The penetration of engineering by economics: McFadden (1974) and the transformation of road demand estimation

Ariane Dupont Kieffer (), Sylvie Rivot () and Jean Loup Madre ()
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Ariane Dupont Kieffer: PHARE - Philosophie, Histoire et Analyse des Représentations Économiques - UP1 - Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne
Sylvie Rivot: BETA - Bureau d'Économie Théorique et Appliquée - AgroParisTech - UNISTRA - Université de Strasbourg - Université de Haute-Alsace (UHA) - Université de Haute-Alsace (UHA) Mulhouse - Colmar - UL - Université de Lorraine - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - INRAE - Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement
Jean Loup Madre: AME-DEST - Dynamiques Economiques et Sociales des Transports - Université Gustave Eiffel

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Abstract: The golden age of road demand modeling began in the 1950s and flourished in the 1960s in the face of major road construction needs. These macro-models as well as the econometrics and the data to be processed, were mainly provided by engineers. A division of tasks can be observed between the engineers in charge of estimating the flows within the network, and the transport economists in charge of managing these flows once they are on the road network. Yet the inability to explain their decision-making processes and individual drives gave some room to economists to introduce economic analysis, so as to better understand individual or collective decisions between transport alternatives. Economists, in particular McFadden, began to offer methods to improve the measure of utility linked to transport, and to inform the engineering approach. This paper explores the challenges to the boundaries between economics and engineering in road demand analysis.

Keywords: Golden age; Modèle 4 étapes; Demande routière; Histoire des modèles de transport; Utilité marginale (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021-06-01
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-his, nep-hpe, nep-tre and nep-upt
Note: View the original document on HAL open archive server: https://hal.science/hal-03209945v1
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Published in Journal of the History of Economic Thought, 2021, 43 (2), pp.262-278. ⟨10.1017/S1053837220000322⟩

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hal:journl:hal-03209945

DOI: 10.1017/S1053837220000322

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