge.
The scientific committee invites proposals for individual papers, as
well as for entire sessions (3-4 speakers). The latter should include
proposals and synopses for each paper in the session, although the
committee reserves the right to determine which papers will be presented
in the session if accepted. Should a session be rejected, the committee
may incorporate one or more of the proposed papers into other panels.
Submissions should be mailed to [log in to unmask] Each author
should send his/her abstract (of at least 5000 signs) as an attached
document (PDF or RTF format) to an electronic mail containing the title
of the paper, his/her name, affiliation, postal and electronic addresses
and the fax number. The deadline for submission is February 1st , 2007.
A complete list of accepted contributions and a provisional programme
would be available on March 15th , 2007. A final draft of the papers
will be asked for the 31 August 2007.
_Scientific Committee_: Michel Armatte (EHESS), Roberto Baranzini
(Universite de Lausanne), Olav Bjerkholt (Universitetet i Oslo), Alban
Bouvier (Universite Aix-Marseille), Pascal Bridel (Universite de
Lausanne), Annie Cot (Universite Paris 1 Pantheon-Sorbonne), Amy
Dahan-Dalmedico (EHESS), Michel De Vroey (Universite catholique de
Louvain), Arnaud Diemer (Universite d'Auvergne), Pierre Dockes
(Universite Louis Lumière Lyon 2), Jean-Pierre Dupuy (Stanford
University), François Etner (Universite Paris Dauphine), Francois Gardes
(Universite Paris 1 Pantheon-Sorbonne), Marion Gaspard (Universite Louis
Lumière Lyon 2), Gaël Giraud (Universite Paris 1 Pantheon-Sorbonne), D.
Wade Hands (Puget Sound University), Giorgio Israel (Universita La
Sapienza, Roma), Michael Jerison (University at Albany, State University
of New-York), Jerome Lallement (Universite Rene Descartes Paris 5),
Robert J. Leonard (UQAM), Jean-Sebastien Lenfant (Universite de la
Reunion), Fabian Muniesa (Ecole des Mines de Paris), Katheline Schubert
(Universite Paris 1 Pantheon-Sorbonne), Donald Walker (University of
Indiana), E. Roy Weintraub (Duke University)
_Local organizing committee_: Amanar Akhabbar, Roberto Baranzini, Annie
L. Cot, Marion Gaspard, Jerome Lallement, Jean-Sebastien Lenfant, Fabian
Muniesa, Jean-Baptiste Tun.
Information on the conference can be found at
http://ge2007.univ-paris1.fr <http://ge2007.univ-paris1.fr/>. For any
additional information, please send your request to [log in to unmask]
Jean-Sébastien Lenfant
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