The Discussion on Professor Perroux’S Paper

Abstract

Professor J. R. Hicks (U.K.) was the first to comment. He said: I shall not be able to take up more than one of the ideas that Professor Perroux has been putting before us in his eloquent paper; it is the idea that a policy of balanced growth is something different from an anti-cyclical policy. If one underlines the word policy, there is nothing in this with which one can disagree. For governments to take responsibility for the trend of economic progress is undoubtedly something different from the mere taking of responsibility for correcting deviations from the trend. But in the substance of his paper, if not in the thesis which he proclaimed, I felt that Professor Perroux went farther. He seemed to be saying that if we look to balanced growth, we shall automatically avoid fluctuation. If that is what he is saying, I think that at that point I part company.