A Reappraisal of Albert Aftalion’s Theory of Structural Transformation in an Era of Decarbonization

IF 1.3 2区 历史学 Q3 BUSINESS
D'Maris Coffman, Roberto Scazzieri
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引用次数: 0

Abstract

Decarbonization is a momentous challenge for capitalism and makes one to ask which changes in its morphology may be necessary to achieve that objective. The contribution by the French economist Albert Aftalion (1874–1956), with its emphasis on intermediate levels of aggregation (the “meso“ approach), the differentiated time profiles of economic actoivities, and their differential speeds of reaction to dynamic impulses, provides an invaluable heuristic for conceptualizing the structural transformations required by transition to a low energy regime. Aftalion’s analysis of industrial capitalism emphasizes that structural changes occur along multiple co-existing time horizons. This provides tools to analyze the time constraints on the sequencing of structural changes for different sectors on a decarbonization trajectory without neglecting the strict time requirements for implementing effective climate change mitigation. This interplay of time horizons is central to decarbonization, and it will require a new balance between the invisible hand of markets and the visible hand of states and other public bodies. Moreover, Aftalion’s emphasis on material constraints offers a novel approach to conceptualizing the importance of intermediate levels of aggregation in economic theory, thereby offering a new basis for sectoral policymaking and a fundamental challenge to institutionalist accounts of the morphology of capitalism.

重新评估阿尔伯特-阿夫塔利翁的脱碳时代结构转型理论
去碳化是资本主义面临的一项重大挑战,这让人们不禁要问,要实现这一目标,资本主义的形态可能需要做出哪些改变。法国经济学家阿尔伯特-阿夫塔利翁(1874-1956 年)的著作强调中间层次的集合("中观 "方法)、经济活动的时间轮廓差异以及它们对动态冲动的不同反应速度,为我们提供了一个宝贵的启发,使我们能够从概念上理解向低能耗制度过渡所需的结构转型。阿夫塔利翁对工业资本主义的分析强调,结构性变化是沿着多个并存的时间跨度发生的。这为分析不同部门在去碳化轨迹上的结构变化顺序的时间限制提供了工具,同时也不会忽视实施有效的气候变化减缓措施的严格时间要求。这种时间跨度的相互作用是去碳化的核心,需要在市场的无形之手和国家及其他公共机构的有形之手之间达成新的平衡。此外,阿夫塔利翁对物质约束的强调,为经济理论中中间汇总水平重要性的概念化提供了一种新的方法,从而为部门决策提供了新的基础,并对资本主义形态学的制度主义论述提出了根本性的挑战。
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来源期刊
CiteScore
1.50
自引率
0.00%
发文量
62
期刊介绍: The Business History Review is a quarterly publication of original research by historians, economists, sociologists, and scholars of business administration. BHR"s ongoing mission, from its 1926 inception as the Bulletin of the Business Historical Society, is to encourage and aid the study of the evolution of business in all periods and all countries. The Business History Review is published in the spring, summer, autumn, and winter by Harvard Business School and is printed at The Sheridan Press in Pennsylvania.
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