Retour sur le Plan

Jean-Pierre Laffargue and Pierre Morin

Revue française d'économie, 2022, vol. Volume XXXVII, issue 3, 185-233

Abstract: The purpose of this paper is to recall what the Plan has tried to bring since 1945, over the 40 years that followed, to economic policies, especially structural policies, by emphasizing its economic reflection and its methodological contributions. We start with a four-point presentation by Pierre Massé: a similarity with the practices of several Western economies; the bringing together of all parties for joint decisions; the construction of a community of interests that goes beyond the usual divisions; and the contributions to the setting of prices at their equilibrium value. It is this last point, which has left the fewest traces in the collective memory, that we will attempt to highlight here, by recalling the work that, derived from the so-called neoclassical theories of equilibrium and optimum, contributed, in the Plan and in its sphere of influence, to disciplining the growth of the French economy. After a review of the planning theories of the time, the article examines the questions of optimal growth and the associated cost of capital, followed by the question of stabilization policies in response to random shocks, and finally the question of taking macroeconomic imbalances into account in the evaluation of public policies. The Plan was a framework adapted to the French society of the time, allowing it to make certain decisions by overcoming its divisions. The talent and, as Jacques Lesourne points out, the personal qualities of many contributed greatly to this.

Date: 2022
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