Profile Major Works Resources

Edmond Malinvaud, 1923-2015

Portrait of E. Malinvaud


French general equilibrium and general disequilibrium theorist and econometrician.

Originating from Limoges, France, Edmond Malinvaud studied at  École polytechnique in Paris. After a brief interruption during the war, Malinvaud joined the fledgling French national statistics and economics institute (INSEE) in 1946, completing his education in economics at its attached school (now the  École Nationale de la Statistique et de l'Administration Economique, ENSAE)..  Malinvaud was, together with Debreu, a student of France's greatest Walrasian economist, Maurice Allais.  On Allais's recommendation, Malinvaud went with a Rockefeller fellowship to join the the  Cowles Commission in the United States in 1950-51. 

Malinvaud returned to the INSEE thereafter, but the Cowles experience propelled Malinvaud work in many directions both in economics and econometrics.  Malinvaud's famous article, "Capital Accumulation and the Efficient Allocation of Resources" (1953), incorporated an intertemporal theory of capital into a very natural place in Walrasian general equilibrium theory and helped resolve the old capital theory conflict between Knight and Hayek (and, in part, kept G.E. immune from the later Cambridge Capital Controversy), as well as introducing the concept of dynamic efficiency.

He also worked on uncertainty theory, notably the theory of "first order certainty equivalence" (1969) and the relationship between individual risks and social risks (1972, 1973).   His 1971 microeconomics textbook and his Cowles-inspired econometrics textbook, Statistical Methods in Econometrics (1964) have since become classics.

Malinvaud's main contribution to macroeconomics is represented in his slim 1977 book, Theory of Unemployment Reconsidered which provided a clear and unified reconstruction of the dynamic "disequilibrium" macro theory of Clower, Leijonhufvud and the European "Non-Walrasian" theory - that is, general equilibrium theory with disequilibruim features.  Malinvaud's influence on the subsequent generation of French economists has been profound.

With a few interruptions, Malinvaud has worked at the Institut National de la Statistique et des Etudes Economiques (INSEE) in Paris, France since 1946, and been its director since 1974.  He was also chair of economic analysis at Collège de France from 1984 to 1993.

 

  

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Major works of Edmond Malinvaud

  • "Note on von Neumann-Morgenstern's Strong Independence Axiom", 1952, Econometrica.
  • "Capital Accumulation and the Efficient Allocation of Resources", 1953, Econometrica [cwlsl]
  • "Aggregation Problems in Input-Output Models", 1954, in Barna, editor, Structural Interdependence of the Economy
  • Initiation a la comptabilite nationale, 1957
  • Méthodes Statistiques de l'Éonométrie, 1964 [English 1966 trans. Statistical Methods in Econometrics]
  • "Croissances Optimales dans un Modele Macroéconomique", 1965, PASSV.
  • "Les Croissances Optimales", 1965, Cahiers du Seminaire d'Econometrie.
  • "Decentralized Procedures for Planning", 1967, in Malinvaud and Bacharach, editors, Activity Analysis of Growth and Planning
  • "Decisions en face de l'aleatoire et situation certaine approximativement equivalente", 1969, Cahiers du Seminaire de las Societe d'Econometrie
  • "First Order Certainty Equivalence", 1969, Econometrica
  • Leçons de Théorie Microéconomique, 1969
  • "The Consistency of Non-linear regression", 1970, AMS
  • "Procedures pour la Determination d'un Programme de Consommation Collective", 1971, European ER.
  • "A Planning Approach to the Public Goods Problem", 1971, Swedish JE.
  • Lectures on Microeconomic Theory, 1972. (English trans. of 1969)
  • "The Allocation of Individual Risks in Large Markets", 1972, JET
  • "Prices for Individual Consumption, Quantity Indicators for Collective Consumption", 1972, RES
  • La croissance francaise, with J.J. carre and P. Dubois, 1972.
  • "Market for an Exchange Economy with Individual Risks", 1973,  Econometrica
  • "The Allocation of Individual Risks in Large Markets", 1974, in Dreze, editor, Allocation Under Uncertainty.
  • Theory of Unemployment Reconsidered, 1977. [Réexamen de la théorie du chômage]
  • "Une Nouvelle Formulation Generale Pour l'Etude de Certains Fondements Microeconomiques de la Macroeconomie", with Y.Younes, 1977, Cahiers du Seminaire d'Econometrie.
  • "Some New Concepts for the Microeconomic Foundations of Macroeconomics" with Y.Younes, 1977, in Harcourt, editor, Microeconomic Foundations of Macroeconomics.
  • "Macroeconomic Rationing of Employment", 1980, in Malinvaud and Fitoussi, editors, Unemployment in Western Countries.
  • Profitability and Unemployment, 1980.
  • Théorie Macroéconomique, 2 volumes, 1981- 2.
  • Essais sur la théorie du chômage, 1983
  • Mass Unemployment, 1984
  • "Reflecting on the Theory of Capital and Growth", 1986, Oxford EP
  • "The Challenge of Macroeconomic Understanding", 1987, BNLQR.
  • Voies de la recherche macroéconomique, 1991
  • Equilibre général dans les économies de marché, 1993.

 

HET

 

 
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Resources on E. Malinvaud

  • Malinvaud homeage at INSEE
  • Malinvaud obituary in Le Monde
  • "Edmond Malinvaud: A tribute to his contributions in econometrics", by Peter C.B. Phillips, 2015 [pdf]
  • "Interview with Malinvaud" by Alan Kreuger, 2003, J of Econ Perspectives [pdf]
  • "The ET interview with Malinvaud", by Alberto Holly and Peter Phillips, 1987, Econometric Theory [pdf]
  • "In Memory of Edmond Malinvaud", by Roger Guesnerie, online at Paris School of Economics
  • "Edmond Malinvaud" by Magdalena Primarova (pdf)
  • Wikipedia

 

 
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