398 PONTIFICIAE ACADEMIAE SCIENTIARVM SCRIPTA VARIA - 28 
D. — POLICIES FOR CAPITALISTIC DEVELOPMENT 
440. Productivity growth is an essential component of any 
development programme. This growth may result from various 
factors, such as an improvement of technical knowledge, better 
training of executives and workers, etc. The purpose of the 
present analysis is to estimate the influence on productivity of 
the more or less capitalistic economic structure, in other words, 
variations in the extent to which more or less use is made of 
indirect production processes. 
Evaluated in terms of years of national income, the capital- 
output ratio in Africa or Asia is probably not of a very diff- 
erent order of magnitude fro mits value in the United States. 
Even assuming a value of only 2 (which seems very unli- 
kely) (!) against 3.5 for the U.S.A., this could not explain 
more than a productivity difference of the order of 1 to 2, 
whereas the difference is at least of 1 to 20. Thus, if American 
production techniques were abruptly transplanted in Africa 
(which would require enormous investment) without at the 
same time remedying the existing causes of low productivity, 
the African economy would not be able to replace completely 
the investments which had been made in parallel with their 
depreciation and obsolescence. 
In fact, it has already been noted that the model implies 
the apparently paradoxical relation 
C=® R, 
[4 
M ALLAIS, 1960 A*, s 2! 
2) Relation (251-0). 
-1] Allais - pag. 202