Father Potron's Early Contributions to Input-Output Analysis

Gilbert Abraham-Frois and Emeric Lendjel

Economic Systems Research, 2006, vol. 18, issue 4, 357-372

Abstract: This article introduces an unknown predecessor of Leontief who, at the very beginning of the last century, invented the idea of an input-output table as the basis for finding an economic equilibrium. He gave examples of 'technical coefficients', formulated the idea of a computing office, and was the first to apply Perron-Frobenius's theorems to such Leontief-type models in order to demonstrate the possibility of the existence of an economic equilibrium. As a Jesuit, Potron was largely influenced by the 'social doctrine of justice'. Consequently, he was mainly concerned with social justice and economic efficiency, problems of 'fairness', and the setting of 'fair prices' and 'fair wages'. As a graduate of the Ecole Polytechnique with a PhD in mathematics, he applied mathematics to economic analysis, without any training or knowledge of economic methods.

Keywords: Potron; input-output analysis; Perron-Frobenius theorem; Thomism (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2006
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/09535310601020918 (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:taf:ecsysr:v:18:y:2006:i:4:p:357-372

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.tandfonline.com/pricing/journal/CESR20

DOI: 10.1080/09535310601020918

Access Statistics for this article

Economic Systems Research is currently edited by Bart Los and Manfred Lenzen

More articles in Economic Systems Research from Taylor & Francis Journals
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Chris Longhurst ().