Dupuit and the Railroads

Guy Numa is justified in calling attention to our erroneous translation of a passage from Jules Dupuit’s Dictionnaire article of 1853. His conclusions, however, regarding Dupuit’s “global” policy prescriptions on the operation of railroads, and their semi-convergence with the views of Walras, do not withstand scrutiny when examined against the totality of Dupuit’s economic writings. In this article we reaffirm and defend our body of work that depicts Dupuit as an important advocate of market-based principles in the formation and development of his views on economic policy; and we reject Numa’s claims that Dupuit advocated state control of railroads as the optimal course of action.