'Our Daily Bread': Maurice Potron, from Catholicism to Mathematical Economics
- Format:
- Journal Article
- Year:
- 2009
- Journal Title:
- European Journal of the History of Economic Thought
- Volume:
- 16
- Issue:
- 1
- Language:
- Abstract:
Maurice Potron (1872–1942) is a French Jesuit and mathematician whose main source of inspiration in economics is the encyclical Rerum Novarum. With virtually no knowledge in economic theory, he wrote down a linear model of production in which he formalized the notions of just prices and just wages. As early as 1911, he used the Perron-Frobenius theorem to prove the existence of a positive solution and established a duality result between the quantity side and the price side of the model. He returned to economics in the 1930s, but in both periods he failed to make a lasting impression upon economists.
- Who (Jesuits):
- What (Subjects):
- Where (Locations):
- When (Centuries):
- Publisher URL:
- Other link:
- Page Range:
- 123–154
- ISSN:
- 0967-25671469-5936
- DOI: