Echoing the work which has just been published "Administrer, gérer, évaluer les systèmes éducatifs (Administrating, managing and assessing educational systems), Jean-Jacques Paul presents a synthesis of French work on educational economy since the sixties, highlighting different trends of thought and their evolution. This inventory enables the author co-ordinating this work to conclude by the indispensable nature of this discipline if the performance of the educational system is to continue to improve its functioning.