SEMAINE D'ÉTUDE SUR LE ROLE DE L’ANALYSE ECONOMETRIQUE ETC 
&_3 
which nevertheless on the basis of the information available at 
the present time appears to be verified by the available statis- 
tical data (}). 
As we have seen the economic significance of this relation 
is that the value in wage units of reproducible capital does not 
depend on the more or less capitalistic (i.e. more or less round- 
about) structure of the production process, as described by the 
coefficient ®. The value in wage units of available capital is 
independent of the rate of interest ¢ and of the rate of growth p. 
This means that, evaluated in hours of work, the figures 
for capital available per worker in so-called under-developed 
economies should be comparable to the figures of the advanced 
economies (1). 
The implication of this is that the accumulated capital of 
the advanced economies does not have any greater weight for 
them than that represented for under-developed economies by 
the capital they have available. 
This finding shows that in formulating development policy, 
it may be advantageous to adopt the most efficient production 
techniques as quickly as possible. In this case, an attempt 
should be made to keep interest rates so low that more round 
about techniques can be applied. 
However, it follows clearly from the preceding that the 
more or less capitalistic structure of the production process 
(O smaller or greater) does not suffice to explain recorded 
differences in productivity levels. 
In reality, the explanation of the enormous differences in 
productivity observed as between the west and underdeveloped 
countries ,half of the world’s population has an income less 
than 1/20th that the average American (?) has much less to 
do with below standard values of the capital-output ratio 
than with: 
a) differences in per capita availability of natural resources. 
(M See ArLLAIS (1960 A), $ 25. 
Arrais (1961 B) vol. T (n. 8), pp. 22-24 and vol. II (n. 7), pp. 39-80. 
rr} 
1 
.. 1 Allais - pag. 203