Wassily Leontief: Input—Output and Economic Planning

Wassily Leontief is associated in the minds of most economists with one thing only — the development of the input—output system, the first empirical implementation of a general equilibrium model of the economy. This is a project to which he has devoted nearly all his professional life — nearly fifty years altogether — and its success can be measured in the widespread use made of input—output by governments and business. However, Leontief’s contribution to economics is to be found not merely in his development of input—output but also in his conception of the subject as a practical, problem-solving discipline grounded in the collection and processing of actual data and the use of simplified but applicable analytical tools. The development of input—output is one positive expression of this distinctive view of economics which Leontief has consistently espoused throughout his lifetime; the same approach also finds expressions as we shall see, in his distaste for the dominant trends in contemporary economics.