----------------- HES POSTING ----------------- One other contribution that Allais made, although it was during the period that Buchanan would have seen him as having produced something, was the invention/ discovery of the overlapping generations model. He did this in his 1947 book, Economie et Interet, published in Paris by Imprimerie National. I don't think this book has ever been translated into English. Of course, it was Samuelson's independent discovery in 1958 of this model that set off the wave of such theorizing in the English language literature. Allais' work on this is rarely cited. It is my perception that Samuelson's paper on this is probably one of his papers that is still cited at a very high rate, given the wide prevalence of OLG models. BTW, I find Buchanan's wisecrack a bit odd. I know that when people go up for promotion it is often asked if they have an ongoing research program. But, I was unaware that this was a requirement for receiving a Nobel Prize. Indeed, especially in the early years of the Nobel, there were quite a few elderly recipients whose prize winning work was some time in the past with their more recent activity at a much reduced level. I also understand that Allais has expressed support for the recent "anti-autism" protest in France. Certainly in France there is an extreme tradition of "Bourbakism" that emphasizes formal proof over all other approaches. Debreu is a leading product of that tradition that emphasizes that approach. One can see it as an extension of the more general Cartesian rationalism tradition in France that also led to a belief in social engineering as expressed by Saint Simon, as well as the dirigiste tradition in economic policymaking. Barkley Rosser ------------ FOOTER TO HES POSTING ------------ For information, send the message "info HES" to [log in to unmask]