The Longest Run: Public Engineers and Planning in France

Smith, Cecil O.

doi:10.2307/2164276

Cited by 54 publications

(14 citation statements)

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“…In line with the engineers of Polytechnique and the Ecole des Ponts et Chaussées (Etner 1987 ;Grall 2004 , p. 31;Mosca 1998 ;Smith 1990 ) According to Dupuit, the welfare of society is a part of the public interest and corresponds to the satisfaction of individuals' needs (Philippe Poinsot 2011 ). It thus depends on the quantity of wealth and population (Poinsot 2010(Poinsot , 2011.…”

Section: Unlimited Competition: An Ideal For Society and For The Railmentioning

confidence: 98%

Jules Dupuit and the Railroads: What Is the Role of the State?

Poinsot

2016

J Hist Econ Thought

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The emergence of railroads in France in the nineteenth century raised new debates on analytical issues. The issue lies in the fact that they are natural monopolies. In this paper, I focus on Jules Dupuit's work on the operations of the railroads. Curiously, he seemed to have defended two contrasting positions: on the one hand, he claimed that unlimited competition is the most effi cient way to operate in the railroads; on the other, he stated that State management was the best way to run them. I aim to restore the consistency of Dupuit's positions. I show that, for him, unlimited competition is not possible in the railroads and that it is not necessarily good for the welfare of society. Therefore, the State should regulate this sector. Then, I specify the conditions under which Dupuit believed the State should manage the railroads instead of offering concessions to private companies.

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Section: Unlimited Competition: An Ideal For Society and For The Railmentioning

confidence: 98%

Jules Dupuit and the Railroads: What Is the Role of the State?

Poinsot

2016

J Hist Econ Thought

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“…This allocation of public resources to a particular set of programs responded to policy demands, originating either from public and private institutions within or from outside the country, though not at the same time. Actually, France's public authorities jumped on the IT bandwagon a few years after its launch in the United States (Moulaison, 2004), responding to pressures from elected officials, senior administrative officers (Smith, 1990), the business community (Rouban, 1993) and various other national subsystems. Policy subsystems are constituted by clusters of different stakeholders in a particular policy setting.…”

Section: Ict Development and National Advocacy Coalitionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In France, for instance, the senior bureaucrats share a common and strong commitment to state economic planning by virtue of their education in certain schools: “Ecole Nationale d'Administration” (Kesler, 2003), “Ecole Polytechnique,”“Ecole des Mines,”“Ecole Superieure des Ponts et Chaussées,” to name just the major ones. Students of these schools are considered upon graduation as an integral part of the national elite, an “integrated social system” ruling the public or private corporations (Genieys & Smyrl, 2006; Smith, 1990, p. 659) because of the positions held at some point in their careers through revolving doors between the country's administrative and political systems. Their interventions in policy making and in policy implementation, under the umbrella of “state Capitalism”—or “ dirigisme ”—are therefore a given dimension of the French state, particularly in industrial or financial matters (Chapman, 1991; Hecht, 1997; Kuisel, 1981).…”

Section: Ict Development and National Advocacy Coalitionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Comparing Implementation of Internet Diffusion in the United States and France: Policies, Beliefs, and Institutions

Amougou

Larson

2008

Review of Policy Research

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Comparing Internet diffusion policies in the United States and France from an implementation perspective brings to light institutional and historical differences, even though both countries used the same top‐down approach. We find that France not only followed the technological lead of the United States in information technology but also emulated some of its more business‐oriented approaches in the implementation of the Internet, despite its own longstanding tradition of government intervention in industrial and commercial matters. This policy shift appears to be spurred by the global economy. Traditionally state‐controlled national economies are now increasingly leveraging private interests for successful industrial policy. When applying Sabatier and Jenkins‐Smith's advocacy coalition framework to the American and French diffusion of the Internet, we find policy communities actually expanding to private and public actors, including industry captains, legislators, and civil servants. These subsystems work together through classic lawmaking and lobbying under technological and economic constraints.

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“…1 1 Consider China's current investment in infrastructure to connect remote parts of that country or the capital expenditure on the Trans‐Amazon Highway in the 1970s. Smith (1990) argues that a centralized approach in France retarded that country's industrial takeoff. …”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…23 23 The case of France in the early industrial period is a good example of this case (see Smith 1990). …”

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confidence: 99%

Infrastructure Finance and Industrial Takeoff in England

Trew¹

2010

J of Money Credit Banking

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That financial matters did not constrain industrial takeoff in the UK is generally accepted in the historical literature; in contrast, contemporary empirical analyses have found evidence that financial development can be a causal determinant of economic growth. We look to reconcile these findings by concentrating on a particular aspect of industrialising UK where inefficiencies in finance could have had bite: The finance of physical infrastructures. We document the historical record and develop the importance of spatial disaggregation and spillovers in both technological and financial development. We develop a simple model that captures the nature of infrastructure finance within a theory of endogenous growth where financial costs are endogenous. We argue that the conception of the finance-growth nexus as a largely static, aggregative phenomenon misses out a good deal of complexity and we relate that complexity to a number of implications for regulation of both financial systems and the emergence of infrastructures. JEL Classification: O11, O16, O40, N23

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The Longest Run: Public Engineers and Planning in France

Cited by 54 publications

References 0 publications

Jules Dupuit and the Railroads: What Is the Role of the State?

Jules Dupuit and the Railroads: What Is the Role of the State?

Comparing Implementation of Internet Diffusion in the United States and France: Policies, Beliefs, and Institutions

Infrastructure Finance and Industrial Takeoff in England

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