Dupuit, Spatial Economics and Optimal Resource Allocation: A French Tradition

Robert B. Ekelund () and Yeung-Nan Shieh ()

Economica, 1986, vol. 53, issue 212, pages 483-96

Abstract: This paper uncovers and develops nineteenth-century engineer Jules Dupuit's pivotal role in the independent French tradition in spatial economic analysis. Dupuit's invention of market area studies and (approximately first-degree) spatial price discrimination is illustrated with a simple mathematical model. Next, Dupuit's conception of optimal toll structures and their relation to efficient transport systems, regulation, and economic welfare is analyzed and shown to contain a remarkably modern case for transport deregulation. The paper also assesses Dupuit's role in the development of spatial economics and in the French contribution to the location paradigm in microeconomic analysis. Copyright 1986 by The Review of Economic Studies Limited.

Date: 1986
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