SEMAINE D’ETUDE SUR LE ROLE DE L’ANALYSE ECONOMETRIQUE ETC. 1035 
[SARD 
I think this discussion which has been going on is a part of the 
general problem of deciding upon the criteria to be used in making 
decisions. The criteria can be expected to, and should differ, from 
one pattern of decision-making authority to another, from one re- 
gional planning group to another, etc. Thus the question of how to 
make decisions, how to conduct research, what techniques to use 
must be related to the question of who is to make decisions. They 
must be related to some system of regional planning authorities, to 
some spatial pattern of decentralization in decision-making autho- 
rity. The question of the appropriate spatial pattern of decision- 
making authority is the concern of my paper. It is a question which 
must be answered if we are to resolve the issues raised bv FRISCH 
and ALLAIS. 
I agree with Professor WoLD that rigorously speaking, complete 
information is implicitly assumed at certain points in my paper. 
This is indeed a very stringent assumption. but is required if we 
are to make anv headway on our basic nroblem. 
DORFMAN 
Prof. Isarp broaches some really frightening questions, and 1 
am forced to drop from view all but one of them. He mentions that 
it would be very economical to have a completely decentralized 
system in which decisions could be made at each point in the light 
of local conditions. But this is not necessarily so. It is not so if 
the decision unit in each locality has to base its decision on imperfect 
guesses about the decisions being made in other localities, which is 
the normal case if the localities are bound together into a commu- 
nity. An example is the difficulties faced by the independent high- 
way commissions of the United States in trying to establish an intel- 
legible system of highway codes that will not interfere with the flow 
of traffic. 
Isard - pag. 33