Léon
Walras enrolled in the Paris School of Mines, but grew tired of engineering. He also tried careers as a bank manager, journalist, romantic novelist and a clerk at a railway company before turning to economics.
He graduated from the University of Paris, first in 1851 with a degree in literature, and then in 1853 - in the field of natural sciences.
From 1858 Walras worked in commercial firms. In 1865, together with Leon Sow arranged bank loans to be granted to production cooperatives, and began to publish the magazine "Work» («Le Travail»). Three years later, both companies had to close, but in 1870 Walras got a position teaching economics at the Academy of Lausanne in Switzerland, where he worked for over twenty years. The main work of Walras - Elements of pure political economy (1874-1877), where he built a mathematical model of the economy, are bound together by capital, the productive forces, products, prices and currency (the system of economic equilibrium), and developed the theory of consumer behavior. Among the works of Walras - Mathematical theory of social wealth (1883), The Theory of Money (1886), Essays on the overall economy (1896), Essays in Applied Political Economy (1896). The ideas and concepts Walras had a significant influence on the development of economic thought of the 20th century.He likes the economic theory that considers the market economy as a system, potentially capable of reaching the equilibrium based on supply and demand. The main thing in his work - construction of a general theory of macroeconomic equilibrium. Walras developed a general equilibrium model, which is based on the analysis of supply and demand, and contains a number of systems of equations. Brought the mathematical expression of the theory of supply and demand. The components of the market system is, according to economists, mathematicians, "rational actors, continually sought the optimum of its existence, that is, economic suc-hoo. Walras believed that ek-ka itself through the market provides such proportions that create a common eq. balance, "in which effective demand and supply of manufacturing services are equal, there is a constant steady price products on the market, and finally, the selling price of the products is equal to the cost, he was able to construct a complete model of general economic equilibrium based on marginal utility. In this model, the total amount of excess demand in all markets is always 0. He proposed, and the mathematical description, but with all the difficulties did not deliver. Walras considered erroneous labor theory of value and sharing of all economic subjects into 2 groups: entrepreneurs and owners of productive services (labor, capital, land, according to him, the government must ensure the stability of money to ensure the safety of citizens, provided with the education social protection, to provide conditions effective competition and equality of opportunity, the land must be nationalized, and the rent gives the necessary funds to the state. But central to his legacy - the theory of macroeconomic equilibrium, but it is a theory of economic statistics, it ignores many real components - economic growth, recurrence, etc., but his work will allow scientists to move to the next more complex systems that take into account and these components.
In Lausanne, he developed his theory in detail the general equilibrium, reaching its sphere of exchange, production, capital and money. As a result of this work Walras, does not attract the attention of scientists in the beginning, gradually gained worldwide fame
1. The first to introduce the most common criteria for market equilibrium: demand equals supply
2. Proposed the concept of general equilibrium, the first mathematical interpretation
3. Introduced four markets: labor, capital, finance, consumer goods and services
4. Introduced a mathematical methods as a compulsory element of economic science
Although political views Valrasa were pretty vague, he was often closer to socialists than other theorists of the time. Thus, to establish equal opportunities for all members of society Walras considered important nationalization of the land, for it is believed Walras, the State will provide the necessary funds in the form of rent. This thesis was certainly radical. Walras understood the feelings overwhelm the Socialists, but offers the latest measures to eliminate social evils he believed violence to the laws of economics. Economic science, he said, must speak out against socialism for the same reason that it is against ignorance. Particularly serious, according to Walras, Marxism is mistaken, for it comes from the unsound premise that labor is the only source of value that the latter is embodied labor and labor of different skills that can be reduced to something common. These ideas, rooted to Adam Smith, were then the logical conclusion to the theory of Karl Marx. However, said Walras, they have not ceased to be in error. After all, the latest economic theorists have found that the cost is determined by the usefulness of things and their rarity and that it is proportional to the "strength of the marginal demand for them," ie, their marginal utility. This principle can also be applied to land, capital and labor. None of these factors can not be reduced to dig another, for the cost of each is determined in accordance with the economic laws of scarcity and utility
He considered all the economic knowledge as consisting of actual
scientific knowledge, or pure science dealing with natural facts,
also of dealing with the manifestations of the will of applied science or artificial
Islands, and the science of morality
His father was born is Montpellier, february 1,1801. In the 1823-1831 years. He was a teacher in Paris, 1831-1835 - school teacher, then a professor of philosophy at colleges Lille and Cayenne, and, finally, the school district administrator (1847-1862).
Awakened interest in economics at the Walras-father in 1824-1826 gg., Where he attended lectures at the Faculty of Law in Paris in the hope of getting access to the legal profession. Not satisfied with the lectures and how the concept of property determined by the French Civil Code, he turned to the study of treatment of the property, and along with the values economists. It did not satisfy either the English theory of the "cost of production" or French theory of "utility", then actively promote JB Seem as the foundation of the theory of value. O. Walras saw the source of value in the rarity (Fr. rarete), which he defined as the ratio between the actual quantity of goods and the number of people in need. Only those goods which are characterized by rare, he believed, constitute wealth can be shared by trade, and only they have the property assignable. Thus, believed O. Walras, he managed to establish a link between the value of the property and the theory of value must be preceded by the theory of property.
