Sur l’analyse microéconomique de la hiérarchie des besoins dans l’économie d’Ancien Régime

Abstract

The existence of a priority order in the satisfaction of consumers’ needs is a debated topic in the economic analysis of the history of growth. The book by Jean-Yves Grenier, L’économie d’Ancien Régime (Grenier, 1996) develops an original approach of this priority order. We show that Grenier’s approach is consistent with standard microeconomic theory (in the sense that the demand functions satisfy a budget constraint). Yet, it does not totally account of the idea of a priority order since in this approach there are two goods which are always simultaneously consumed. We present an alternative approach which avoids this criticism.

Keywords

• demand functions
• subsistence goods
• Ancien Régime