The Present Situation of the History of Economic Thought in France

For historical reasons, history of economic thought (hereafter HET) has been until today in France more an integral part of economics in general than a specialized subdiscipline in the field of economics or in the history of sciences and culture. There is no doubt that inherited idiosyncrasies have played a role in maintaining until now the weight of HET in the teaching and research system. But I shall argue that its present strength may also be explained by the way economics in France repudiated around 1970 its past insularity and opened itself to foreign influences. HET then developed through an active link with modern theory. Today, the threat to the future of HET is not the outcome of the lifting of barriers supposedly protecting French economics, but the consequence of a change in foreign influences. Nevertheless, some signs of hope exist, which should prevent French historians of economic thought from falling into nostalgia.

I shall first mention some facts about HET in France, before stressing which type of HET they have shaped. Finally, I shall describe the elements that sketch an uncertain future.

Some Facts about HET in France

The weight of HET in French universities has remained until today quite significant, and one should turn to long-term factors to explain that situation, both in the institutional environment and in the evolution of economic thinking.

The Weight of HET

The significance of this subdiscipline may be evaluated at three levels: undergraduate teaching, postgraduation and research, and the academic system.

French universities offer three national levels of graduation after two (DEUG), three (licence), and four (maîtrise) years. Although less than 50 percent of the students entering the universities in economics obtain the four-year degree, the programs (which, due to the national diploma, have a unified structure, but may be adapted by each university) are conceived over the four years. An inquiry made in 1999 by Association Charles Gide pour l'étude de la pensée économique (the French equivalent of HES) provides information on the teaching of HET in sixteen universities (Association Charles Gide 1999); my own investigation has raised this number to thirty-eight, out of the fifty-eight where an economics program exists. It appears that only two universities do not offer compulsory courses in HET at least once in the four-year program, and the same number offer courses during three years. On the whole, the thirty-eight universities deliver on average sixty-eight hours of courses (compulsory or not) in HET over the four-year program; 73.7 percent of them deliver more than fifty hours, and 18.4 percent deliver more than one hundred hours. The distribution of the courses over the duration of the program is given by tables 1 and 2.

These results are quite favorable to HET. The fact that its teaching is alive and well is also illustrated by the volume and variety of published textbooks in French. In two years (1999 and 2000), and in addition to the translation of the fifth edition of Blaug [1962] 1999 and to the reprinting of the classic Gide and Rist [1909] 2000 and Denis [1966] 2000, no less than ten new textbooks came out: three for intermediate and advanced courses (Béraud and Faccarello 2000, Deleplace 1999, and Etner 2000); three for introductory courses, in standard (Gnos 2000 and Montoussé 2000) or pocket (Duboeuf 1999) size; and four in pocket size on particular schools (Combemale 1999, Defalvard 2000, Poulon 2000, and Ravix 1999).

At the postgraduate level (the equivalent of the master's degree), courses in HET are usually replaced by methodology ones. But one specific program is devoted to HET (delivered jointly by the two most important universities for economics in Paris, Paris 1 and Paris 10), and another one (at Paris 1) devoted to economic epistemology leaves much room to it...