710 PONTIFICIAE ACADEMIAE SCIENTIARVM SCRIPTA VARIA - 28

ing as complete as possible an overall view of the present state
of my work on the theory of capital.
To the best of my knowledge, there is no comparable equivalent
 in current literature, for the approaches adopted elsewhere
 have been very different indeed.
I would like tc take this opportunity to add that the results
of this study, once established, are of great importance from
the standpoint of the orientation of economic development policy.
 They show that the capitalistic structure as such has much
less importance than is believed by a large segment of opinion.
These results are the culmination of a long sequence of deductlons,
 and it is correspondingly important that each stage in
‘he chain of reasoning be solidly established.
In order to ease the task of the reader, the main notations
and formulations have been grouped together in a summary
section which precedes this study (!). Some further basic noions
 which will clarify the approach adopted in the study are
given below.
The object of the theory of the capitalistic optimum which
is given is, on the one hand, to describe the econometric nature
of roundabout methods of production, and also to show that
we cannot expect, from an indefinite increase of available real
capital, an indefinite increase of real national income consumed
per inhabitant. The present study aims to show how the influence
 of real capital on real income can be measured on the
basis of a number of fairly weak assumptions.
The general model which is presented in part II, and its
exponential variant in particular, is shown to be very well
borne out by all the empirical data which are at present available
 — confirmation which relates as much to the assumptions
as to the resnlts.

() Perhaps the best introduction to this study is my 1962 article in
« Econometrica »: AvLrars. The influence nt the Cabital-Outbut Ratio on
Real National Income

11] Allais - pag. 14