Edmond Malinvaud and the theory of decentralised planning

The article sketches the context in which economic planning has drawn Malinvaud’s attention. His modelling of decentralised planning takes place in the wake of Oskar Lange’s model of market socialism and all the research in optimal planning based on the Walrasian tâtonnement. Malinvaud published two models of decentralised planning, one for production planning, the other one for planning the distribution of goods and services. Being theoretical models, they have not influenced either the French planning process or economic reforms of the planning system in the USSR and Eastern Europe. The article ends up with drawing a parallel between Malinvaud and Janos Kornai, both disappointed with the collapse of planning in their countries. The two authors have simultaneously given up their research on planning for dwelling upon two variants of disequilibrium economics.