"Cash is Not King : Patrons and Economics at the Ecoles des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales, 1947–1957"

Abstract : When the French government and the Rockefeller Foundation (RF) allied to create the Sixth Section of the Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes in 1947, they meant to create a training place for economists and provide them with academic and practical skills require by the postwar reconstruction. But five years later, because it was disappointed that academic economists of the EHESS neglected economic expertise, the head of the Sixth Section allied with the Association professionelle des Banques for creating four teaching positions for practical bankers. The RF also attempted to direct Section’s economists toward expertise by encouraging the creation of a “French NBER” to provide economic knowledge for French administration and private companies. Once again, it failed. Disappointed by those shortcomings, the head of the section phased out the first scientific agenda of the Sixth Section by reducing the fund allocated to economics while economists refused to provide expertise for economic administration.