Edmond Malinvaud and Decentralised Planning

The article first traces back the context where Malinvaud had his attention drawn to economic planning, including his work with the Cowles Commission and his job at the INSEE. Then his modelling of decentralised planning is placed in the wake of Lange’s model of market socialism and all researches dedicated to optimal planning based on Walrasian tâtonnement. Two Malinvaud’s model of decentralised planning are reminded, one for production planning, the other one for planning the distribution of goods and services. These models have not influenced either French planning (dominated by the FIFI model) or economic reforms of the planning system in Eastern Europe. The article ends up with establishing a parallel with Kornaï, disappointed with the experience of planning in Hungary; both authors have simultaneously left the research area on planning for elaborating on disequilibrium economics.