Nicholas Georgescu-Roegen

Nicholas Georgescu-Roegen (Constanţa, Romania, February 4th 1906 - Nashville, Tennessee, October 30th 1994) is a Mathématicien and American economist hétérodoxe , of Rumanian origin .

Biography

Nicolae Georgescu is born with Constanţa the February 4th 1906. His/her mother, resulting from a modest family, taught the seam in a business school for girls; his/her father, officer in the army, dies when Nicolae is seven years old. Raise shining, it receives a remarkable training in mathematics which was useful to him for its future work in economic theory. In 1926, then studying at the university of Bucharest, it incrit thus with a seminar on the singularities of the differential equations, on the teaching of which he will be based for one of his more important articles, The Pure Theory off Consumer' S Behavior , published in August 1936.

Between 1927 and 1930, it studies with the Statistical institute of Paris which it leaves doctor of statistics. Its thesis, published in the Newspaper of the Company of statistics of Paris , has as a title the problem of the research of the cyclical components of a phenomenon . Its work on the periodic phenomena convinces it that the social phenomena could not in no case to be described by the “mechanical” methods of the traditional statistics. Although it had taken only two courses of economy in the Sorbonne, it arrives at the conclusion which “the economic phenomena could not be described by a mathematical system”.

Whereas it follows the courses of Karl Pearson to the University College of London (1930 - 1932), its work arouses the interest of the economists of the Harvard Economic Barometer - probably because of intervention of Pearson itself. It obtains a purse of the Fondation Rockefeller to take part in this project. Arrived at Harvard at spring 1934, it learns that the Harvard Economic Barometer does not exist any more. He then requires a maintenance Joseph Schumpeter which worked at the time on its Business Cycles . This fortuitous meeting leads it to join the team of Schumpeter which counted in its rows Wassily Leontief, Edgar Hoover, Frank Taussig, Oskar Lange, Fritz Machlup, Gerhard Tintner, Nicholas Kaldor and Paul Sweezy. It is during this intense intellectual period (1935 - 1936) that Nicholas Georgescu-Roetgen becomes economist: he publishes four articles which provide the foundations of its theory of the Utilité, and of the Production.

He teaches at the university of Bucharest then to the Université Vanderbilt, Nashville with the the United States (and furtively with the Academic institute of studies of the development of Geneva in 1974 and with Strasbourg, 1977 - 1978). In addition to its functions of teacher, it occupied of many stations in the Rumanian public office.

Work

It amongst other things contributed, in economy, with the introduction of the concept Physique of Entropie. Its work contributed to a significant degree to the development of the Bioéconomie, which opens a bridge between economic scenes, biological sciences (law of the evolution, neodarwinism). For this reason, it belongs to the evolutionary current of the economists. But it binds also economic scenes and physical sciences (thermodynamics), opening the way with the thermodynamic economy. Its major work is The Entropy law and the Economic Process published in 1971 in which he writes:

The economic process is only one extension of the biological evolution and, consequently, the most important problems of the economy must be under consideration under this angle The Entropy law and the Economic Process

thermodynamics and biology are the essential torches to clarify the economic process (...) thermodynamics because it shows us that the natural resources become exhausted irrevocably, biology because it reveals us the true nature of the economic process The Entropy law and the Economic Process

For its partisans, these theories would reconcile economy and ecology by reinstating the economic scene in the contemporary scientific thought of the Industrial revolution and discovered biological evolution. They would bring an innovative and fertile lighting whose practical implications exceed the political economy. They would highlight impossibility of solving the environmental problems by only scientific progress and technological.

Considering the economy liberal of the theory neo-classic too much mechanical, Georgescu-Roegen clarified contradiction between the second law of the Thermodynamique, the law of the Entropie - i.e. inescapable degradation, following their use, of the natural resources useful for humanity - and a material growth without limits. It invited for its part with an economic decrease - some speak today about “bearable Décroissance” - to take account of the physical law of the entropy.

Some critical consider that to mix the Entropie with the economic process, characterized rather by effects of Car-organization and adaptability, is precisely too mechanical.

Georgescu-Roegen expressed the conviction that the love of life is the true finality of the economic activity.

In the foreword with Analytical Economics , Paul Samuelson written:

Professor Georgescu-Roegen is more than one economist mathematician. He is first of all an economist, and the first to reject the claims of nonsense symbolic system. Subtleties of the marginal production and the original utility do not escape its examination skeptic… As it has a much higher mathematical formation, it is completely immunized against the charms of seduction of this subject and is able to preserve an objective attitude and ground at ground on its use… I defy any informed economist to remain satisfied with oneself after having meditated on this test. It is thus a book to be had and enjoy.

For Henri Guitton, “Georgescu-Roegen wanted to cure the absence of bridge connecting the theoretical physics to the economy. He entrusts to us to be himself launched only in this adventure, running a risk of which it is sure that it is not vain… Innovator it remains it, and an innovator always suffers at the beginning from his loneliness. But perhaps that now, of the disciples will join him to continue its advance? ”

Apparently isolated, the oœuvre of Nicholas Georgescu-Roegen must be included/understood in a vast movement of intellectual restoration. It missed true anti-economic; it occurs and it will be bio-economic. It is necessary initially to take note of the situation of our knowledge if we want to make serve the rebirth which we claim. The Galileo business is not closed, but already opens the Georgescu-Roegen business: the stake is worth the combat and this one will be non-violent or will not be. (Jacques Grinevald, “Industrial revolution, technology of the power and revolutions scientific, critical test of bibliography”, Books of the IUED , 5, PUF, 1977, p. 20).

Publications

One finds a chronology of the publications of Georgescu-Toegen and their translation in the Decrease (see low the reference.)

1935 , Fixed Coefficients off Production and the Marginal Productivit Theory , Review off Economics and Statistics
1936 , The Pure Theory off Consumer' S Behavior , Quaterly Journal off Economics
1966 , Analytical economics. Exits and Problems . Cambridge, Harvard University Near. the Economic scene: its problems and its difficulties, by NR. Georgescu-Roegen,… Translated by Mrs. F. Rostand,… Preface P. Samuelson,… Preface H. Guitton,… - Paris, Dunod, 1970. 23 cm, XV-300 p. (Collection of the center of econometrics of the Faculty of Law and the economic scenes of Paris, Cournot association, directed by Henri Guitton.)
1971 , The Entropy Law and the Economic Process . Translation of chapter 1 in French in decrease - Entropy - Ecology - Economy , ED. 2006, ch. I, p.63-84
1975 . " Energy and Economic Myths", in The Southern Economic Newspaper, 1975, XLI, 3, p.347-381. French translation in the Decrease , ED. 2006, ch. II, p. 85-166.
1977 . " The Steady Sate and Ecological Salvation: In Thermodynamic Analysis" , in BioScience , April 1977, vol. 27, no4, p.266-270. French translation in the Decrease , ED. 2006, ch. II, p. 167-190.
1979 . Tomorrow decrease. Entropy, ecology, economy . Translation, presentation and annotation Jacques Grinevald and Ivo Rens. Lausanne, Pierre-Marcel Favre, 1979. 21 cm, 157 p. decrease. Entropy, ecology, economy ''. 2nd re-examined and increased edition. Translated and presented by Jacques Grinevald and Ivo Rens. Paris, Blood of the Earth, 1995. 21 cm, 220 p.; 3rd re-examined edition. Paris, Blood of the Earth and Hellebore, 2006. 22,5 cm, 304 p. text available in line
1983 . The Law of the Entropy and the evolution économique" , Congress of the Economists of French language , Strasbourg, June 7th, 1983.

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