Statistical Sources in France before World War I

Claude Diebolt ()
Additional contact information
Claude Diebolt: BETA - Bureau d'Économie Théorique et Appliquée - INRA - Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique - UNISTRA - Université de Strasbourg - UL - Université de Lorraine - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique

Post-Print from HAL

Abstract: Today, quantitative data are doubtless quite rightly occupying an increasingly large position in economic history. We are no longer in the period of vague descriptions and collections of isolated facts that did not lead to any valid explanation. The influence of economists involved historians in the handling of figures, essential measures for those who wish to understand structures and detect movements. It is nonetheless true that there are serious differences between the approach of economists and that of historians. Economists apply reasoning to practically only the present time or to a relatively short period. Their models and patterns are difficult to apply to periods when the structures were markedly different. They also use regular statistical series covering a considerable number of facts, and above all series that may not be perfect (perfection is illusory here) but provide serious guarantees. Historians are less privileged. They dissect economic systems that are very different to our own and whose structures have not yet been closely studied. They possess only sparse statistics whose reliability seems extremely doubtful. Economists are not usually faced with the problems of source and critique that are the daily lot of historians. This article is aimed less at providing complete results than stimulating certain research on detail. Our statistical knowledge and our knowledge of statistical data are still too fragmentary and imperfect for it to be possible to envisagean absolutely definitive overall study. The reader will find here only the components of a general problematic.

Keywords: Historiography; Statistics; Historical development; France; Economic statistics; Data capture (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2005
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Published in Historical Social Research / Historische Sozialforschung, 2005, 30 (4), pp.249-258. ⟨10.12759/hsr.30.2005.4.249-258⟩

There are no downloads for this item, see the EconPapers FAQ for hints about obtaining it.

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:hal:journl:hal-00278693

DOI: 10.12759/hsr.30.2005.4.249-258

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Post-Print from HAL
Bibliographic data for series maintained by CCSD ().