SEMAINE D'ÉTUDE SUR LE ROLE DE L ANALYSE ECONOMETRIQUE ETC. 619

CHAPTER IV

PROBLEMS CONNECTED WITH TECHNICAL CHANGE -
SETTING THE BASES FOR A GENERAL DYNAMIC ANALYSIS

t. Technical progress in macro-economic models

The case of the previous chapter — despite its popularity
among theoretical economists — remains a very particular case
of economic growth. In practice, as soon as we look beyond
a single period of time, there is another series of changes that
ake place besides those of population: the changes in the
‘echnical methods of production. These changes are in fact
much more problematical and much more complex than those
concerning population.
Technical change has been the great neglected factor in
economic analysis. Only in the last fifteen years have economists
 begun to deal with it through the elaboration of models
of economic growth. All these models with technical progress,
however, have been developed in macro-economic terms, i.e.
with the implicit assumption that one single commodity (or a
composite commodity of invariable composition) is being produced
 in the svstem (!). And technical change has been in-"')

 After the path-breaking contribution of Harrop and DoMar, already
mentioned, the macro-economic models of growth which have been elaborated
are so many as to be alreadv difficult to count. On the whole, two main
streams of thought have emerged. The first one has tried to pursue
Harrop-DoMmar’s Keynesian approach in various directions, and the second
has tried to insert HarROD-DOMAR’s ideas into the traditional neoclassical

10] Pasinetti - pag. 40