Albert Steenge - Professor of Economics

Key facts:
  • Albert (Bert) Steenge is a recognized authority in Input Output Analysis
  • Guest lecturer and speaker at seminars and conferences regarding fundamental issues of economic theory
  • Researcher, author and editor of a wide range of books and articles.
  • Contributor to “ Wassily Leontief and Input-Output Economics"
  • Co-organizer of the Rothenberge Seminar
What's New
Solving the mystery of the tableau economique | Print |

From UT News by Robbin Engles

 

On January 24 at the colloquium of the Department of Legal and Economic Governance Studies (LEGS/MB), professor Bert Steenge presented a lecture to colleagues and invited guest on the topic of his most recent research, which is now published in the Journal of The History of Economic Thought. Along with Richard van den Berg of the Kingston University London, the two economists unlocked the mysteries of an 18th century model of economics.

Dating back to the period of Louis the XV in France, the surgeon Francois Quesnay formulated the Tableau Economique (also known as the zig-zag) to explain the phenomena of economic growth and decline.

Steenge and co-author van den Berg sifted through the literature of pre-revolutionary France, dating back some 250 years, to discover that Quesnay's formulations can still be of significant value to contemporary society. The discussion about `productive and unproductive activities' is reopened for debate.

Steenge says, `we can do the calculations employing Quesnay's concepts and using modern mathematics.'

Despite the valiant efforts of many economists since Quesnay, such as the likes of Karl Marx, Russian-American Wasily Leontief and the American Almarin Phillips, the questions surrounding the Tableau Economique were left unanswered.

According to Steenge, `Leontief's methodology can be used to model Quesnay's `ideal state,' but not the `dynamics' involved.'

Most recently however, with the missing pieces of the Tableau Economique recently unearthed, the theory of Phillips, which is a combination of the theories of Quesnay and of Wassily Leontief's `input-output model,' appears to be in part incorrect. One consequence may be a revitaliztion of the debate about the alternatives in organizing an economy. Steenge views his research efforts, in part, as the `rehabilitation of an old scholar.'

The beauty of such research according to Steenge is that: `all writers and thinkers of modern economics, whether they be dead or alive, become part of the dialogue.' He adds, `Doing this research, well, in a sense it's a long love story...to examine elements of an earlier debate.'

 

See  it on UT website

 
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