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New-York Period

His Nobel Prize lecture Leontief made after he started his new tremendous project. Not long before the Nobel Prize awarding the representatives of Economic and Social Council of UN offered Leontief to make a world model of a kind, based on the Input-Output method. And as Harvard did not obtain a research faculty, facilitating such work,  after 44 years of fruitful work in Harvard University Wassily W. Leontief became a Professor of Economics in the New York University in 1975. Headed the Institute for Economic Analysis of New York University till 1986. He organized the International Association of Input-Output Researches in 1988.

 In 1977 his book  "Future of the World Economy", was published, it summarized the work, offered by the UN, and was detailed description of Leontief’s model.

 Other works were published at that period, one of the most interesting in this row is “Programming of National Economics. Methods and Problems” (1978).

 Avoiding any political accusations, he ended his article with the following diplomatic paragraph: "I see no reasons why implementation of programming of national economics will lead to of arise a shift in the national balance of economic and political power. We can expect, that in future as well the wealth will strike the keynote.  But the inner functioning of the system will become more clear. Comparing the scenarios, prepared according to president’s Reagan of president’s Ford ideas, with scenarios, prepared developed in accordance with ideas of senator Hamphry or Congressman Wadall, or Governor Carther, the USA citizen could have made the right choice easier".

Nevertheless, the majority of politicians and influential actors saw in the Leontief’s suggestions an encroachment upon the basic principles of American economic and political system, and did their best to block them.

Though, the ideas, expressed by Leontief did not disappeared, and in many countries the governments made the same conclusions but by making mistakes. Otherwise, there would be no “economic miracles” neither in Hong Kong, nor in Thailand, or in Chili of Brazil. 

 

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