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on Business, Economic and Financial History |
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Issue of 2011‒11‒28
24 papers chosen by |
| By: | Batiz-Lazo, Bernardo; Haigh, Thomas; stearns, David L. |
| Abstract: | This paper invites readers to look into how beliefs about future events help to better understand organizational change. Our argument is that the adoption of information technology and the adoption of new organizational forms around it have been driven by shifts in collective ideas of legitimate organizational development. As an example we focus on the establishment during the 1960s of a vision within US retail financial services, namely of the “cashless/checkless society”. The article tells of the power of this “imaginaire” to bring consensus in driving actual technological developments. |
| Keywords: | imaginaires; expectations; isomorphism; cashless society; payment systems; USA |
| JEL: | N82 E42 N22 |
| Date: | 2011–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:34846&r=his |
| By: | Didier Bensadon (DRM - Dauphine Recherches en Management - CNRS : UMR7088 - Université Paris Dauphine - Paris IX) |
| Abstract: | The aim of this paper is to shed light on the role of legislators and lawyers in establishing accounting regulations concerning corporate groups in France during the 1930s and the Occupation (1940 - 1944). A review of bills proposing accounting regulation shows that no significant progress was to be achieved. Furthermore, while some lawyers called for a comprehensive regulation of corporate groups, no such progress was made during the inter-war period. Ultimately it's the Vichy government which introduced the first regulations on accounting subsidiaries in the French Plan Comptable and limited the reciprocal shareholdings in the Act of March 4, 1943. |
| Keywords: | Accounting history, corporate groups, accounting regulation, inter war period, Occupation period, France |
| Date: | 2011–09–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:halshs-00640504&r=his |
| By: | Ilgmann, Cordelius |
| Abstract: | Corporate limited liability has a long and contentious history, stretching back to the mid-19th century and beyond. Initially being hailed as one of the decisive legal invention of our age, recently scholars have highlighted the negative effects of curtailing liability. This in turn has inspired research in the historical origins of liability. While the debate on the adoption of limited liability for joint stock companies in Britain and the United States in the 19th century is comparatively well documented, little is known about the contemporary German debate. Thus, this paper aims to shed light on the debate within the Prussian Government which surrounded the Stock Corporation Act of 1843. Drawing on primary sources of the debate within the Prussian administration in the course of the legislative process, it tries to examine whether limited liability was indeed seen as a prerequisite for the existence of joint-stock companies as its supporters claim. I find that in line with British and American experience limited liability was not universally seen as a necessary condition for incorporated joint-stock companies. In fact, the course of the debate suggests that limited liability was finally introduced because the administration wrongly assumed that joint stock companies always comprised a large number of shareholders with little equity each, being obviously unaware of the possibility of joint stock companies being dominated by large shareholders and institutional investors. Moreover, limited liability for shareholders was regarded as being similar to that of passive sleeping partners, a justification that seems problematic in the light of today's virtually all powerful institutional investors. -- |
| Date: | 2011 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:cawmdp:46&r=his |
| By: | Orley C. Ashenfelter |
| Abstract: | In this essay I review Sylvia Nasar’s long awaited new history of economics, Grand Pursuit. I describe how the book is really an economic history of the period from 1850-1950, with distinguished economists’ stories inserted in appropriate places. Nasar’s goal is to show how economists work, but also to show that they are people too--with more than enough warts and foibles to show they are human! I contrast the general view of the role of economics in Grand Pursuit with Robert Heilbroner’s remarkably different conception in The Worldly Philosophers. I also discuss more generally the question of why economists might be interested in their history at all. |
| JEL: | A11 B20 |
| Date: | 2011–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:17607&r=his |
| By: | Prowse, Martin |
| Abstract: | During the past century tobacco production and marketing in Nyasaland/Malawi has undergone periods of dynamism similar to changes since the early 1990s. This article highlights four recurrent patterns. First, estate owners have either fostered or constrained peasant/smallholder production dependent on complementarities or competition with their estates. Second, rapid expansion of peasant/smallholder production has led to three recurrent outcomes: a large multiplier effect in tobacco-rich districts; re-regulation of the marketing of peasant/smallholder tobacco by the (colonial) state; and, lastly, concerns over the supply of food crops. The article concludes by arguing that whilst the reform of burley tobacco production and marketing in the 1990s engaged with the first two issues, it may have benefitted from paying greater attention to the latter two issues as well. |
| Date: | 2011–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iob:wpaper:2011010&r=his |
| By: | Didier Bensadon (DRM - Dauphine Recherches en Management - CNRS : UMR7088 - Université Paris Dauphine - Paris IX) |
| Abstract: | The expansion of groups of companies during the inter-war years is one of the most profound transformations in the structure of French capitalism. Studies in economic history have shown the importance of the subsidiary creation phenomenon in relation to Compagnie Générale d'Electricité, Energie industrielle or Schneider . By contrast, these studies are less interested in the specific arrangements for auditing subsidiaries and managing Company Groups. This article seeks to show how and why the directors of Alais, Froges et Camargue - The largest French company in the aluminum sector- established specific audit measures from the 1920s onwards. This research is essentially based on the company's archives (annual reports, general organisation chart and memoranda from the general secretariat). Even if the results published in the annual reports should be treated with the utmost caution, in particular owing to the absence of accounting regulation in France in the inter-war years, they remain essential for assessing the important position of subsidiaries and main shareholdings in assets. The scope of the subsidiary creation phenomenon, which is behind the establishment of specific controls, is highlighted. This trend, far from being linear, is strongly influenced by the economic and political situation. The size of the Group's growth gave rise to two types of requirements for the directors of Alais, Froges et Camargue, namely to audit the subsidiaries and to measure the group's net cash flow. The response to the need for auditing the subsidiaries was provided by the introduction of financial reporting from 1921. Faced with the increasing number of subsidiaries and main shareholdings held by Alais, Froges et Camargue, this control mechanism was to be strengthened in 1931. Furthermore, the necessity of measuring the Group's net cash flow led the directors in 1927 to draw up a financial statement whose conceptual foundations were based on those of the consolidation of accounts |
| Keywords: | financial reporting, accounting history, group accounts, French aluminium industry, shareholdings. |
| Date: | 2011–11–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:halshs-00640503&r=his |
| By: | A'Hearn, Brian; Venables, Anthony J. |
| Abstract: | This paper explores the interactions between external trade and regional disparities in the Italian economy since unification. It argues that the advantage of the North was initially based on natural advantage (in particular the endowment of water, intensive in silk production). From 1880 onwards the share of exports in GDP stagnated and then declined; domestic market access therefore became a key determinant of industrial location, inducing fast growing new sectors (especially engineering) to locate in regions with a large domestic market, i.e. in the North. From 1945 onwards trade growth and European integration meant that foreign market access was the decisive factor; the North had the advantage of proximity to these markets. |
| Keywords: | geographic concentration; industrialisation; Italian regions; market integration; new economic geography |
| JEL: | F14 F15 N63 N64 N93 N94 R11 R12 |
| Date: | 2011–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:8655&r=his |
| By: | Brian A'Hearn; Anthony J. Venables |
| Abstract: | This paper explores the interactions between external trade and regional disparities in the Italian economy since unification. It argues that the advantage of the North was initially based on natural advantage (in particular the endowment of water, intensive in silk production). From 1880 onwards the share of exports in GDP stagnated and then declined; domestic market access therefore became a key determinant of industrial location, inducing fast growing new sectors (especially engineering) to locate in regions with a large domestic market, i.e. in the North. From 1945 onwards trade growth and European integration meant that foreign market access was the decisive factor; the North had the advantage of proximity to these markets. |
| Keywords: | Industrialisation, Market integration, New economic geography, Geographic concentration, Italian regions |
| Date: | 2011 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:oxf:wpaper:578&r=his |
| By: | Douglas A. Irwin (Dept of Economics, Dartmouth College, Hanover, USA); Kevin H. O'Rourke (All Souls College, University of Oxford, Oxford.) |
| Abstract: | This paper provides a historical look at how the multilateral trading system has coped with the challenge of shocks and shifts. By shocks we mean sudden jolts to the world economy in the form of financial crises and deep recessions, or wars and political conflicts. By shifts we mean slow-moving, long-term changes in comparative advantage or shifts in the geopolitical equilibrium that force economies to undergo disruptive and potentially painful adjustments. We conclude that most shocks (financial crises and regional wars) have had relatively little effect on the trade policy, but that shifts pose a greater challenge to the system of open, multilateral trade. |
| Keywords: | Trade, Multilateralism, History |
| JEL: | F02 F53 N70 |
| Date: | 2011–11–14 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nuf:esohwp:_092&r=his |
| By: | van Suntum, Ulrich; Böhm, Tobias; Oelgemöller, Jens; Ilgmann, Cordelius |
| Abstract: | Walter Eucken was the head of the Freiburg school of economics, a circle of German ordoliberal scholars of the interwar period, whose thoughts were highly influential in the immediate post war period. Being disillusioned by what he called the age of experiments- the failure of both classical liberalism and socialism - he formulated eleven principles for what he called a market economy, in which competition would not only limit the extent of private economic power, but also lead to an efficient allocation of resources and hence to economic prosperity. Although the principles never received much international attention, in light of recent economic research on both institutions and welfare economics, the essence of Eucken's work appears to be very modern indeed. This paper highlights these parallels and proposes a reformulation of Eucken's principles against the background of modern economic theory. We thus attempt to make a contribution to the current debate on the efficient design of those institutions that shape economic activity. -- |
| Date: | 2011 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:cawmdp:49&r=his |
| By: | Denis Cogneau (Paris School of Economics); Alexander Moradi (Department of Economics, University of Sussex) |
| Abstract: | When European powers partitioned Africa, individuals of otherwise homogeneous communities were divided and found themselves randomly assigned to one coloniser. This provides for a natural experiment: applying a border discontinuity analysis to Ghana and Togo, we test what impact coloniser’s policies really made. Using a new data set of men recruited to the Ghana colonial army 1908-1955, we find literacy and religious beliefs to diverge between British and French mandated part of Togoland as early as in the 1920s. We attribute this to the different policies towards missionary schools. The British administration pursued a ”grant-in-aid” policy of missionary schools, whereas the French restricted missionary activities. The divergence is only visible in the Southern part. In the North, as well as at the border between Ghana and Burkina Faso (former French Upper Volta), educational and evangelization efforts were weak on both sides and hence, did not produce any marked differences. Using contemporary survey data we find that border effects originated at colonial times still persist today. |
| Keywords: | Economic History, Africa, Colonization, Education. |
| JEL: | O12 R12 P52 |
| Date: | 2011–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sus:susewp:2911&r=his |
| By: | Douglas A. Irwin |
| Abstract: | The intellectual response to the Great Depression is often portrayed as a battle between the ideas of Friedrich Hayek and John Maynard Keynes. Yet both the Austrian and the Keynesian interpretations of the Depression were incomplete. Austrians could explain how a country might get into a depression (bust following an investment boom) but not how to get out of one (liquidation). Keynesians could explain how a country might get out of a depression (government spending on public works) but not how it got into one (animal spirits). By contrast, the monetary approach of economists such as Gustav Cassel has been ignored. As early as 1920, Cassel warned that mismanagement of the gold standard could lead to a severe depression. Cassel not only explained how this could occur, but his explanation anticipates the way that scholars today describe how the Great Depression actually occurred. Unlike Keynes or Hayek, Cassel explained both how a country could get into a depression (deflation due to tight monetary policies) and how it could get out of one (monetary expansion). |
| JEL: | E5 N1 |
| Date: | 2011–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:17597&r=his |
| By: | Sok Chul Hong (Department of Economics, Sogang University, Seoul) |
| Abstract: | The effect of early-life exposure to malaria on disability and work level in old age has been rarely studied. This study investigates this less explored question over the past one and a half century. First, using longitudinal lifetime records of Union Army veterans, I estimate that exposure to a malarial environment in early life (c.1840) substantially increased the likelihood of having various chronic diseases and not working in old age (c.1900). Second, from data on US cohorts born between 1891 and 1965, I find that those exposed to a higher level of the antimalaria campaign, which began in 1920, suffered less from work disability in old age than otherwise. This effect was substantial among cohorts born in high-risk malaria counties. Third, I seek the same implications for the modern period by linking World Health Organization¡¯s country statistics on disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) among older populations in 2004 to country-level malaria risk in 1946. In the paper, I discuss possible mechanisms and propose the significance of malaria eradication and early-life conditions from a longer-term perspective. |
| Keywords: | Early-Life Exposure to Malaria, Chronic Disease, Work Disability, DALYs, Aging, Malaria Eradication, Anti-Malaria Campaign, Cohort Study, Cross-Country Study |
| JEL: | I12 I18 J14 O15 |
| Date: | 2011–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sgo:wpaper:1110&r=his |
| By: | Mendelski, Martin; Libman, Alexander |
| Abstract: | The paper examines the interdependence of historical legacies and current contextual factors as determinants of economic and political performance. It shows that behavioral patterns based on identical legacies could lead to very different (if not the opposite) results in regions with different contextual socioeconomic characteristics. Specifically, the paper compares the demand for litigation as an important aspect of judicial performance in two different historical and cultural regions of Romania, which have been in the past under indirect Ottoman rule and part of the Habsburg Empire respectively. Although Romania is currently a centralized state with common judicial system, both parts of the country inherited substantially different legacies from the history. We find that while in rich regions Habsburg legacy leads to higher demand for litigation than the Ottoman, in poor regions the situation is reversed. The results remain robust for various specifications, controls and estimation techniques. -- |
| Keywords: | historical legacies,judicial performance,contextual factors,demand for litigation,Habsburg legacy,Ottoman legacy |
| JEL: | K41 K42 N44 O17 P26 |
| Date: | 2011 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:fsfmwp:175&r=his |
| By: | Sung-Ha Hwang (Department of Economics, Sogang University, Seoul) |
| Abstract: | This paper studies how the technology of military con ict aects the allocation of resources in military spending (\guns") and productive investment (\butter"). We rst identify the fundamental property of con ict technology which the two commonly used contest success functions, the dierence and ratio forms, share. Using this property, named the constant elasticity of augmentation, we construct a new class of contest success functions, hence generalizing the two forms. We provide axiomatic and probabilistic characterizations of the new contest success function. Then, adopting the new contest success function, we study how the elasticity of augmentation aects the trade-o between guns and butter, and countries' international policy to settle or wage a war. Finally, we estimate the elasticity of augmentation using actual battle data including seventeenth-century European battles and World War II battles and explore the implications of the estimated parameters of military technology on military spending and the preference of settlement. |
| Keywords: | Military Con ict; Technology of Con ict, Military Spending, Wars, Contest Success Functions. |
| Date: | 2011 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sgo:wpaper:1117&r=his |
| By: | Douglas A. Irwin; Kevin H. O'Rourke |
| Abstract: | This paper provides a historical look at how the multilateral trading system has coped with the challenge of shocks and shifts. By shocks we mean sudden jolts to the world economy in the form of financial crises and deep recessions, or wars and political conflicts. By shifts we mean slow-moving, long-term changes in comparative advantage or shifts in the geopolitical equilibrium that force economies to undergo disruptive and potentially painful adjustments. We conclude that most shocks (financial crises and regional wars) have had relatively little effect on trade policy, but that shifts pose a greater challenge to the system of open, multilateral trade. |
| JEL: | F02 F13 |
| Date: | 2011–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:17598&r=his |
| By: | James R. Lothian (Fordham University); John Devereux (Queens College, CUNY) |
| Abstract: | This paper examines exchange-rate and price-level data for the long period 1590-2009 for the Netherlands and the United Kingdom (earlier the Dutch Republic and England), countries that at various times over this near four century span have differed substantially in terms of the pace at which their economies were developing, have operated under a variety of exchange rate regimes, and have been subjected to an extremely wide variety of real shocks. The principal conclusion of this study is the resiliency of the simple purchasing-power-parity model and of the law of one price at the microeconomic level. Both take some heavy blows during this close to four-century long sample period. In the end, however, they emerge surprisingly unscathed. Real factors at times appear to have had substantial effects on real exchange rates and hence PPP, but such effects ultimately dissipate. As a long-run equilibrium condition, PPP holds up remarkably well. |
| Date: | 2011–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bog:wpaper:135&r=his |
| By: | Géraldine David; Kim Oosterlinck |
| Abstract: | During World War II, the art market experienced a massive boom in occupied countries. The discretion, the inflation proof character, the absence of market intervention and the possibility to resell artworks abroad have been suggested to explain why investing in artworks was one of the most interesting opportunities under the German boot. On basis of an original database of close to 4000 artworks sold between 1944 and 1951 at Giroux, one of the most important Art Gallery in Brussels, this paper analyzes, the price movements on the Belgian art market following the liberation. Market reactions following the war are used to understand which motivations played the most important role in investors’ decisions. Prices on the art market experienced a massive drop. This huge price decline is attributed to two elements: fear of prosecution for war profits and the monetary reforms set into place in October 1944. |
| Keywords: | Art market; Art Investment; WWII; Belgium; Post-war; Monetary reforms |
| JEL: | N14 N44 Z11 |
| Date: | 2011–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sol:wpaper:2013/103479&r=his |
| By: | Javier Santacruz Cano (Facultad de Ciencias Económicas y Empresariales. Universidad Complutense de Madrid.) |
| Abstract: | Historia de las Cajas de Ahorros y situación actual: un estudio de la realidad econó-mica y financiera es un estudio que se concentra en el análisis y la descripción porme-norizada y exhaustiva, de las Instituciones Financieras que suponen, tanto en créditos como en depósitos, más de la mitad del sistema financiero español. Como bien reza en el título, es un estudio de la realidad económica y financiera de España desde la óptica de la Teoría y el Análisis Económico aplicado al campo de la Historia como fuente de conocimiento y experiencia que cualquier individuo no debe ol-vidar; y con un objetivo predictivo y esclarecedor del futuro a corto y medio plazo. En suma, el interés y la actualidad de la cuestión de las Cajas de Ahorros realza y da valor a las investigaciones y estudios que los economistas, durante años, han rea-lizado en aras de aumentar el saber y el conocimiento sobre el sistema y mercados financieros y la importancia que éstos tienen en la creación de valor de la economía. Por ello, este trabajo no deja de ser una pequeña aportación en ese sentido. |
| Keywords: | Cajas de Ahorros, Institución, Banco de España, crédito, Sistema Financiero, Obra Social, Reforma, Privatización, Gestión, Propiedad y reestructuración. |
| Date: | 2011 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ucm:doctra:11-01&r=his |
| By: | Vieru, Elena Bianca |
| Abstract: | Approaching the theory of economic cycle is not an issue that comes in hand! We are permitted to make such a statement based on the idea that explanations concerning the business cycle theory are strictly related to how each school of thought was able to understand the system that makes market, with its habitual basic functions, operate; how was the idea of equilibrium understood and, last but not least, which is the role of the state in this entire „story”. Although some of the doctrines tend to insist on a particular factor, considered to be the most important one and also the one that is responsable for triggering the economic crisis, in fact we can talk about a consistent number of factors that include some worth mentioning like monetary expansion, state interventionism, excessive regulation, lack of regulation, low level of consumption, various changes in consumer preferences and so on. The serious problems that economy had to face during the years rise, therefore, many questions that require a thorough and consistent analysis. The limited space that we have at our disposal determines this essay to be considered only a „superficial” investigation of how the economic cycle can be addressed, from various points of view. Throughout this paper we will make a brief doctrinaire promenade starting with the monetary theory, reaching the Keynesian doctrine and finishing with the point of maximum interest, the Austrian School. Exhaustively passing through the theories mentioned above, along with their fundamental ideas about the phenomenon of economic cycles, does not represent the basis for the current paper. The specialized literature has no shortage of such work. The purpose of this research, as we will try to highlight, is to present the main differences that can be noticed between the ideologies that built, over time, their way into the history of economic thought. We are particularly interested in the problem of business cycle and the recurrence of crises. |
| Keywords: | Crisis; business cycle; Austrian School; Keynesian; Monetarist |
| JEL: | E32 E12 E50 B53 A11 |
| Date: | 2011–11–20 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:34124&r=his |
| By: | Ilgmann, Cordelius; Menner, Martin |
| Abstract: | Given the renewed interest in negative interest rates as a means for overcoming the zero bound on nominal interest rates, this article reviews the history of negative nominal interest rates and gives a brief survey over the current proposals that received popular attention in the wake of the financial crisis of 2007/08. It is demonstrated that taxing money proposals have a long intellectual history and that instead of being the conjecture of a monetary crank, they are a serious policy proposal. In a second step the article points out that, besides the more popular debate on a Gesell tax as a means to remove the zero bound on nominal interest rates, there is a class of neoclassical search-models that advocates a negative tax on money as efficiency enhancing. This strand of the literature has so far been largely ignored by the policy debate on negative interest rates. -- |
| Keywords: | negative interest rates,history of economic thought,Silvio Gesell,zero bound,search-theoretical models,monetary policy |
| Date: | 2011 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:cawmdp:43&r=his |
| By: | Susan Randolph (University of Connecticut); Patrick Guyer (American Human Development Project) |
| Abstract: | The International Covenant for Economic Social and Cultural Rights, ICESCR, commits states to progressively realize the economic and social rights enumerated in the Covenant. This poses a challenge to measurement. It is not enough to assess the extent to which rights are enjoyed in a country or whether rights enjoyment has increased over time. Evaluating the extent to which a State is compliant with its obligations of result at any given time requires that one assess the level of rights enjoyment relative to the extent of the state's obligation at that time. In as much as a state is obligated to fulfill economic and social rights to the maximum of available resources, the level of a state's obligation depends on its resource capacity, and this changes over time. Thus, the principle of progressive realization poses two challenges to gauging the extent to which countries are compliant with their obligations of result under the Covenant. First, a country's level of obligation must be benchmarked at the initial time period of concern and second, the country's level of obligation must be benchmarked as its resource capacity evolves over time. A key insight of the 2010 Human Development Report is the tremendous improvement over the past thirty some years in the enjoyment of critical economic and social rights. But the resource capacity of most countries has increased as will implying their capacity to improve rights enjoyment has expanded. Here we adapt the SERF Index methodology (Fukuda-Parr et al. 2009, Randolph et al. 2010) to examine whether country’s fulfillment of their economic and social rights obligations of results have improved or deteriorated over the past four decades. That is, we consider whether the enjoyment of economic and social rights has increased in relation to the capacity to expand rights enjoyment. |
| Keywords: | Economic Development, Human Development, Human Rights, Economic Rights, Economic Growth, Progressive Realization |
| JEL: | I K O O1 O2 O4 |
| Date: | 2011–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:uct:ecriwp:19&r=his |
| By: | John Schmitt; Alexandra Mitukiewicz |
| Abstract: | Researchers have offered several explanations for the decline in unionization. Many emphasize that “globalization” and the technological advances embodied in the “new economy” have made unions obsolete. However, if the decline in unionization is the inevitable response to the twin forces of globalization and technology, then we would expect unionization rates to follow a similar path in countries subjected to roughly similar levels of globalization and technology. This paper looks union membership and coverage for 21 rich economies, including the United States, and finds over the last five decades a wide range of trends in union membership and collective bargaining. The national political environment, not globalization or technology, is the most important factor driving long-run changes in unionization rates in the United States. |
| Keywords: | unions, unionization, globalization, technology |
| JEL: | E H J J5 J58 J8 J88 P P1 |
| Date: | 2011–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:epo:papers:2011-24&r=his |
| By: | Wilfrid Azan (CEREFIGE - Centre Européen de Recherche en Economie Financière et Gestion des Entreprises - Université Nancy II : EA3942 - Université de Metz); Didier Bensadon (DRM - Dauphine Recherches en Management - CNRS : UMR7088 - Université Paris Dauphine - Paris IX) |
| Abstract: | La naissance de l'informatique est riche de controverses et de résistances, la rupture épistémologique n'en demeure pas moins importante, puisqu'il s'agit de faire une place aux mathématiques appliquées donc à la recherche opérationnelle et au calcul. Les mathématiques " imparfaites mais efficaces " deviennent tolérées en France. Au final, la cybernétique est abandonnée, la systémique tolérée, les sciences cognitives sont inventées, l'informatique est crée par l'AFCET (Association française pour la Cybernétique Economique et Technique). Celle-ci est décomposable en trois acteurs. Les utilisateurs qui jouent un rôle croissant. Les théoriciens qui renouvellent les cadres logiques et mathématiques. Enfin, les techniciens qui ne cessent d'inventer de nouvelles structures matérielles. Une partie de l'ensemble donnera le management des systèmes d'information (section 06). |
| Keywords: | histoire de l'informatique, cybernétique, systèmes d'information, France |
| Date: | 2011 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:halshs-00640474&r=his |