Edmond Malinvaud 101: How He Influenced Economics?

Edmond Malinvaud, born on April 25, 1923, was one of the leading economists of the 20th century. He served as the first president of the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences and authored many important works throughout his life. He passed away on March 7, 2015, but his contributions to the field of economics are still being debated today. If you want to learn more about his life, you can check out the subheadings in this Zatrun.com article.

Who is Edmond Malinvaud?

French economist Edmond Malinvaud completed his education at the “École Polytechnique” and “École Nationale de la Statistique et de l’Administration Économique” in Paris. At one point during his education, he was a student of Nobel Prize-winning economist Maurice Allais. After completing his education, he left France in 1950 to join the Cowles Commission in the United States.

During his time at the Cowles Commission, he made successful contributions in various areas. His famous article “Capital Accumulation and the Efficient Allocation of Resources” (1953) introduced the concept of dynamic efficiency by providing an intertemporal theory of capital for general equilibrium theory.

Throughout his career, Malinvaud held many important positions. He served as the director of ENSAE from 1962 to 1966. He worked as the director of the forecasting department at the French Treasury from 1972 to 1974. Later, he served as the director of INSEE from 1974 to 1987 and as a professor at the Collège de France from 1988 to 1993.

His Academic Contributions

In addition to his work on intertemporal capital theory, Edmond Malinvaud became known for his studies on economic uncertainty theory. His “first order certainty equivalence” theory published in 1969 and his work on individual and social risk relationship in 1972 and 1973 hold an important place in economics. His microeconomics textbook “Lectures in Microeconomic Theory” and econometrics textbook “Statistical Methods in Econometrics” are still taught in universities today.

Malinvaud’s main contribution to macroeconomics can be found in his 1977 book “Theory of Unemployment Reconsidered.” This book presents a clear and unified restructuring of dynamic “disequilibrium” macroeconomics. His theory had a profound impact on the subsequent generation of European economists.