Secret Origins of Modern Microeconomics: Dupuit and the Engineers.

• Author: Tullock, Gordon
• Position: Review

By Robert B. Eklund, Jr. and Robert F. Hebert.

Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1999. Pp. xv, 468. $40.00.

The title of this book is well chosen. The work of the French corps of bridge and road engineers is almost unknown to modem historians of economic thought. Cournot, who was French but not a member of the corps, is reasonably well known to modern economists. The name Dupuit is recognized by some economists, but few have any idea of the scope of his work and that of his fellow engineers. That English economists did not read Annales des Ponts et Chausees is not surprising, but they suffered from it. Hicks said "[If Dupuit] had not hidden his light under a bridge, Jevons might have found himself 20 years out of date" (p. 91).

Napoleon founded the Grandes Ecoles shortly after he became Emperor. One of them dealt with getting his armies around easily. This was the school and corps of engineers dealing with bridges and roads. Their interests extended to canals and, later, railroads.

Although their work probably continued to have military importance, after the defeat of Napoleon, economic considerations were of greater interest. Further, the English economists had in essence invented modern economics. Smith had written, and Ricardo was beginning his work. There were of course lesser figures. In France, the liberal economists had a monopoly of academic posts, and they were uninterested in mathematics. There was therefore both a motive and an opportunity for the corps of engineers to pioneer. They took advantage of it.

There were simple direct applications of new economics to their engineering work. Is a bridge worth building? If it is, where should it be built? What tolls if any should be charged? Similar questions arose in connection with roads, canals, and eventually...