This is my PhD dissertation defended in 1966 at the University of Minnesota and it was never published. It has been cited and used in other researchers work so I now make it available. The problem of optimal resource allocation over time is formulated as an optimal control problem. This is where the existence of optimal programs is investigated (and sufficient conditions are provided) for the first time in economics. When earlier authors spoke of existence, they spoke of convergence of the integral defining the optimality criterion. Optimal programs were characterized in terms of market equilibria at each point in time as well as imputed prices for stocks of capital.One of the propositions in the paper establishes the principle of centralization of planning and decentralization of implementation (this closely relates to polycenterism advocated by European socialist parties in the late 1950s. If one uses a measure space of traders instead of the basic time interval and assume pure exchange then the existence theorem of this paper can greatly simplify the proof of existence of equilibrium in a or a much more flexible model of exchange with continuum of traders.

The papers here range from description and analysis of how our political economy allocates its inventive effort, to studies of the decision making process in specific industrial laboratories. Originally published in 1962. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

Includes annual List of doctoral dissertations in political economy in progress in American universities and colleges; and the Hand book of the American Economic Association.