American Economic Association

Utilisation, Gaspillage, Prodigalité by Jean LhommeReview by: Benjamin CaplanThe American Economic Review, Vol. 37, No. 4 (Sep., 1947), pp. 667-668Published by: American Economic AssociationStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/657 .

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BOOK REVIEWS 667

Say's Law is a direct development of his earlier ideas of the "balance of receipts and outlays," and here probably lies what theoretical significance Sismondi has. It is a pity that Professor Amonn did not permit himself to be enticed by these more speculative aspects of his subject, beyond the state- ment of his agreement with Sismondi (p. 82) that this part of the latter's economics is "absolutely new."

The book is divided into three parts. The first, about one hundred pages, contains Professor Amonn's summary of Sismondi's book; in the second part Professor Amonn has attempted to avoid the tedium of giving a complete translation of the Richesse Commerciale by connecting with his own prose, chapter by chapter, consecutive selections from the original in German translation. This attempt is largely successful, although it would have gained by a closer documentation of Professor Amonn's selections. In the third part follow a number of detailed criticisms, frequently consisting of comparisons between Sismondi and Adam Smith and unnecessarily ele- mentary comparisons between Sismondi's and more modern economic definitions. Professor Amonn's language is extremely clear and precise, and the whole book is done with scrupulous impartiality and great care. The second volume is to deal in the main with Sismondi's second major work, the Nouveau Principes de l'Economie Politique.

H. K. ZASSENHAUS

Hofstra College

Utilisation, Gaspillage, Prodigalite. By JEAN LHOMME (Paris: Librairie de Medicis. 1946. Pp. 112. 90 fr.)

This is an essay on economic waste. Waste, according to the author, arises whenever economic goods are incorrectly used. The degree of waste is measured by the difference between the utility actually furnished by an economic good and the maximum utility it is capable of furnishing.

The author's objective is primarily taxonomic, viz., the development of a set of criteria by which waste and its contrary, utilization, may be classified. The author believes that in economics more than in any other science, "definitions and classifications are what are most lacking" (p. 8). According to the author, waste and utilization may be classified by its degree, whether complete or incomplete; by its nature, whether correct or incorrect; by the subject of the utilization (waste), whether an individual, a group, and so on.

It must be said that the author's approach is unsatisfactory chiefly be- cause of the lack of a careful analysis of the concept of waste which leads him to apparent paradoxes. Thus, two of the categories of waste the author develops are: (1) "correct waste"; (2) "necessary waste." The author clas- sifies luxury as a "correct waste" because it involves excessive but not absurd expenditures. The excessive character of a luxury expenditure comes from the fact that it is not a necessary expenditure. On the other hand, any expenditure which is excessive and absurd, e.g., some form of extravagance (prodigalite), is "incorrect waste." The author hastens, however, to add that luxury and extravagance are not absolute concepts but relative to the in- dividual, his circumstance, etc.

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668 THE AMERICAN ECONOMIC REVIEW

The concept of "necessary" waste arises when the author discusses whether some countries are more wasteful than others, e.g., prewar United States vs. prewar Germany. The author recognizes that some waste in his sense is unavoidable and that the process of removing waste may in many cases be more wasteful than the original waste. Hence, actually the United States may be relatively less wasteful than other countries even though the foreigner may be impressed by what he regards as its wastefulness. Almost wistfully, the author, writing in a Europe seeking to rebuild her war-shat- tered economy, states that perhaps . . . "the level of an economic society may be measured by the volume of resulting waste (gaspillages effectues)" (p. 84).

These verbal difficulties and paradoxes in which the author becomes en- meshed stem from the lack of a clear concept of waste. Waste, as the author seems to realize from time to time, cannot be defined except in terms of a means-end relationship. Presumably that is what the author has in mind when he defines waste as the incorrect use of economic goods. But,to discuss the correct use of economic goods involves something the author fails to do, viz., a discussion of ends, and the factors that prevent the most rational use of the limited resources available to attain these ends such as may be found, e.g., in Professor A. B. Wolfe's " 'Full Utilization,' Equilibrium, and the Expansion of Production."'

BENJAMIN CAPLAN

Washington, D. C.

Grundlehren der Nationalbkonomie. Eine Einfiihrung in die Wirtschafts- betracktung. By EUGEN BOHLER. (Bern: Francke. 1944. Pp. 240. Sw. fr. 10.50.)

Volkswirtschaftliche Grundbegri.ffe und Grundprobleme. By ALFRED AMONN. (Bern: Francke. 1944. Pp. 221. Sw. fr. 9.50.)

As may be expected, Professor B6hler's admirable fundamentals of economics has no precise counterpart in the English language, since texts are written to meet definite local needs and the Swiss system of higher edu- cation differs in some essentials from the American system. The book recalls, however, J. R. Hicks' "Social Framework," not because of its content but because of its conciseness and the general high level of competence. Even though a textbook may not contain any original contribution, it is usually possible to tell whether it has been written by a master or not.

A general introduction and a section on economic institutions take up the first fifty pages. This part contains little more than an outline and a set of definitions. In the next fifty pages, Professor B6hler manages to give a thorough picture of the economic process in terms of an aggregative circular flow. Unlike Hicks, B6hler does not present statistics but rather gives a semi-dynamic picture of the economy in terms which one would be tempted to call Keynesian were this term not so much abused. At the same time the major pitfalls of the aggregative macro-economic approach are successfully

I Quarterly Journal of Economics, August, 1940, pp. 539-65.

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