The French “ingenieurs economistes” are often considered as forming one of the most prestigious currents of thought in economics, having given birth to such basic concepts of welfare economics as marginal utility or economic surplus.
In his History of economic analysis (1954), Joseph Alois Schumpeter asserts that this brilliant group of French engineers epitomises the notion of “school of thought” owing to the homogeneity of their curriculum and the ingenuity of their “discoveries”, contrasting with the supposed mediocrity of their contemporaries.
This chapter focuses on the most prominent figure of that group: Jules Dupuit (1804-1866). By providing a path-breaking analysis of public utility and its measurement, he not only gave rise to a revolution in economic calculation for public works but also preceded in a brilliant way the later works of marginalism. Consequently, Dupuit has often been described as a pioneer in economic analysis, since the “secret origins” of modern microeconomic theories, to borrow Ekelund and Hebert’s (1999) phrase, are said to be rooted in his celebrated papers of 1844 and 1849. In his time, he was however neither a lonely trailblazer - he belonged to a group of engineers experienced in economic calculation - nor an isolated scholar in his ivory tower, since he was a member of many academic societies and was involved in numerous topical economic debates. He applied his utilitarian analysis to a wide variety of subjects, and his contributions to economic analysis went far beyond his original domain of expertise, which was public economics.This chapter starts with an overview of Dupuit’s position and role among his contemporaries. The two following sections focus on Dupuit’s most significant contributions to public economics: his pioneering method of utility measurement and its analytical and practical consequences. The last section deals with other noteworthy contributions made by Dupuit on a variety of other economic issues.
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