Perroux, François

(1903-1987)

   economist

   Born in lyon, François Perroux was the founder of the institut de science économique appliquée (1944), professor at the collège de france (1955) and, after 1960, served as director of the institut d'études et de développement économique et social. While critical of simplified economic systems and maintaining his confidence in the dynamic character of the capitalist system, Perroux proposed a third path. He introduced alongside the private capitalist sector a state sector and recognized the necessity of the intervention of certain public powers in economic and social matters. He saw in the "community of work" (an enterprise considered to be completely organized) a way to eliminate the conflict between workers and capitalists and to promote the human element. Perroux published Le Problème de profit (1926), Capitalisme et Communauté de travail (1938), Cours d'économie politique (1939), La Valeur (1943), Théorie générale du progress (1957), and Pour une philosophie de nouveau développement (1981).