This article outlines the present state of the debate on quantitative history in France. J.-L. Robert observes a transformation of "classic" approaches to social and economic history as a result of new statistical tools, now available to historians. He advocates a careful methodological assessment of these techniques of research and discusses in detail problems like the stability of indicators over time, the application of sampling-techniques, and the limits of quantification in history.
The quantitative approach in the comparison of economic systems. The author begins by discussing the various methodological difficulties involved in making statistical comparisons between socialist economies of the Soviet type (STE) and capitalist economies (CE). The accent is on Western studies which aim at recalculating STE aggregates in terms of the system of Western national accounting (A. Bergson). While the rate of growth in the Soviet Union and the other STE was very rapid up until the beginning of the 1960's, and slightly less so until the beginning of the 1970's, it has since then shown no advance on that of the CE. But if one compares production and the volume of productive resources used (labour, capital, raw materials), the growth of "productivity" was less rapid in the STE then in the CE, during the period from 1960 to 1980. Another important lesson to be learned from the quantitative approach is that the gap in per capita consumption between the two systems widened during the same period, to the disadvantage of the STE. Two theories are put forward to explain the observed phenomena. According to the first, the differences between the two systems are the result of a disparity in their development : more exactly, the initial backwardness of the STE still persists, or may even be increasing. However, a comparative analysis of the intersectoral structure of the STE and the CE would lead one to reject this argument. The second theory suggests that the lack of efficiency in the use of productive resources in the STE is due to the methods by which they are allocated, and to the nature of communications between enterprises and the organizations whose job it is to supervise them.
This paper evaluates the implications of imperfect competition for macroeconomics. The paper is organized around three sources of shocks : technology, government spending and money. For each, we summarize existing theories and present quantitative evidence on the effects of imperfect competition.
Comment les langues d'origine se transmettent d'une génération à l'autre au sein des familles issues de l'immigration ? L'enquête Famille réalisée en 1999 par l'Ined et l'Insee permet, pour la première fois et pour tout le XXe siècle, de quantifier les déterminants de l'intégration linguistique en France. Elle montre notamment qu'il n'existe pas de population dont la résistance serait par nature plus ou moins grande. Le taux de transmission des langues d'origine dépend, principalement, de l'ancienneté de la migration et de l'"esprit de retour" qui anime le migrant.
Cet article présente une revue de littérature traitant de l'innovation inverse. Il met l'accent sur sa définition, ses implications pour l'internationalisation de la recherche-développement et ses enjeux stratégiques pour le management de l'innovation globale. Le poids de la faible croissance comme déterminant non négligeable est aussi envisagé. On propose une méthodologie basée sur le recours aux citations de brevets pour apprécier l'échelle et la variété des innovations inverses. En prenant le cas des brevets de l'Inde, on montre l'existence de deux schémas de l'innovation inverse : 1) celui initié par une firme du Sud (des entreprises de pharmacie en Inde) ; 2) celui porté par des firmes multinationales présentes dans le Sud (les leaders des technologies électronique et informatique implantés en Inde).
Thierry Deffarges — The cocaine economy : Elements of a quantitative and qualitative analysis. The cocaine economy is subject to imperfect and incomplete information due to its illegal nature. Besides, analyses of interactions between production and consumption are missing. The purpose of this article is thus methodological, empirical and theoretical. From a purely deductive method, the author seeks to assess the importance of cocaine supply and demand.
