SEMAINE D'ETUDE SUR LE ROLE DE L ANALYSE ECONOMETRIQUE ETC.
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West, or of the East, or of the Developing countries; these areas are
defined in fact in terms of political tensions and interrelations which
also are shifting over time. This band (points out something on
blackboard) is the relation between East and West, and there is
the Developing countries; so, the world system would consist of W,
E and D and their interrelations. To some extent, Professor LEONTIEF
has taken this into account in his paper in calculating what should
go from either W or E to D.
We thus have a kind of world system of W, E, and D. Then we
have to consider also the national system of each particular country.
In model making, there will continually be the need to think of the
different national systems as constituent elements of the world
system. However, there would be need of delimiting the sphere of
‘nterest according to the purpose in view. We may have to consider
a particular national system or a particular sector or groups of sectors
within a national system. A nation or a country is, however, not
the only basis of delimiting the sphere of interest. There will be
many other ways of delimiting the system, for example, in external
trade we have bilateral or multilateral systems. It seems to me that
it would be a good step forward to have an agreed terminology in
this whole business of model making. The two concepts « macro »
and « micro » require to be arranged in some kind of a logical system
of hierarchy involving dimensions in space, in terms of economic
sectors, and also of time. It would be then possible to view the
micro-models at different levels fitting into a macro-model at a
higher level, and then these macro-models fitting into wider macro-
models at still higher levels until the global world system is reached.
Going back to my first point, if I have understood Professor
STONE correctly, there would be need of taking into consideration
experience or results of experiments to assess the validity of the
model « M » in respect of the system of observations « O », and
finally in relation to the world of reality « R ». When we speak of
experience it would, I think, be of great help to keep in mind that
a model developed in one country, on the basis of experience of that
country, it may be verified or experimented upon, or modified in
11 Stone - pag. So